I’ve long enjoyed Vietnam as a civ, at least conceptually. The idea of being a forested army of guerrilla fighters, nearly impossible to conquer on their home turf? Hell yes!

The problem is, whenever I play as Ba Trieu, I feel like I don’t get a chance to experience those defensive powers. AI refuses to attack me, or I attack them but then it turns into a standard domination game.

Last night I made a quick tiny map Pangea game. Everything standard except climate set to hot and wet, oceans set to high, and barbarian clans enabled.

After surviving a spirited early game battle with a few resilient barbarian clans, I met my opposition: Alexander, Nader Shah, and Hardrada. I found myself in a shitty spot, completely hedged in on all sides and unable to grow beyond 5 mediocre cities. There was a long period of tense peace where I built up my science and rushed to acquire elephant archers, then all hell broke loose. Back to back to back surprise wars!

Watching each of their armies break against my fortifications, watching their military strength crater while my troops didn’t even sustain injury… aaah, the satisfaction I felt. I achieved religious victory just as the renaissance era began, but I could have gone for domination just as easily. Hardrada didn’t even survive the Middle Ages.

Vietnam is fun as hell when you get a chance to flex their full defensive muscle.