View Full Version : The Vikings
cutepuppy
05-06-2004, 13:11
Beginning of a Viking guide.
OK, let me start with saying that the Viking faction is (in my opinion) the easiest of the whole game, you just have to use them properly.
Their strengths are their very powerful infantry, the fact that they don't need ports to perform an amphibious attack and their raiding capabilities.
Their weak points are the Viking cavalry, which is the weakest in the whole game and the fact they have a different religion than other factions in the Viking campaign. Therefore newly conquered territories are more likely to rebel.
If you start a game as the Vikings and you check your economic status, you'll notice you have a big negative income. Farm upgrades take a long time to build and won’t be sufficient to fill up the gap in your treasury. So you have raid the British isles to gain money.
At the start of the game you have some units of thralls, carls and landsmen at your disposal. I place 2 units of thralls in hordaland and jutland, and use all other units (including my king’s huscarles) as raiding force and move them to hordaland.
Still in the first turn, I move all my ships towards the eastern British coast.
That means I have 2 ships in Hordasaer and Nordsaer (1 needed for amphibious attack and 1 spare if a storm destroys a ship in one of both seas), further I place ships in the 4 northern most sea regions on the Eastern British coast (BeornSae, Muir Giudan, Muir Moray,…).
Still in the first turn fill the training queue in Hordaland with Viking Carls and build watch towers in both your provinces.
Press end turn.
In the second turn move your ‘raiding force’ to the British Isles. Start raiding provinces with an abbey, they will give you 2000 florins/province. The following provinces on the east- and south coast have abbeys from the start: Orcades, Cait, Lothene, Dere, EastEngle, Cantware and Defnas. None of them have large garrisons and the present troops will probably abandon the province.
I always start from the north (Orcades) and go down south. Once you pillaged a province, move your troops out of it, and move your boats to other sea regions (if you don’t have a common border with a hostile faction, it will change it diplomatic stance to neutral automatically, and trade is possible again).
Build border forts in Hordaland and Jutland.
In later turns, I start constructing troop producing buildings in Hordaland (armourer, weaponsmith, royal palace,…) and economic buildings in Jutland (port, merchants, shipbuilders).
After having pillaged the provinces with an abbey, you have to start to look after a suitable place for a foothold. There are several possibilities for that: you can choose for Ireland, which it rich, but far from your home grounds, or you can choose for the provinces on the Saxon/Mercian border, close to your starting provinces and all have good or very good farm income.
Viking Econ:
Raiding is your main economic factor. Wait until a province has buildings worthwhile, don't raid those empty regions. To keep the raiding income you must keep your people comfortably pagan. Watchtower, border fort, pagan shrine, then village upgrades until sacrificial shrine is available should do this. Keep two or more assassins to kill the priests that may come to Jutland/Hordaland.
To capture more prisoners get Raider Cav started building somewhere. They are the fastest unit you have and increase prisoner count and therefore income. At least 1 per stack, but keep them out of most of the battle, use them for mop-up operations.
A basic econ build order
Mines
Farm 20
Farm 40
Mine Complex
* Trade 1
Basic Farms
* Trade 2
* Trade 3
Forest Clearing
*these need village/fort/keep to be build, so may not be worthwhile at the moment
Hordaland and Jutland should not even be cleared until you have +3 armor/weapons and are able to produce Joms in Hordaland and +3 armor/weapons and whichever other unit you want to produce in Jutland.
mfberg
Oleander Ardens
05-12-2004, 16:37
Specific tactics:
Add some archers against the Picts and the Irish;
As your cavalry is very weak and your late game units are pricy Archers help you to take out the pictish crossbowmen, mounted or not even if they are well protected.
If you storm right toward them they can cause some expensive pain.
Same is true for the Irish; Their javelins and heavy spear hurts, especially you give the A.I the chance to throw it.
Archers can inflict much pain to Kers, Bonnachts and Gallows, so use them. Plus they force the Irish to attack you when you attack them, giving you an advantage stamina-wise...
