Vikings - AoE2 vs History

How historically accurate are the Vikings in Age of Empires 2?
0:30 Who are "Vikings"?
1:05 Vikings history
6:00 Berserker
7:45 Longship
10:00 Civ bonuses
12:25 Tech tree
14:10 Cultural references
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Thanks to Dr. Andrew Lamb, Dr. Elisabeth Magin, and TheCommentX for fact-checking and assisting in the research.
Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com
Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition

[@airbornefilip9139]

Any civ is fine, I just like listening to your voice. :D

[@MRRookie232]

I believe he’s married, I already tried the same line

[@shnoogums1]

Sotl is the kinda channel where I’d be way more likely to go for the sponsor because of the quality of his work

[@Diabolo481]

It looks like the sponsor is dropshipping though... :( I found some of their articles on AliExpress and Amazon...

[@mitochondrium2648]

@@Diabolo481 do they have dry docks though ? 11

[@Diabolo481]

@@mitochondrium2648 What do you mean?...

[@mitochondrium2648]

@@Diabolo481 sorry, it was a 'dad joke' ;)

[@Diabolo481]

@@mitochondrium2648 Ah, my bad!

[@metal_monocle7334]

Oh and as for "what civ you'd like to see" - the Cumans by far! They were a super interesting and extremely overlooked people.

[@MrDibara]

I SECOND THAT! If there's one new civ in this game I wanna learn more about, it is those beautiful bastards and their iconic masked helmets! ^_^ _(I swear, my heart breaks everytime I remember their Campaign mission and what happened to Kotyan Khan)_

[@jishb2505]

SotL GOT SPONSORSSSS! As someone who started watching your videos when you had a few hundred subs, proud of you!

[@airbornefilip9139]

Same, felt so proud watching the ad. He's growing up. So happy.

[@Aphelia.]

Yes and the sponsor is so fitting too :D

[@Firefocus-fz2we]

12:03 I'd rather say that it's a reference to them getting some "cheap labour" form their raids so their efficiency back home improved.

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

It may also be if they got a comparatively better advantage from the medieval warm period, that actually turned the shore of Greenland green for some time. For the Empire !

[@forsakenquery]

It's important to realise that most civilisation's imperial age techs and structures are inferred, rather than historical, as for example the Vikings faded from history in the "castle age". We are getting what the Vikings "would have been like" if they remained a force into the 1300s. Arbalests and their wonder, and the introduction of heavy Calvary all make sense in that context.

[@pablomonsalve3911]

Huns faded in the dark age and so on right?

[@metal_monocle7334]

@@pablomonsalve3911 well, the Hunnic "empire" faded when Atilla died, which was before the Dark Age. The Huns should've been an AoE1 civ honestly, and the original AoE2 designers have even admitted, that they only added the Huns because they thought Atilla was awesome.

[@metal_monocle7334]

Historically speaking, the "viking age" stops in 1066 with the death of king Harald. Which is, roughly, the same year as some lords, such as William the Conqueror really made castles "a thing". Funnily enough, speaking of the Viking Wonder, which is supposed to be the Borgrund Stave Church; that thing wasn't constructed till over a hundred years after the end of the viking age.

[@andrewnewell1142]

On top of that, we might consider the Normans an extension of Vikings well into the Castle Age

[@metal_monocle7334]

@@andrewnewell1142 For sure, as well as the Kievan Rus and even the Sicilians.

[@OlrikMeister]

I think the Chieftains upgrade could be seen as the vikings becoming more organised under chieftains so they could fend of cavalry better which is allways seen as a counter to unorganised infantry formations.

[@dagsommar3713]

Or just rename the tech to "Daneaxes" because they were famously used to great effect agaist horses.

[@polishedpebble4111]

Longships should be packed like a trebuchet, and can cross land, then unpacked in water again.

[@lucasgarcia5427]

That could also be a turkish technology

[@Fronzel41]

In many sittuations that wouldn't be useful at all and in others it would be too strong.

[@PauxloE]

And transport infantry instead of firing arrows (or fire arrows only if you load archers on it).

[@devangnivatkar2649]

That has to be the smoothest ad read transition ever!

