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# Viking Raiders

## What Is This System?

Viking raider factions are independent forces that periodically spawn on the map and attack whoever is closest to their landing point. They do not behave like normal campaign factions. They exist solely to raid, plunder, and pressure you at inconvenient moments.

Five raider factions operate across the map, each covering a different coastline.

| Raider Faction | Coastlines Covered                         |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Dubgaill       | Northwest Scotland, Northwest Ireland      |
| Finngaill      | Northwest Scotland, South Ireland          |
| Víkingar       | Southwest, South, and Southeast England    |
| Norðmenn       | East and North Scotland, Northeast England |
| Hæðen          | Northeast England                          |

Each faction operates independently. One being dormant does not affect when another strikes.

***

## When Raiders Strike

Raiders only launch during the raiding season, which runs from **spring through early summer** (roughly months 4 to 9 of the campaign year). Outside this window, no raids spawn regardless of how long a faction has been dormant.

When a raider faction's cooldown expires and the season is right, the system does not spawn immediately. Instead it rolls a **wind delay**: a random wait of zero to several turns before the actual landing. This represents the raiders choosing their moment. Once the winds are favourable and the delay expires, they launch.

***

## How Often They Come

After every raid, each raider faction enters a **dormancy period** of between 8 and 24 turns before becoming eligible to strike again. This period is rolled randomly each time, so you cannot predict precisely when the next wave will arrive.

In multiplayer, dormancy periods are longer, capped at 36 turns.

## What Happens When You Destroy a Raiding Force

Defeating raiders is not always as clean a deterrent as it seems. The game tracks how long a raiding force survived on the map before being destroyed.

If you wipe them out **within 4 turns** of landing, their home faction is deterred. An 18-turn penalty cooldown is imposed before they can raid again. Crushing raids fast and hard is the most effective way to buy yourself breathing room.

If they **survive longer than 4 turns** before being destroyed, the next raiding force that spawns from that faction will be larger and more dangerous. Letting a raiding force linger while you deal with other threats will make the next wave worse.

***

## What Makes a Raid More Likely

Even when a raider faction is ready and the season is right, there is still a **probability check** before any force actually spawns. The base chance is 50%, but several factors push it higher.

| Condition                           | Spawn Chance Bonus                      |
| ----------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| You are currently at war            | +20%                                    |
| Your treasury exceeds 1000 gold     | +5% per 250 gold above that, up to +25% |
| Your food stores are below 30% full | +15%                                    |

The total chance is capped at **95%**, so a raid is never guaranteed but can come very close to it under the right conditions.

Raiders are opportunists. They watch for kingdoms that are distracted by war, flush with gold worth taking, or weakened by hunger. Keeping your food stores healthy and avoiding simultaneous wars on multiple fronts directly reduces how often and how confidently they strike.

***

## How Dangerous Are The Raiders?

Raiding force strength scales with the **turn number** and your **campaign difficulty**. The longer the campaign has gone on, the more experienced and numerous the raiding forces become. Early raids are manageable skirmishes. Later raids are serious military threats.

On top of this scaling, each individual raid rolls a **size modifier** that can make the force smaller or larger than average. The probability of a large force increases steadily as the campaign progresses.

| Campaign Stage | Chance of Small Force | Chance of Medium Force | Chance of Large Force |
| -------------- | --------------------- | ---------------------- | --------------------- |
| Early campaign | 55%                   | 35%                    | 10%                   |
| Mid campaign   | 22 to 38%             | 44 to 46%              | 18 to 32%             |
| Late campaign  | 8%                    | 33%                    | 59%                   |

By the late campaign, nearly six in ten raids will be the largest size category.

## Multi-Army Landings

There is a **20% chance** with every raid that instead of a single force landing, two or three armies spawn simultaneously from different points along the coast. Each army picks its own landing spot and targets whoever is nearest. Only one warning notification fires, so the full scale of the landing may not be immediately obvious.

Multi-army raids are the most dangerous situation the system can produce. A single border garrison will not hold against three coordinated landings.

***

## Summary

1. **Raids only happen in season.** The raiding window runs from spring through early summer. Outside it, no forces will land regardless of how long a faction has been dormant.
2. **Destroy raids quickly.** Wiping out a raiding force within 4 turns imposes a long deterrence cooldown on that faction. Letting them linger makes the next wave stronger.
3. **Raiders target weakness.** Being at war, having a full treasury, and running low on food all increase the likelihood of a raid spawning. Address food shortages and avoid fighting on too many fronts at once.
4. **Forces grow over time.** Early raids are nuisances. Late-campaign raids are major incursions. Build coastal defences and garrison capacity before the campaign reaches its later stages.
5. **Multi-army landings are rare but devastating.** A 20% chance on any given raid means three simultaneous forces can arrive with only one notification. Keep enough mobile reserves to respond to more than one landing at a time.


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