Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-30303386-20171104212518/@comment-26890432-20171109231759

Vikings would have expanded by land, but not because of a promised afterlife from battle... a large cause of the Viking raids was actually the increasing pressure they felt from Christianity under King Charlemagne. The Kingdom of the Franks was autocratic and rapidly expanding, which led the Scandinavians to fear for their political and religious freedom. Since they could not compare with the Franks in land combat, they decided that naval development and preemtive strikes in order to discourage the Franks, and the English, from expanding further North. Now, once they realised how lucrative such raids were, wealth certainly became a factor.

But back to the point, that totally sounds like Dale's history, amirite? If you're going to compare a real-life faction to a LOTR one, at least try and do it based on the culture, not the weapons and armour. Pretty much everyone used the same gear as the Vikings had when they were around.