[@rithikradhan367]

I thought Vikings only played in the Black Forest .

[@sniperloic2904]

And hid behind multiples tiles of walls XD

[@HealGea]

@@sniperloic2904 then put trebs and mangonels behind of those walls

[@sniperloic2904]

Ah yes, it's all coming together Legend of Fatslob

[@Wiwerest]

@@sniperloic2904 you probably meant the famous Fatslobsaga ;)

[@ShermTank7272]

My man finally got a sponsor

[@Toonrick12]

And it's not RAID. Ironically enough.

[@lionelhutz-attorneyatlaw4443]

3:55 Spirit made a meme just for two seconds of a video. And it was a good one. This is why we love his content.

[@micahbush5397]

Although Harald Hardrada probably wouldn't have used a Norse god as a reference, given that he identified as a Christian (though his personal morality left much to be desired).

[@Lightning_Lance]

The viking age was caused by a warmer climate in scandinavia, which caused bountiful harvests and significantly increased the population. The population increased so much that they needed to expand. So I think that's why they get the TC economy upgrades for free, because it results in increased population and resources.

[@Infinite_Jester]

I was about to mention that I would have liked to see this discussed along with the shipwright innovations, but I see I'm not the only one.

[@bameno6641]

Is climat change real ?

[@delasvegas9644]

It should be noted that the days of the week are not borrowings; before the Viking age the pre-christian Anglo-Saxons worshipped the same gods as the Norsemen and names in the days of week are the English names for those gods. Some important words that did come from Norse however include "they" "give" and most words starting with "sk"

[@nathanielb3510]

I was going to mention this too, although some of the forms, such as Thursday, may have been influenced by the Old Norse versions. There are lots of words in English where the exact etymology is murky and could be from either Old English or Old Norse.

[@MikaelKKarlsson]

The Viking team bonus could be to display any enemy monastery that has a relic in it. 😋

[@FirstNameLastName-tg3rc]

And maybe it'd be something like they have no relic gold gain, but do get gold from killing monks, destroying monasteries, markets, and other buildings (but that would have to be nerfed with some other major gold debufs - maybe making gold mining a lot harder).

[@safe-keeper1042]

That would actually be really sweet.

[@widodoakrom3938]

Agree 🔥

[@ethanpappas2502]

A "How accurate are the Chinese" would be hilarious, I get that the reason the Chinese aren't vary historically accurate is because of balance, but still...

[@blarg35]

if chinese was historically accurate they would be incredibly op, except to the mongols, who would have a +50 bonus damage to chinese, and they can pass through chinese gates

[@samusaran4799]

@@blarg35 if they were historically accurate they would never attack and constantly dealing with civil wars

[@blarg35]

@@samusaran4799 +15 bonus damage against own units and no conversion resistance

[@MrlspPrt]

Instead of a "Chinese civ", ten regional civs with special bonus against the other ones... but still the exact same unique unit...

[@samusaran4799]

@@MrlspPrt and they also spawn with mountains surrounding their TC with a radius of 20 units

[@suddenllybah]

Oh man, VIkings wheelbarrow maybe being a toy reference is ... something I tell you what.

[@tvremote9394]

My knowledge on Viking history comes solely from vinland saga. And this seems pretty accurate from what I know

[@krankarvolund7771]

Vinland Saga is surprisingly accurate yes ^^

[@belivuk2526]

It was a great show, fairly accurate too from what I know. That said, I'm not an expert on Vikings in general to speak about the history of Vikings who went west, but I do notice that in this video, the whole thing about eastern vikings Rus becoming Russians by assimilation into Slavs and creating Kievan Russia isn't really true. Why? Well, I know my Slavs. Rus is referring to a group of Vikings that sailed east, that's true, but Russian is an English word which just happens to sound like Rus. The country, in Slavic, was Kievskaya Rassiya, just like there was a Rassiya in Balkans (one of Slavic states that later became known as Serbia). The word/name Ras was already present in Slavic languages, meaning oak. Oak was a sacred tree for Slavs and Rassiya is basically "Oak land", while Kievan Rassiya is "Oak land in Kievan region". Rus Vikings did mix with Slavs thought, as did other Vikings and now days you have Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

[@erhembayarbanzragch379]

Happy that he got sponsored so he can get money

[@dash445566]

Spirit has ascended Math and reached History

[@debvideos]

Hi sotl, you might now read this comment but I really realy enjoy your aoe vs history series, hoping you'd make more in the future. Big love from India.

