Civilization V: The Swedish Saga, part 1 (4000 B.C. to 430 A.D.)

The Swedish Bronze Age

3150 B.C.: Advancements in metallurgy lead to the dawn of the Swedish Bronze Age. Surrounding tribes, including the Danes, are awed by the new metal weapons carried by Swedish warriors, the likes of which have never been seen before.

From a sample size of two civs, I'm already at a pretty good tech lead and advancing at a solid clip. Not really worrying too much about Faith has let me focus on Civ's other resources like Gold, Science, and Culture, leading to a much stronger start than I had as the Celts.

2850 B.C.: The Swedes make contact with the Greek and Austrian tribes, settling in the lowlands on the Southern side of the Snowrun Peaks. These people seem strange compared to their Danish cousins, but the chieftains seek to foster peace nonetheless.

Ah, Greece. Many a Civ V game has found me fighting it out against Greece well into the age of ballistic missiles and death robots. They seem to pull happiness and gold out of thin air, even on lower difficulties, and found new cities like it's going out of style. On the bright side, I have some very formidable mountain ranges, as well as Denmark, between me and them.

Austria, on the other hand, is new to the expansion. I didn't encounter them in the Celtic Chronicle (they were off on the other continent somewhere), so I'm unsure how they'll behave.

2800 B.C.: The small farming settlement of Sigtuna, upriver from Stockholm, high in the sloping hills of the Snowruns, grows into a proper town. Stockholm and Sigtuna will soon become known as the Sister Cities of the Snowrun, and together represent the heart of Swedish culture and power.

2775 B.C.: The discovery of carvings in an ancient ruin leads most of the Swedish chieftains to adopt a belief system based around a great messenger god.

Apparently Ruins can give you Faith, and these ones gave me just enough to found a Pantheon. I chose Messenger of the Gods, just like in the Celtic Chronicle, for the bonus Science generated by trade routes. I did a lot of things wrong as the Celts, but I don't think that was one of them.