[quote=@Dinh AaronMk] I've been trying to half-ass encourage someone to do that since they're there on the map. There's some interesting possibilities with the Caribbean, while not directly relevant to the US itself. While not being Vikings they'd be the source of some exotic goods unavailable in the mainland. I've called it to my friends the Rum Road, and like the Silk Road that's its name-sake you'd have Jamaican, Cuban, or Trinidadian merchants sailing for the mainland to sell rum, sugar, tobacco, and other exotics in exchange for staple crops otherwise unavailable on the islands. They'd be getting their daily bread while providing high-value produce to the north. There's also the matter of Jamaican pirates, but you already know that. And it's not to mention that sugar cane is actually a more efficient means of producing ethanol. While not high in energy output like petroleum (you're not going to be powering diesel motors like large ships, trucks, tanks, or power-plants) they'd still have a high-grade enough fuel to power smaller ships they could use to ply their trade or raids to America so long as they keep to the blue waters of the coast. [/quote] Again, something I can accept but I'd think it'd only really be an issue for the southern most nations as I don't think small ships can get from the islands to the north without stopping. Although that does bring up the interesting idea of them having pit stops along the way north in territory where they're grant special permissions and contracts by the local rulers to dock there for a certain fee or mercenary work. It could also be a clan-by-clan sort of deal where collectively they're known as the "Rum Roaders" or something but they're actually a whole bunch of different factions with some being more trade focused and others more raid focused.