[@andreashummelshjj.8165]

Re: Wonder. Archaelogists have found sites of pre-christian temples. The temples have long since rotted away, being all-wood, but the pillar-holes can still be discerned. They match with the pillars in stave-churches. Apparently, the northmen recycled a pre-existing building blueprint :) Thus, the wonder is actually a good guess as to what a grand temple would have looked like.

[@GepardenK]

Yup. While the stave churches remaining today are from the Christian period it is very clear their design comes from a local lineage rather than one of traditional Christian architecture. It's a fairly decent bet to assume that pre-christian houses of worship would have had major similarities to later stave churches.

[@andreashummelshjj.8165]

@@GepardenK We also note that the stave-churches don't look like the churches of the southmen, thus making a different inspiration likely.

[@Infinite_Jester]

The various animals with long limbs that are entwined amongst themselves and can be found in many stave churches were a popular motif prior to Christianity as well. If I recall correctly, similar artwork has been found from the Vendel Period.

[@SirAroace]

I don't get why they removed the Longboats transport ablity.

[@Kawabongahlive]

Probably too overpowered to be both a combat unit and a transport ship at the same time.

[@davidcook3795]

I never knew it had that.

[@naphackDT]

If I had to take a guess, it was probably either because it was too hard to code ai behavior for, led to problems with the user interface, or was simply too confusing for players during play testing. When things are cut for reasons other than game balance (which shouldn't really apply in this case), these are usually the reasons.

[@SolarityVision]

@@naphackDT second this as they would have rebalanced longboats if devs thought it would be OP to be transport and combat ships in one

[@Fregler]

The longboats in AoM actually can transport a few units, fun to see that the concept carried on.

[@dannyneufeld3364]

In the German version the Longboat is actually called a "Drachenschiff" wich is the equivalent of Dragonboat. I think that name is more fitting.

[@joefva]

In French we just call it "drakkar" !

[@kodys2087]

Thank you again for all the time and effort you spend to make these AOE2 vs History videos! Lots of people became interested in medieval history because of AOE2, myself included, and love watching these kinds of videos.

[@shifty220]

Love the AoE2 vs History series, appreciate all the work you put into them and it really shows!

[@Vendavalez]

I love these videos and it makes sense that they take too much effort to be possible without sponsorship. I am glad to see that you found a sponsor for the video, especially one so fitting.

[@fartz666]

I'm an ER doctor and wanted to politely correct one thing in your video. 6:39 the lowered blood pressure is negligible and was unlikely to contribute to their reported lack of heavy bleeding. If your blood pressure becomes so low that extremity wounds no longer bleed very much, your blood pressure will also be so low that you won't be able to stand up and take a couple of steps without losing consciousness. Your blood pressure has to be drastically lowered to a very dangerous level before circulation is compromised, and when that occurs, your body is in shock and starting to convert to anaerobic respiration, so you'll be lucky to survive the low blood pressure, let alone the battle. There's an imperfect rule of thumb for estimating blood pressure that's used in medicine, the 60-70-80 rule (formerly 40-60-80), that says once your systolic BP drops below 80mmHg, you lose your radial pulse (no longer enough pressure to get blood to your arms), below 70 you lose your femoral pulse (not enough blood pressure to perfuse the legs), and below 60 you lose your carotid pulse (not enough blood pressure to get blood to the brain) and these are measures for people lying down flat on a bed, not for people running around upright on a battlefield. The lack of heavy bleeding reported in Vikings is either from not wearing much clothing into battle, causing them to be really cold, causing superficial vasoconstriction in cold extremities, leading to temporary poor perfusion at he surface of the extremities; or more likely, it's just a popular myth that was propagated throughout history but was never founded in reality. But either way, if your blood pressure is so low that your battle wounds aren't bleeding, then your blood pressure is too low to get blood to the brain to keep you conscious.

