Idk why people say Longswords are bad, they're crazy good if the opponent has literally no army (HOW TO SMASH NOOBS ON ISLAND MAPS!)
I played Vikings on Northern Isles at like 1050 ELO and went for a 5-knight drop in castle age. Predictably, the opponent had nothing and suffered a few deaths and a lot of idle time despite my lacking micro.
What if we tried longswords instead? I went into the scenario editor and made some tests against a fully-garrisoned TC with fletching. These are all with viking longswords (+20% hp) but 10% more units should more than compensate for that (more overcompensating the less deaths you have). Numbers depend a bit on luck as arrow dmg will sometimes be spread out when the units are clumped up, and I only tried these once or twice.
- 20 FU longswords kill the TC with 1 death
- 10 FU longswords kill the TC with 2-4 deaths
- 8 FU longswords kill the TC with 7 deaths
- 20 unupgraded longswords kill the TC with 8 deaths
- 10 longswords with all upgrades except forging/etc and squires kill the TC with 1-4 deaths. Remove 1 armor upgrade and they do it with 8 deaths or lose.
After all these tests, I realized that on a water map, your opponent may have Bodkin even in early castle age (although maybe not since fire ships aren't affected - in this case probably not even Fletching). 10 FU longswords now took 6-9 deaths, 12 took 5 deaths, and 20 took 1-4. Also keep in mind that the vills might not be fully garrisoned by the time you get in range.
It's maybe not worth theorycrafting more than this for something that will only work in low ELO, but I can't help myself so let's compare some upgrades. TC does 4/5/6 dmg vs your base armor depending on upgrades. You do 7 dmg unupgraded. EHP = effective HP.
| upg | time | cost | effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st armor | 40 sec | 100 food | +20/25/33.3% EHP |
| Gambesons | 25 sec | 100 food 100 gold | +25/33.3/50% EHP |
| 2nd armor | 55 sec | 200 food 100 gold | +33.3/50/100% EHP |
| Arson | 25 sec | 150 food 50 gold | +28.6% dmg (or 25% after 1st attack) |
| 1st attack | 50 sec | 150 food | +11.1% dmg (or 14.3% before Arson) |
| 2nd attack | 75 sec | 220 food 120 gold | +10% dmg |
| Supplies | 25 sec | 75 food 75 gold | |
| MAA | 40 sec | 100 food 40 gold | |
| Longswords | 40 sec | 150 food 65 gold | |
| Squires | 40 sec | 100 food | less time to react for opponent, chase vills etc |
| 4 units after Supplies | 84 sec | 180 food 80 gold | +40/26.7/20% dmg and hp if you have 10/15/20 units |
| Castle Age | 160 sec | ||
| 1 rax from 1 vill | 50 sec | 175 wood | |
| 1 rax from 4 vills | 25 sec | maybe 210-225 wood | |
| Transport ship | 46 sec | 125 wood | |
I'd suggest something like this: 3-4 rax, Supplies, MAA, 1st armor and 2nd transport ship while going up, then immediately Longswords and Squires, then move out with 15-20 mans while getting Gambesons+Arson, and more BS upgrades as you can afford them (e.g. as you screw up your macro and have fat bank).