Being a Dane myself, I thorougly enjoy the Viking horde.
I attack every single abbey, starting from Orcades, going all the way down the east coast, then the south coast, then all the way up to the Scottish lands in England (I like the Scottish so they dont get hit), then the small island between Ireland and England, and finally the last 4 Abbeys on Ireland.
By the time I make my new home in the old Irish capital, my homeland should be ready to pump out either armored spears or Huscarles, and I almost have all sea maps occupied by boats, and a handsome amount of florins in my war chest.
From the start I cue a berserker in Nordland, and go straight for huscarles, in Jutland I go straight for boathouse, no towers or runestones untill I have boats, I then repair/train enough troops in Nordland to keep my raiders going through all the abbeys.
In order to have enough ships to reach between Ireland and England, without having to halt the raid for many turns, I had to use the ship in Jutlands waters, and only had my King connected to the homeland via Nordland.
Berserkers are great fun, and we Danes really did have berserkers in the old days, they would drink a potion, wich was partially made up of those psychedelic mushrooms (psylocobin ?), and believed themselves to be invincible.
The first Danish King to embrace Christianity, did so on a dare. He dared a missionary to endure what translates into "the iron burden", if the priest's hand was unscathed, the King would convert.
The Iron burdon is a large metal glove, it is heated over a fire untill it glows red, the priest would then stick his hand in the glove, and carry the weight of the burning glove for set amount of time ..... well it ended with our pagan King embracing God, so the priest must have aced that glove :)
We also had the "Raven banner" when we conquered England, it was a banner made by the Norns(from Norse mythology), and it would show if the comming battle would be won or lost, nice relic :)
it's useful to raid multiple province simultaneously.
your forces are so superior that it's quite doable to smash and run using 2-3 forces form the beginning.
each of your huscarle royals can make up an army by themselves, esp. the king since he's autoreplenishing.
Hmm attacking in mini groups would also give the army more V&V and stats, I always have to wait for boats to be build anyway, might as well use the spare time to give my troops a little workout.
I remember trying to get rid off 2 degenerated heirs, I would send them against a vast Irish army, and managed to win the battle, Huscarles are nice :)
If you are any kind of roleplayer though, you need a spear unit in every fight.
Odin's weapon was a spear, and when the Vikings faced an opposing army on the field, the warlord would hurl his spear towards the enemy line, planting it between him and them, that way the Warlord sacrificed the dead enemies to Odin, so Hel would not get them.
(Hel is Loke's daughter, sister of the Fenris wolf and the Midgaard worm, she was made the ruler of the underworld by Odin)
by that reasoning, you ought to hire some bonnachts for hurling spears ;)
mini groups cover the abbey territories far quicker and also cook up awesome generals.
then, I can go into conquest (toehold on territories) mode faster and generally start dominating more rapidly.
ireland and manau are always good targets.
Aurelius Maximus
09-21-2004, 15:38
I just started a campaign (hard) playing the vikings. I usually play very agressive and the Vikings are excellent for that style.
I started by sending out my ships to the british shore, building my economy in the viking homelands. I invaded and conquered the two richest pict regions on turn 2. I built an inn in 1 of them, continued to eliminate the picts entirely using some mercenaries and holding on to all of their territory using peasants as garrison troops. Also, I build a pagan shrine asap to convert the population. All this in the first 6 or so turns, mind you.
To make sure I didn't get into money problems I then started to raid some of the other coastal regions using a "mini-group".
With all of the pict regions in my hands, my economy stabilised and money in my coffers I continued my conquest by taking Macau. Now I'm poised to strike into Ireland next...
Adrian II
09-22-2004, 13:41
I continued my conquest by taking Macau.Now there's a Mod I'd like to play. They say it's the hottest place in China. :bow:
King Edward
09-22-2004, 14:06
And also the only place you can leagally gamble! I was there in April this year. its not that nice a place, Hong Kong is much MUCH better! (IMO of corse....)
I assume Maximus means the Isle of Man i think its called Maneu or something like that.