[@dontspikemydrink9382]

really hope he sees this (though you having zoidberg sort of discredits you :P

[@YossarianVanDriver]

The religious angle is definitely overplayed in that in-game description. We have letters from the time of monks complaining that the Christian Saxon kingdoms were just as happy to pillage monasteries as pagan vikings, and the most successful viking of all time (Knut the Great, who became king of Norway, Denmark and even England) was Christian.

[@vasownz]

I've been rewatching your Vs History videos over the past few days and this is a very nice surprise

[@srenwesthasmussen2350]

These type of videoes are my favorites, keep up the good work man!

[@TheShowmenOfficial]

I'm so happy there's another history video out!

[@ionutsaviuc94]

i like these historic videos a lot

[@metal_monocle7334]

Yay, a new history vid - I absolutely love these!

[@kaigradin1705]

Thanks so much for these videos! I really like this historical series!

[@Oct4vi4nus]

Amazing content as usual. Thanks for the tremendous efforts you put in these videos. Keep up the great work!

[@Kawabongahlive]

I like your voice so much that I went through the entire sponsored section without skipping

[@warnegoodman]

Great video, I appreciate the research. I'd love to see more in this series.

[@alejandroromero6464]

I'd like one of these focused on Mayans

[@taylorbuchheit]

Somehow missed these videos on your channel, but so glad I found them! I love history because of aoe2 and have wanted something like this for 20 years. Thanks for making these!

[@accipitermagna7104]

Excellent video and much hard work has been put into it, I learned a lot

[@johnmeo1532]

Wow, insanely well-researched and well-presented video!

[@windrider7260]

Always nice to know more about both Vikings and AOE 2. Thanks for your content and keep up the good work :)

[@notanerd07]

Very nicely done video, great editing. Keep it up bro.

[@nefrirend8299]

This is so cool, I love how you try different things 💖

[@rondeezy_thepancakeslayer1242]

Always like these videos, keep em coming👍🏻

[@carloscampo9119]

Spirit got a Sponsor! Congratulations! Great content as always

[@bladactania]

I really enjoy these videos! Very interesting. And well narrated, of course!

[@alexanderchristiansen1664]

As far as the free wheelbarrow and handcart is concerned, I figure it represents the theorised population boom that might have caused the viking age. Basically fast booming and then bumrushing opponents that aren't ready for it is pretty spot on. At least in the case of the Danes.

[@mortache]

Hey man you forgot Norman i.e "Christianized Viking" conquest of Sicily! Sure they weren't exactly the same Vikings as Ragnar, but they basically captured the Pope, which is a very Viking thing to do lol

[@krankarvolund7771]

Normans were more accurately frenchized vikings, because in the end all scandinavians were christianizing,sadly ^^

[@mortache]

@@krankarvolund7771 Yeah even Harald Hardrada was Christian

[@brijekavervix7340]

Maybe that's for a Sicilian AoE2 v. History vid?

[@roebbiej]

Wow spirit, this video was amazing. More of these please. And that sponsor is awesome, will check it out.

[@HungLe-fz5wy]

Thank you! The video is great as always!

[@Callofduty4man221]

Excellent video! Please do more of these history content videos.

[@danvano8417]

Love these history episodes, this one was awesome! Also, solid and relevant sponsor is vewy nice

[@jamesk2325]

This is my favorite video series of yours!

[@YipperStanley]

I found your channel from your chess aoe2 intro vid now am getting back into aoe2 and cant wait for aoe4!!

[@delilu]

Really interesting video, and also congrats on the sponsor!

