Unique tech is the most gold expensive and is one of about 5 unique techs that basically does nothing.
It is gold expensive because Berserks themselves are not, and apart from Arbs vikings will not spend much gold. Clearly it is a balancing decision. They changed it in FE to be more food and less gold, which is actually a nerf, since getting enough food will always be harder for a viking player than enough gold.
One of the top 3 economies in the game along with Mayans and Persians.
They don't get halbs, hand cannons or bombard cannons.
Their cavalry is the 2nd worst in the game behind Koreans.
Their monks are average.
Plenty of other civs get Arbalest, bracer and siege ram. These things don't make Vikings special.
Actually, the only civs to get FU arbs and FU SR are Saracens and Vikings. The holy grail early imp combo would be Arbs, Halbs and SR, all FU which fortunately no civ gets. Vikings get pretty close with FU Arbs and SR with bonused Pikes.
Only the huns and turks don't get onager and only the turks don't get lite skirmisher. So these things don't make Vikings special.
The infantry HP bonus is irrelevant when put against Aztec, Japanese and Goth infantry related bonuses or unique techs.
The only infantry unique unit you might have luck against with Berserks is Woad Raiders.
Clearly you should never use them for that then, and instead to kill trash as they are intended to. They also beat Huskarls in imp.
You have to accept the very few people hate the Vikings. The are the best civ on water and the worst on land. That how they are balanced overall.
Vikings are clearly top tier in any water map. However due to their incredibly strong early game economy they are usually regarded as a top 4 or top 5 Arabia civ in 1v1. This also applies to most open maps. Even in Arena their strong boom makes them quite difficult to fight. In team land games, Vikings are usually regarded as having the worst late game army options. They can however sling, and we all know that is an incredibly effective tactic.
They are so dominant on 50% of the maps in the game, they have to struggle at the other 50% of maps, otherwise it would be unfair.
If you are a playing RM 1v1 Vikings are pretty much the best civ in the game. You will win water maps and can put out a good fight vs azt/hun/may if it's a land map.
Go full petard,
Great post. I consider myself fully schooled.
To clarify, I didn't mean civs that have bracer AND arbalest, AND siege ram with siege engineers, but I didn't make that clear so it's my fault. I meant what _HyunA points out in his response. _HyunA forgot to add that Chinese will get 20% discount on the research cost for arbs, bracer and siege ram.
I guess Elite Berserks are like Light Cavs. Use them against Villagers, Siege, Monks and Trash. They also have the added bonus of being able to deal with Huskarls and Champions which Light Cavs can't and I guess they have the added bonus of healing themselves so they're always in top shape.