Manau is the correct one.
settling in Ireland is good as taking them outfast would make their javs not a threat. Similarly, it's rich.
Manau is a good naval base and has iron.
picts should be wiped out due to their x-bow ability but still it's better to perhaps do such things after an abbey raiding tour. This is since once ou have land contact with a faction, you can't autoceasefire as easily and this hurts the trade very badly.
I just finished a revised Abbey blitz with the Vikings on hard.
Starting with the Orcades abbey, taking all abbeys on the east, south and then the west coast abbeys up to Reget (Reget is a nice battle), across Manau to Ireland, finishing in Brega ready to settle.
I did it with absolutely minimal army numbers, just my King solo the first few years, then adding his heirs as they were churned out, at one point I added a unit of surplus peasants to soak up arrows, The final Irish battles was fought in numbers though, Kerns really are a pain in the behind :)
I now stand firmly in Brega in Ireland, ready to set down my first watch tower, and I accumulated the following goodies:
40056 florins, 4 heirs with 4 to 8 in command, and a lot of V&V for the King.
Mighty warrior +10 health +2 valor
Builder +10 happy
Secret rough justice +1 dread
Specialist attacker +3 command
skilled assaulter +1 command
No mercy +2 dread -1 morale (oops)
He has 5 command stars (9 when attacking) :)
I only had to wait 1 turn for a boat from Jutland, I went straight for boathouse there, no towers or anything, that kept me raiding all the abbeys non stop except for 1 turn.
I decided to quickly build for huscarls in Nordland again, but I should prolly have build for a little trade instead, I never really used any of my army, so Im not hurting for a strong unit just yet.
good job.
shouldn't it be 8 when attacking though? only specialist attacker adds to regular stars and it's +3.
trade is important as whomever you don't raid, you can trade with after a turn.
if you leanr to abbey raid, the viks really aren't very tough.
Vikings are easy, but no other faction starts out quite like them, not even in STW (dont have RTW yet), they are both scary and funny, but also quite unique, raiding abbeys with a huge grin on the face is excellent :)
EirikRødskjegg
09-28-2004, 23:32
Although I'm American, my grandfather was born in Meløy, Norland Fylke, Norway. So I'm a huge Viking fan, they're the most fun to play in MTW VI.
Aurelius Maximus
09-29-2004, 08:14
Circumstances forced me to attack the northumbrians first instead of the irish, so I shifted my focus to conquer all of mainland england. Fighting some Saxon Huscarles was the most challenging part. I think I saw them slaughter quite a few of my viking carls... ~:wave:
Anyway, after securing the mainland I took my 3 best generals and their full armies to the Irish and finished them off easily.
Finished my Viking campaign on hard by the year 884... on to Rome... :charge:
doc_bean
10-10-2004, 15:30
I landed on North England and established a base there, but my constant raiding of neighboring provinces and the south-east Englsich shore has left me with only two opponents (The Irish and the Mercian) and some rebel provinces left.
My troops have been severely reduced fighting rebels and returning Picts and Scots and my economy isn't worth much (got a bunch of clearings now).
In short, I'm pretty much done for.
(and will be as soon as I'm finished with N:TW and try to salvage that campaign)
The viking economy relies on raiding rich towns. (At least until you get converted.) Check all the provinces rebel and otherwise for the precious abbey and raid those. Make another raid the next turn, never stay for a seige you can stay out of the area for awhile until it builds new buildings, then raid again. Do not leave troops behind to keep lands until you have built a full army, and are making a little money from trade.
Economic Goals: Raids, then trade, then farms
If you like to grow things take lands that already have some farms on them.
mfberg
Poised, I too have heard of that mushroom legend and Beserkers, but the version I have read of was of Bezerkers drinking the Urine Of Raindeer, who in turn had been eating "Fly Agaric" mushrooms, the big red ones with white spots. Also used in medieval times to keep flies away from meat, simply chop the mushroom up and place in a bowl of milk, the flies are attracted to that more readily than any meat and it kills them.