[@olefredrikskjegstad5972]

The civilization I'm the most interested in seeing featured would be the Byzantines. Because the "Byzantine" (really medieval Roman) Empire has such a long history, there's a lot of territory you have to cover. It seems to me that most of what the Byzantines in AoE2 are focusing on is the early period. With the units that speak Latin rather than Greek, the Imperial Age discount and the bulding HP bonus, those all seem to reference the idea of the Eastern Roman Empire being an "island of civilization" in the Dark Ages following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. There's definitely hints of later periods, though. Their UU, the Cataphract, was a pretty significant component of the 10th century conquest armies the Romans fielded during the Macedonian Dynasty's expansionary phase, and the counter unit discount seems like a reference to the Theme system, which on paper was supposed to make the Empire's Provinces self-sufficient about defense. By contrast, back in Justinian's day the primary combat arm of the Roman Army was actually mounted horse Archers, a unit that the in-game Byzantines don't use much because of too many upgrades missing. Greek Fire and the Fire Ship bonus is also a middle/later period component, which also fits. The fact the Byzantines get all the gunpowder units is also pretty anachronistic, since by the time Gunpowder started to become really popular and effective the Byzantines had been reduced to an impoverished rump state under the thumb of the Ottoman Empire

[@Ltdcloud]

Superb video Spirit! Thanks a lot, I'll take a look at Epic Loot Shop ;)

[@footsy420]

Thanks for this. Keepem coming

[@backbone93]

Aweseome that you still do this after all this years bro

[@kristianlykke]

Amazing! Happy you do these videos. And in case of you, I have no problem with sponsorships. Great sponsor, great video

[@Marius2Rocker]

A fun addition to all of this could've been to mention that King Sigurd Jorsalfarer (literally "Sigurd who traveled to Jerusalem") og Norway was the first king of who went on a crusade. Even 100 years after being thoroughly Christianized and the viking age being generally considered to be over, the urge to set sail for far-away lands to loot and pillage wasn't entirely out of their system. On their way to join the crusade they were having trouble dealing with some "bluemen" (north african corsairs. they wore blue apparently) on Formentera, an island near Mallorca. The corsairs were hiding in caves in the cliffs, and taunted the norwegian crusaders to come up and fight them. The "vikings" then dragged their longships to the top of the cliff and lowered them down the cliffside filled with men, and charged the bluemen in their caves! I imagine it like a viking/crusader SWAT team jumping into the cave from their longship helicopters. Its a fun little story about both longships and how the vikings didn't quite quit after 1066.

[@burgersomers]

Love these videos!!

[@Patchnote2.0]

I appreciate a sponsor that's so incredibly relevant to the video.

[@Joebomaisyomama]

He has to keep doing this it’s cool and would love to see historical facts of each civs

[@ajrobbins368]

This video is so thorough! Thank you for doing your homework.

[@danielmunsaka2051]

Need more for this playlist

[@TomasPiliponis]

Great content, thank you so much!

[@tommyma2738]

SOTL is so good that even his sponsors fit perfectly

[@PachetePockets]

Please do more of these. My interest in history started when I was 11 years old playing Age of Empires II. I even ended up majoring in history in university. All thanks to AoEII. So I love these videos. Please make one for every civilization.

[@zachwells166]

Ready for a few more in this Series!

[@peterfrejek2767]

I grew up in Gimli Manitoba Canada, known as the Capital of new Iceland. It was cool seeing you use the Viking statue that overlooks the harbour (Vikings are also my favourite Civ)

[@mamacitasenorita1680]

Love these history vs series!!! Love to see all civs in game!

[@Kubinda12345]

I really love the AoE2 vs History series so I'm really happy for this video. As for the free wheenbarrow and hand cart; perhaps the idea was that the northern lands were kind of uncivilized, the people often living isolated without any nearby mills or something like that meaning that they had to carry lot of stuff on great distances.

[@Halteclere]

Amazing work!

[@1RJ2]

I watched the whole sponsor segment. After all of your great videos you deserved it

[@Johnny-Thunder]

Thanks for the video Spirit of the Law, and thanks for the code, I bought a Valknut necklace with it :)

[@ilikeitidont]

yessssssssssssss I missed these videos a so much!!!

[@T3AMKILL]

Great research!!!

[@aptguard7989]

We need more of these videos ASAP

[@fluffydestroyer8336]

as an icelander the viking voice lines have always given me great joy. they hit that linguistic uncanny valley of being recognizably icelandic yet the pronounciation is totally different. of course, that's exactly how old norse is to modern icelandic lol

[@RimaNari]

Awesome video! Now I really need to listen to some Amon Amarth... Also, I was always confused about their song "Shield Wall" - now I learned that Vikings did indeed use shield walls! Oh, and that sponsor... I actually might buy stuff from them. First time I was not annoyed at a sponsored message!

