Navigating the world map and camping Expeditions: Viking Guide
Last update: 08 May 2017
Very quickly, you will start to navigate the world map, be it Denmark or the British Isles. After you pick a specific location and click on it, the suggested route will be displayed, as well as time measured in hours, days and weeks. If you decide to travel along a naval route, take more food along. Apart from that, you will not have to worry about anything.
While travelling on land, you will have to take the needs of your party into consideration. Each party member requires sleep and food. If you fail to satisfy those needs, your men will not do as well in combat, they can fall ill or even die. You can make a camp each time you visit one of many locations on the world map. Some of them will be occupied by vicious animals or by hostile people. When this is the case, you first need to fight a battle with such a group to make a camp.
Note that every location is different in terms of food availability, of how good shelter it provides and how safe it is. In camps, you can obtain meat, turn it into rations, craft items and heal wounds. Remember to make sure, at all times, that your men are well rested and well fed before a major battle. You cannot perform any of those actions in towns, or other locations. You first have to leave such a location and go to the nearest location with a camp in it to regenerate your health. Wounded men cannot perform many of the actions in the camp, which is why you should make sure, at all times, that their number is lower than that of the healthy ones.
Each party member should be assigned work to do. Also, they should be granted time to rest and sleep.
In camps, you spend an entire day divided into four shifts. If you don’t know which work to assign to whom, you can always press the auto-assign button and perform necessary changes (e.g. you can heal someone and you can also decide about each party member individually and introduce changes manually). Your settings will be saved and next time camping individual tasks will be assigned in the very same way. Thanks to this, you don't have to remember who you were to assign what. However, find out if safety of the new location is not lower than that of the previous one. This may require organizing works and adjusting to the situation.
Also, it is a good idea to have a specialist in each of the key areas described below. You can provide other party members with 1-2 additional levels in some areas, thanks to which they can complement the more fit companions. Initial levels that do not cost too many skill points, but they can be helpful during such stops. Towards the end of each day, you will receive a full report of what has been going on during each of the shifts and on the current state of your provisions, after the day of camping.
Tasks and works during camping
The first three of the skills described above are the most important ones during each stop, whereas the rest of them can be helpful depending on the situation. You can assign the following duties to your party members.
Rest. Each party member requires two shifts to regenerate fully, or only one if they have the heavy sleeper skill. Such party member can, of course, work harder but they will still suffer from the fatigue status (yet, it's better to be tired than hungry).
Guarding the camp is very important. At the bottom of the list you can view how well the camp is guarded on a given shift, in percent. You can dispatch two very good guards, one for the first two shifts and the order for the remaining two. If your camping site is safe, you should attain the maximum value of 95 points. If you fail to guard the camp properly you can either be robbed or attacked.
Hunting. This one is yet another important part of camping. Hunters can obtain meat which can be later turned into rations. Better hunting skills allows you to get more food and increases your chances of succeeding. The amount of meat that can be obtained by your people depends on the game available there.
Scout. Scouting the area is a supplementary skill. Scouts can find locations that will provide random resources (usually wood) and occasionally some items. At the bottom of the list you can find a percentage chance of finding something near the camp. If you are successful, new locations will be displayed on the world map (pouch icon), within the distance of 1-2 hours walk from the camp. If you go there, you will immediately find something and appropriate message will appear on the map. It is a good idea to dispatch at least one party member to scouting, if only you have enough food and you have ensured safety in the camp.
Preserve. Preserving food is very helpful, especially if you are in a location where there is lots of game. Thanks to the skill, you can turn perishables into rations with no “Best before” date, canned food of sorts. You can give rations to your people when you are running out of food, or when you cannot afford to send someone for hunting
Craft, repair, Tinker. Crafting, repairing and tinkering (which is about creating new items, such as torches and traps). These are tasks that are not a priority for your group. Blacksmiths in villages can also craft or repower your arms and armours, but they charge you for that. By doing it in your camp you only use up your salvage and hides. Additionally, if your man is an artisan, he can endow the items with special qualities. This skill is highly contextualised. This is why, if you really want to have a blacksmith on the your party, you can train one and provide him with a high degree of the skill.
Heal, witchcraft. Medical assistance and mixing herbs into medicine. Use the latter while replenishing your supply of medicine. Its function is similar to that of preserving, but the difference is that you have to look for herbs yourself while exploring new locations. Healing is contextualised, but it is of utmost importance. If any party member contracts of disease or is wounded during the battle, you can perform this action to treat him. Per one shift, you can heal one wound in one man. During a single camping event you can heal 4 wounds in a person, provided you have enough doctors. You should recruit at least one very good doctor and one or two additional ones.
Cooking, cleaning. Cooking and cleaning are two contextualised tasks in your camp, which you can perform only once. Cooking can be performed only in the morning and it stands a chance at improving moods in the camp and it can provide the full status. Cleaning can only take place during the last shift, thanks to which their safety level at the camp will not drop.