Played as Saxon and those Vikings turned up on my shores, they did not have a big army, however they were the feared Bezerkers and I watched in horror as they tore my army to pieces. Curse those foul demons from across the icy sea.
Spartakus
10-26-2004, 13:10
Berserkers are great fun, and we Danes really did have berserkers in the old days, they would drink a potion, wich was partially made up of those psychedelic mushrooms (psylocobin ?), and believed themselves to be invincible.
Actually, that's just a theory. There's really nothing in the source material, as far as I know, that suggests the berserkers ate or drank mushrooms at all.
Another theoery suggests the berserkers were in some kind of animalistic trance. The old norse word "berserker" most likely means "man in bearshirt". The old norse names were also often based on animals, "Bear", "Wolf", "Raven". Some medievalists have suggested the berserkers went into a psychological state in which they believed themselves to be a wild animal, and thus fought like one. A source which backs this up is the Saga of the Volsungs. Read this short article: http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/145.html
With the Vikings, I find it's quite doable to completely cripple factions without fighting more than 1-2 battles with them (early on). This can be achieved by simply landing in every possible province, first ones with abbeys, that is built up beyond watch towers/shrines, of one nation.
I started with the Picts, landing in Orcades, and every time I landed with superior numbers and they fled my armies. While it's true that early on, very small Viking armies can crush most other factions' troops, this tactic has its benefits.
a. When they flee my armies, I destroy EVERY possible building in the province and leave the next turn.
b. This means they will still keep moderate-large sized armies of low-level troops.
c. The destruction of their buildings will ruin their economy, and prevent them from building up any more, let alone recruiting advanced troops, BECAUSE
d. Retreating from battles will leave them with large amounts of low-level, crap troops, which drain their economy, yet remain worthless against superior Viking troops.
End result: I'm richer, my armies grow in size and quality, I'm still flexible (since I'm not trying to hold their provinces or engage them in pitched battles), and they are essentially stagnant. Doing this to the Picts, the lack of happiness structures meant several provinces (Athfotla, Fib) rebelled, and they lost key money provinces and were stuck. Literally stuck. They couldn't do anything. The Northumbrians lost all of their eastern provinces to peasant revolts and a civil war made them wholly ineffectual for the rest of the game. The Welsh lost Gwyned and the province directly to the right of it, above Pouis (can't remember the name) to peasant rebellions, after I sacked Pouis, and also ceased to be a threat for the remainder of the game.
After that, my armies were huge, and I had Jomsvikings. I took Manau as a nice base. I invaded the Scots, and crushed their armies easily (which were strangely large, about 2.3-3k each time), and kept their provinces. The same thing happened with the Irish, whom I had already been raiding (so they couldn't build up advanced troops...I also managed to net 11k in ransom for their king and ~400 men), and I kept their provinces too.
By this time, my economy was going down the toilet, so I had to fight some pitched battles against the Mercians, who have been moving up into the abandoned Northumbrian East coast, while pinning the Irish down.
Right now, I've just wiped out the Irish. The Picts have foolishly attacked me, and I captured and ransomed their king, getting a nice ransom, and have almost wiped them out (very easily). A battle with the Mercians, some ~800 of mine against ~2k of theirs, left most of their Huscarles in the North dead and started a civil war. The Mercians are now confined to the "Saxon Shore" provinces and the border provinces with the Saxons and I am moving down into the Mercian heartland to take their richest lands for myself (which incidentally will save my economy). The momentum will likely carry me through the rest of the mainland in ~25 years.
Sorry for the long post, it was just a very interesting campaign that I felt I needed to elaborate on ~D .
How do you move an army across the water?I have bee trying this left clicking and dragging them across the water and plobbing them down on across the water everytime I do this they move back to their home country.How do you go on a raid and move an army across a body of water as this wasn't covered in the campaign tutorial any help for and other would be appreciated.Thanks.
