Important Note!!! This is a separate browser page from your raid. The
Viking Raid Simulation page captures and stores NONE of the information from
your raid. If you close that window, all of your work is lost!
The
Viking Raid simulation is the culmination
of a few decades of amateur historical research and a career in
Information Systems, some of it in producing Artificial Intelligence
systems. The intention is to provide history enthusiasts and reenactors a chance to make some of the
same decisions a leader of a Viking raid in the ninth century would have
had to make. It is NOT based
on any specific raid in 861 AD, but it tries to create a very close
approximation of the circumstances, opportunities, geographical realities
and tactical situations Viking raiders of that period would have faced.The Background Map
The glorious image in the background is the work of one of our talented Bjornstad members, Ed Berland, whose web page is HERE. Much appreciated.
How to maneuver through the simulation
Read the Situation, select one of the Options, then read the Results of your decision. You may need to scroll up a bit if the amount of information exceeds the height of the box. Repeat the process to move through your raid planning and the raid itself. Some important information is shown in white near the top of the screen. It will tell you how many ships you will have, how many raiders will be fighting alongside you, and more.
Crew Members
Throughout the game, you will have crew members with you (represented by the buttons at the bottom of the screen). They MAY have information that could help you. If you see their face, they have something to tell you. Move your mouse or cursor over their button and read their message.
How accurate is it?
Every effort has been made to provide the same conditions that raids on these potential destinations would have offered. Note the historical reference sources below. Nearly every quantity in evidence (ships, Viking raiders, opponents, etc.) is based on the best information available. Many calculations are modified by the real circumstances that this kind of raid would have encountered. In Viking Raid, there are many processes going on under the covers that attempt to provide that same kind of frustrating unpredictability. All within the bounds of ninth century reality...
Why did that happen?
- Happenstance: A Benjamin Franklin proverb begins: "For want of a nail the shoe was lost". Shakespeare has his king agonize over losing his horse, a battle and more in Richard III by saying, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!..." More crudely, the current way to describe the same phenomenon is, "Shit happens". Things will happen in this simulation you might not expect. These are all based on historical reality. Note that the Icelandic Saga of the Greenlanders tells us that Erik the Red left Greenland ca. 985 AD with 25 ships full of potential settlers. He arrived in Iceland with 14 ships. What happened to the other ships? History provides no clue. Stuff happens.
- The Fog of War: Those who know the least about a battle - or a Viking raid - are usually those in the middle of it. I've had just enough military training (California National Guard, six years, Staff Sergeant E-6) to know that any carefully envisioned campaign nearly always turns out decidedly different than the planner intended - when reality intrudes. The list of things that can mangle a plan is breathtakingly unending. For this reason alone, you will rarely be told in Viking Raid exactly how many opponents you are facing in a fight. Here's a fun example of that problem from books and movies: In The Lord of the Rings, how many Orcs/Uruk-hai did our heroes face at any point? The only reasonable answer: a lot. In the best of circumstances in real life, you would have only a fair approximation of how many of the enemy are out there. Rest assured: this simulation knows exactly what the real, exact number is. This is not intended to cheat you: it's just the way things work in real life. There is a balance, however: the enemy is usually just as unclear on your numbers as you are about theirs.
- Battle Plans: The Prussian Field Marshal, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, believed in developing a series of options for battle instead of a single plan, writing in about 1869, “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength.” Today it is most often expressed as, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy”.
- Executing a Plan: Mike Tyson was once asked by a reporter if he was worried about Evander Holyfield's fight plan; Tyson answered; “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
If you think you've found a problem...
Copy the contents of the Results text box and paste that into your e-mail, including the "Raid Path" information at the end. It will contain what you faced and what you did - in general. If you find some text that isn't expressed well, let me know. If you think the program contains something not historically valid, let me know and cite a published historical reference. I'd love to hear from you.
Jack Garrett
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Viking Raid Reference Sources
Children of Ash and Elm - A History of the Vikings, Neil Price, Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-465-09698-5
The Viking Siege of Paris, Si Shepard, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4728-4569-6
The Vikings, Kenneth W. Harl, The Great Courses, The Teaching Company, ISBN 159803070-1
Jackson Crawford's Old Norse Channel, Dr. Jackson Crawford, Youtube
Women in the Viking Age, Judith Jesch, Boydell, ISBN 0-85115-369-7
The Penguin Atlas of the Vikings, John Haywood, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-051328-0
Viking Weapons and Combat Techniques, William R. Short, Westholme Publishing, ISBN 978-1-59416-076-9
Odendisa Runestone
Birka Grave, Bj 581
Wikipedia, seriously! - but carefully…
Cost and value of goods during the Viking age: Viking Weapons & Warfare, J. Kim Siddorn, ISBN 0-7524-1419-4
Lindisfarne: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/lindisfarne-priory/History/
Ship loss: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erik-the-Red
Ship equipment: http://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Viking_Weaponry.shtm