[@JKRevanBR]

Chad SOTL makes a MINUSCULE ad on the beginning of the video like a boss

[@aanrrat1354]

The reason Vikings have warship construction bonus is pretty obvious if you know why Norsemen were such good sailors. They lived in a place where sturdy pine trees were a plenty and the land wasn't very plentiful. A big reason Vikings went viking in the first place.

[@StrunDoNhor]

A friend of mine, who is of Scandinavian descent, held a Viking-inspired feast for his 21st birthday. We made a couple of turkeys beforehand (not quite freshly-hunted boars, but they got the job done). During the feast we didn't use plates or cutlery: if you wanted delicious meat, you had to dig in with your bare hands and take a chunk out, and then wash it down with as much mead as we could afford, all the while "Lost in Sovngarde" from the Skyrim OST blared in the background. There was _no_ historical justification for it whatsoever, but it felt fitting for a stereotypical "Viking feast". It was definitely the best and most fun birthday I've ever been to.

[@mistermaster256]

Goths would be quite interesting. I've always been confused about where they fit into history.

[@dimitrioskantakouzinos8590]

I love that you took the effort of writing out a text for a resume meme that just flashed by and you have to pause to read fully.

[@wbillyip]

The visualisation of Svend’s story in AOE2 DE is amazing & reminds me of the channel that produce AOE2 story videos (can’t recall the channel name)

[@no1ofconsequence936]

Awesome video, but I would like to point out the Varangian Guard appeared in the campaigns. They appeared in the Bari campaign as allies to the Byzantine player against the Sicilians and Normans at the Second Battle of Cannae. I can't blame you for not including it since it is one of the expansion campaigns, but it is there. Still happy you got sponsored though, and I might just check them out.

[@rin-senpai7115]

I think making the Longboat a transportship that can fight back would have been such a cool idea, I can't believe they scratched that! Obviously its attack and range would have to be adjusted, but I like the idea way more than "another Warship but with arrows". Glad this series is back!

[@Infinite_Jester]

I think the attack range is fine, but maybe make the base attack value lower and increase the efficiency as it's garrisoned by military(?) units. That's probably the only balance change that positively makes me excited. Still, probably quite difficult to balance well.

[@HealGea]

This series is very nice, I hope to see more.

[@historyanticz6640]

Awesome!! The vikings were an awesome Era, and it's amazing to see this action through AOE, very well done.

[@Saphrax89]

Would really like to see you cover the Magyars

[@SouLa_UA_]

Thank you for the effort

[@oivinf]

Can't help but feel the comments on the longship's role was in a small part affected by my comment and subsequent discussion on "How good are Longboats?". Either way, I feel like you should have goofed more on how Vikings are so quintessentially early middle ages, and running a viking up to a conquistador is at the very least a 400 year wide anachronism. All in all very well researched! Also "berserk" literally means "bear shirt", something I'd thought you'd mention.

[@forsakenquery]

The Spanish "castle age" and the Vikings castle age were not at the same time, and the Vikings vanished before they entered an imperial age. The game asks the question - what if the Spanish existed 300 years earlier in time? What if the Vikings thrived for another 3 centuries - what would their golden age have looked like ?

[@Toonrick12]

@@forsakenquery Aye, this is the same game where the Goths can fight Turtle Ships and Longbows with an Aztec ally.

[@BigPapaKaiser]

Rurik, upon setting foot in Kiev, was quickly given a drink and 5 minutes later he was fully slavved.

[@nenel128]

Ahhhh long awaited... Love it!

[@JoeLiningToolFilms]

Although I understand why they're needed, I'm usually turned off by sponsor plugs. But as always you tied it in with the video perfectly! Says a lot to your ability to draw an audience in and tell them a story that even the ad was interesting and didn't feel out of place

[@michaelkevin8909]

"Hey guys, Sponsors of The Law here!" Love your work as always! ^._.^