Product Description

Medieval: Total War: Viking Invasion, the first expansion pack for Medieval: Total War, turns the clock back to 790 AD, when the Viking hordes descended from their Scandinavian strongholds to pillage their neighbours.

Viking Invasion challenges players to control eight new factions, including the Vikings themselves, the Saxons, Scots, Irish, Welsh and Picts, and to embark on a campaign to dominate the British Isles. With a wealth of new historical heroes, players can lead a range of new units into battle--including Viking Berserkers, Saxon Huscarles and Fyrdmen--while conducting sieges enhanced by the introduction of flaming arrows and boiling oil.

Players can now plan reinforcements and scout enemy formations before taking to the field from a new pre-battle screen. In addition, there will be new playable factions and a new heavy weapon in the shape of the fearsome Organ Gun.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9985 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2003-05-09
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 95

Amazon.co.uk Review
A very welcome expansion to one of the PC's finest real-time strategy games, Medieval Total War: Viking Invasion throws into the mix more factions, more units and a far stiffer challenge that in the original release.

Requiring the original game to play, this time around the action focuses on the battles between the British and the Scandinavians some 1,200 years ago. And this is clearly a period of time the developers have had a lot of fun with. New units include the odd berserker, and on the weapons side, a nice cauldron of boiling oil isn't to be sniffed at. When you enter battle, things are better organised this time, primarily because you can sort your troops before and as hostilities commence. It's a big help; you can specify, for instance, the order in which the reinforcements arrive, while arranging those on the front line to maximum tactical advantage. That's the theory, anyway.

Fundamentally, this game follows the tried and tested route of the expansion pack by pretty much leaving the main game intact. However, if you're after more of the same, then you're in business. That's because Medieval Total War: Viking Invasion presents an engrossing, long-lasting challenge, that genuinely offers excellent value for money. The developers could have got away with something that only added a few hours' worth of gameplay to the original, but instead Viking Invasion offers an awful lot more than that. That said, as with the original, you can aim criticism at the sadly inevitable slowdown when thousands of troops arrive on your screen, although things tick along without a murmur for the majority of the time.

There's little doubt that Medieval Total War is an excellent game, and one of the finest ever seen on the PC. Its expansion pack is superb, marrying a terrific extra challenge with a bit more variety. --Simon Brew

Customer Reviews

A great expansion pack for one of the best strategy games
I am a huge fan of the Total War series and eagerly await Rome Total War. In the meantime the original Shogun game engine gets possibly its last outing as the Viking Invasion Expansion pack. Like the Mongol Invasion pack for Shogun, playing as the Vikings is all about military conquest rather than strategy, but the other playable factions allow you to defend the British Isles also. The game also adds a number of welcome additions to the main game - not least a pre-battle screen which allows you to gauge the strength of your enemy's army before you commit yourself, and a much welcome summary of the vices and virtues gained by your generals each turn. This remains one of the most easy to learn yet difficult to master strategy games on the market, and it will keep you occupied for months. Buy it now.

Welcome to the Dark ages
This add-on for medieval total war starts as the Roman control of Britain fades away and the Roman Empire falls from power and might. Left in Britain is a power vacuum and 7 small kingdoms fight for power against one another to control the lands; there is also the added threat of the Vikings from across the northern seas. Eight factions are playable in this Dark Age. This add-on makes for very interesting play, there are new units, buildings and landscapes to pit your armies into. The eight playable factions are: The Mercians, The Northumbrians, The Saxons, The Picts, The Irish, The Scots, The Welsh and The Vikings. Not only do you get this early period of history to play out, but extra factions have been added to the full game, the Sicilians, Hungarians and the Aragonese, along with extra units. The add-on adds more epic and historical actions as you bid to take over the British Isles. Just like the Mongol invasion was great for Shogun total war, Viking invasion is great for the medieval (or pre medieval) era, it's a must for all medieval owners.

An lovely little extension
Viking Invasion gives the player the opportunity to do what is promised from Rome Total War. This is to firstly conquer your own land and claim dominance, only later to move onto the rest on Europe and North Africa in Medieval Total War later.

The game presents 30 more units, including Celtic warriors and organ cannon and a host of new Viking units (no surprise there then). There is also the option to quick save the game before a battle, as well as a whole new method of selecting units which will fight in a battle.

Combined with this the new Viking units have a host of new special rules with are useful to know about, so it is advisable to play as them first.

Although the game has present a lot more units, represented buildings built on the battle field and given a much more personal touch to your characters (yes even generals can die of old age), it does lack the fire of originality that many add-ons add to some games.

However this should not deter any Medieval total war fan from getting the game, and I strongly advise anyone to give it a try.