I think there's a thread about questions like these, however..If you're playing the Vikings, you don't need a port to use sea transport. All you need is 1 or more ships in a chain of seas from your starting point to your destination. If an enemy ship is in one of your seas, it will disrupt movement. Drag and drop the army you want to move on the destination province.
I was wondering am I not suppose to make allies with any Province as I have with the Scots.Picts,Saxon,Irish and Nothumberians?I am still fighting the nuetral east angle and mercians.
Make as many alliances as you want. Just prioritize them, i.e. who do you most want to be allied with?
What are the best types of warriors to use in the game?I know the carls are pretty good as well as the beserkers but what else.Thanks
I don't mean to spam but i can't edit my post above.What are some of the good mods for MTWVI and a good Viking camp?Thanks agian.
ShadowMagnet
04-17-2005, 14:18
That'a quite weird. I rarely ever sack the provinces completely. Somehow I managed to develop trade well enough to keep my income at ~6000 a year for at least a decade and having kept the lands I invaded (Pictish and Saxon) I dont think i will run out of money anytime soon. The year is 952 and I have about 85000 florins and money is still flowing in. All it takes is beefing up my armies in the next 10 or 20 years and simply flooding England with my men. Battles are total yawners. Saxons lost 2.200 men recently trying to take east saexe back and my men never even broke into a sweat.
British Mutt + Viking
06-19-2005, 23:33
Vikings are the easiest lot in the whole game of MTW and MTW:VI, in my humble opinion. Your "base" is completely safe and leaving a bunch of peasants will guarantee your security totally, allowing you to operate with your full military might at any one time. You can trade your way to wealth, and the original map was such a yawn that I have spent weeks editting the start-pos file to make it more interesting. The non-Vikings peoples are so weak that I even editted the bloody unit file just to make things even remotely fair for the British units. I have modified unit costs (Vikings cost about 3 times as much as their "counter-parts" in Angleterre) and added a whole lot of carefully researched infrastructure to the British lands. The map is well balanced and gives me the option to do just about anything I desire, from being a Trade-Monopoly to a bloody war-lord looking for the main chance.
If one really wants some action on the original map, the Vikings are not the faction to play.
Saigo_Takimori
08-19-2005, 06:58
Being a Dane myself
We really are awesome aren't we?
Yeah, I like to attack the rebel parts of Ireland first, they are usually weak and don't have a huge army waiting in another territory to backlash ya.
CountMRVHS
09-20-2005, 12:00
@British Mutt+Viking-
What sort of changes did you make on the map, other than increasing the cost of Viking units? I've always tried to mod things the opposite way -- to make the Vikings more of a force to be reckoned with while I played one of the Anglo-Saxon or Celtic factions. But it would be interesting to make it more difficult for the human player who wants to play the Vikings...
sbroadbent
10-02-2005, 02:23
The Vikings are generally very easy when playing the expansion. Their main advantage is not needing a port to move troops. In addition, your home provinces are safe from any raiding force.
My tactics mostly consisted of developing a raiding party (initial troops of around 800+ and very first game I had hired some mercs), and started raiding lightly defended provinces (preferably provinces with abbeys). Once conquered, I would sack all buildings and move to another province. I'd try to keep note of where the main military forces were, and not attack a province that was bordering it. Otherwise even if you try to assault the castle, if a nearby force moved in, you have to deal with them, and then castle assault on the following turn.
Once I started to set a number of provinces back technologically, and I had a nice warchest (about 100K Florins) I started to look for places with strategic advantages. The Isles of Domon and Manau are excellent for this. They can only be attacked by forces when your enemies have enough ships in the water, and if you have no ships in either of the two sea zones. With your frequent raiding, those likely be very rare (any ports or ship builders will usually be obliterated if you take it, but one faction did manage to get ships, which was very short lived). Once you get a watch tower and a pagan shrine they will very quickly become loyal. Add in a brothel, and it doesn't take very long.
The next place I look to is Ireland. This is a 5 province island and thus with sufficient troops, can be conquered very easily and is fairly safe. Periodically you should raid every province of Ireland to ensure that they are completly setback technologically, and when you finally return to settle on a permanent basis, they will be easy pickings.
