Civilization V: The Swedish Saga, part 4 (1868 A.D. to 1951 A.D.)

Preparing for the war to end all wars

1930 A.D.: Agents of the NDU's newly-reorganized NSS (Norse Secret Service) in Berlin steal blueprints for military aircraft from the Greeks. The designs are immediately sent back to Stockholm to be improved upon and put into production.

The bad news is that Greece researched Flight before me. The good news is I just got it from them for free. Thanks, guys! Apparently becoming socialist has given my spies backbones.

1931 A.D.: Swedish arms manufacturers produce the SV-1, the NDU's first repeating infantry rifle. They rush to start refitting all front line troops with the new weapons, to counter the Greek troops who have been using repeating rifles for some time.

I can now spend my teetering stacks of gold to upgrade my Caroleans to Great War Infantry, retaining their bonuses for starting as Caroleans. Unfortunately, any future infantry I build will not get these bonuses.

A Great General arrives in Graz late in the year, atop a crate of shiny, new SV-1s, to help hold the city against a potential Greek assault from Vienna.

1932 A.D.: Despite inflicting heavy losses on the NDU, Danish forces at Tunsberg are overrun. What remains of the Danish government holes up in their only remaining city, Salzburg. An expeditionary unit is sent to take the city, but the majority of the NDU forces are redeployed to the newly-shared Greek border South of Tunsberg. The Norse Ministry of Defense begins drafting two comprehensive strategies: Operation Justicar, to hold the border at Graz, and the ambitious Operation Firestorm, a blitzkrieg expedition into Greece to relieve border pressure before the Greeks can mount a full invasion.

My current plan is this: I do not want, not could I sustain the unhappiness of occupying, large swathes of Greece. Graz is an incredibly defensible city, and I should have no trouble holding it. My new Danish holdings, however, are wide open. My aim is going to be to slowly attack and burn the smaller cities of Northern Greece, salting the earth and creating a sort of "demilitarized zone" between our two nations. I'll keep knocking over cities and setting them on fire until I'm sure that their production and science output is too low to compete with me any longer.

Contributor

Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.

Latest in Strategy
Manor Lords promo art - knight on horseback looking at a medieval village in the distance, viewed from behind
PCG's best city builder of 2024 is adding a map with a gigantic hill in the middle: the perfect spot for your next castle
Maximillian from Evil Genius 2
Rebellion CEO says Evil Genius 3 could happen but wonders 'what else could we do with it other than a base-building game?'
A city from 1800
One of the best city builders of the last decade is currently 90% off on Steam
Company of Heroes 3
Company of Heroes 3 is free to try and 50% off, so it's the best time to check out the beefy 2.0 overhaul
People swimming in a pool and lying on floats
Planet Coaster 2's spring roadmap splashes down, with 'round-bottomed flumes' coming in March and buildable restaurants arriving in April
A bird's eye view of a nuclear bomb detonating in Ara: History Untold.
Microsoft's Civilization 7 competitor escalates tensions with Firaxis' embattled 4X, announcing that nukes are coming with its impending diplomacy update
Latest in Features
A vampire with a dark castle and swarms of bats in the background.
We need to decide on a genre name for Vampire Survivors-like games before a really terrible one sticks
Olivia, Alma and a palico
I wish Monster Hunter Wilds wasn't so afraid of letting me play Monster Hunter
SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pads overlapping on a desk
The SteelSeries QcK Performance series has reignited my excitement over the simple pleasure of a quality mouse pad… and trying to click skulls with pinpoint accuracy
OneXPlayer 2 pro on a table
I never thought a handheld PC bloated with Windows could replace my Steam Deck, but after gaming on an old OneXPlayer 2 Pro I can see now I judged it too harshly
A screenshot from the original Assassin's Creed game
Assassin's Creed: Shadows is just around the corner, so come and see the last 17 years of the series' PC graphics at max 4K settings
Beyond the Ice Palace 2 screenshots
I’m not sure what’s weirder: that someone made a sequel to a completely forgettable 37-year-old game I played as a kid, or that it was actually worth the wait