From there I start at and establish a foothold at either Cerniu or Orcades, and sweep through England. This gives you a foothold which is easily defendable.
In any case, it's best to revisit on a regular basis many provinces, as the factions will continue to rebuild, particularly that of the Saxons. I find I frequently get the message saying the Saxons had the highest income, and strongest military power. It seems the Saxons tend to overpower the Mercians. Sometimes it's the Mercians though. That makes sense because the southern portion should be able to support greater troops (and generate more wealth).
I was just involved in a battle with the Mercians when I went in outnumbered by 5-1 about 540vs2500. I came out of the battle with a 10:1 kill:loses ratio. On the other hand my forces were led by a 8 star general and the lowest Valour unit was 5. My opponents on the other hand were mostly No Valour peasants ;)
Loucipher
01-09-2006, 10:02
Just a little hindsight from my recently started Viking campaign:
When fighting battles as a Viking forces one thing is immediately visible - the fierceness of the Viking warriors. In battle they qive no quarter unless they are down to a handful of men. They often fight severely outnumbered - at least in my campaign - and yet emerge victorious. In one battle a single underpowered unit of Viking Carls (counting 42, Valour 2) stopped no less than 100 Spearmen and 200 Peasants (all Valour 1) dead. Literally dead. First off, Carls charged the Spearmen, killing 4 and losing one on impact. Then, they got charged from both sides by the peasantry, losing further 3. Bloodied but unbent (as far as I could see, their morale never fell below 'uncertain'), they continued to cut a bloodied path right across the hapless enemy... which resulted in a rightmost peasant unit breaking and fleeing. The other units followed shortly thereafter, close-chased by the (literally) bloodthirsty Norsemen.
My campaign (I have reached year 800 as of now) has started with raiding 3 rebel provinces in southeastern England (East Engle, East Seaxe and Cantware), which alone yielded 8k florins. I am now trying to build up some facilities there, to get into the thick among Mercians, Saxons and Northumbrians. Right now I am quelling rebellions, which are inevitable at first, until pagan shrine gets built and lasts a few years.
Dont overestimate them bro. Vikings are humans, not devils from nine hells. They die easily from pictish crossbows. Picts also have berserkers(they are not humans definitely, hmm or maybe someone invented speed in dark ages)
Ive played mercians, and my Militia Sergeant although cannot stand them for long, cause good damage to viking armoured units. Also, Irish will be you worst nightmare. Mobs of fast infantry with missiles very good against all that armoured meat.
Also, good cavalry can break viking units.
Also, from start, they have good army, and poor eco, so they must raid and pillage, to get money.
Select one fraction, and pillage one of their border province(with Abbey preferably, and head immediately to their main province(with fort and some troop producing building) and raze all to. Then retreat to your land, regroup and hit another fraction. First, neutralise Picts and Irish. Other fractions will be at the mercy of your buthchers
Loucipher
02-10-2006, 08:41
Thanks for the tips, bro ~:) I have found out by now that the Vikings gain their floring by means of pillage, and that the provinces with abbeys are the most tasty morsels (pillaging the Abbey alone yields 2000 florins ~:) ). Therefore, I have adjusted my tactics accordingly. I now organize raiding parties attacking the abbeys and other worthwhile provinces, then disappearing. Needless to say, I slaughter any and all captured soldiers - as a true berserker would :evilgrin: Against the Irish, I use masses of Archers followed by Viking Raider Cavalry - almost all Irish share their inherent weakness of being highly vulnerable to missiles, and once they get thinner by a dozen or so, my mounted Carls can make a short work of them :charge: I think the same tactic might work against the Picts, where my Archers would counter their Mounted Crossbows, and my VRC would ride down their regular Crossbowmen.
As for the Viking vulnerability to cavalry, their peasant-class unit, Viking Thralls, can be a last-ditch defence against the lighter variety, but in order to hold against the heavier, knightly types :knight: the Vikings must try to develop Armoured Spearmen at least. From behing their spearwall the Landsmenn, Carls, Berserkers and Huscarles can then counterattack any cav unit stupid enough to crash into the wall of sharp, pointy polearms :wall:
As for the Mercians' best tactics against the Vikings (from the latter point of view, that is) I think a combination of an anvil (coutesy of Fyrdmen or Armoured Spearmen) and a hammer (Militia Sergeants or heavy cavalry units). The Fyrd are by far the best spear-troops in the Viking campaign, on par with Feudal Sergeants from the Medieval Europe - only the Feudal Sergeants are unavailable in Viking Campaign! Likewise, the MS are the best anti-armour units in the Viking Campaigns, and are available exclusively to the Mercians! Thus, the Mercian army made primarily of these units can meet an equal army of Vikings head on. Just throw a bit of heavy cavalry (like Mounted Nobles) and a bit of hard-hitting melee fighters (like Saxon Huscarles) and hey presto, you have the army that any Viking jarl would rightfully fear...
the Feudal Sergeants are unavailable in Viking Campaign!
Hmm, maybe you are wrong, cos Mercians may have Mounted sergeants. Rarely(sieges) they can dismount to feudal sergeants, but i`d never tried that one. Maybe i`am wrong~:)
Loucipher
02-10-2006, 12:11
Hmm, maybe you are wrong, cos Mercians may have Mounted sergeants. Rarely(sieges) they can dismount to feudal sergeants, but i`d never tried that one. Maybe i`am wrong~:)
Indeed, with Horse Farmer in place, the Mercians (and no one else) can train Mounted Sergeants, who in siege battles dismount to Feudal Sergeants. You're observant, bro ~:)
Still, it is definitely the only way to have Feudal Sergeants in the game, and also, it is available exclusively to the Mercians. Before you can train Mounted Sergeants, you need 7 years to build (Warrior Hold - 1 year, Stables - 2 years, Horse Farmer - 4 years, 7 years total). All that said, I'd rather go for the Fyrdmen, who are available sooner (Warrior Hold - 1 year, Stockade - 2 years, Drinking Hall - 2 years, 5 years total), have the same stats and are much more cost-effective (100 men @ 200 florins vs 40 men @ 175 florins). Definitely better to train dedicated spear-troops and let cavalry be cavalry :charge: ~:)
Barbarossa1221
04-02-2006, 06:49
Vikings are pretty simple early on in the game, one province produces troops the other ships so you can encircle the british isles (which doesnt take very long then you can have it pump out troops)
Just sail up and down the coast and rock and roll and raid everything burn it and run dont stay to long.
Then once you get a lot of florins, about 20,000 or more start holding on to provinces and building and raising the big armies.
Or some variation on this tactic but its rather simple compared to the other vactions in the viking campaign.
Another note, get some assasins early and take out priests if possible. I was always freaked that I would lose my raiding privelages.
allfathersgodi
04-04-2006, 23:20
I only play the Vikings when I play the expansion, go figure, I am an Asatruar. When I saw King Arthur I was rooting for the Saxons.
With VI, CA should've done away with buying the units (the feudal system would give you the men required to wage war), except for later units like the Jom Vikings who were the Viking equivelant to the monastic warrior orders of Medieval Christianity (Hospitalers come to mind). They really should've done away with the Berserker units (though they are cool as hell) and given all units the Berserkergang...
My favorite thing in a battle was to get a couple of Berkerer units and send them at a couple of the enemy's flanker units in hopes that the opposite flank would bend in to encircle my berserkers and then send in my regular forces (usually spearheaded by a Jom Viking or a Huscarl) and hit them in the back. Use Raider Cavalry as flankers to finish off any routers.
Berserkers, I love them. 12 men against a hundred and they rout the enemy while taking one or two dead, ultimate shock-troops...
Just to RP, I never take prisoners unless the Christians win and convert my homelands to Christianity, I sacrifice all of them to the All-Father...
As per the Viking Vulnerability to Cavalry, terrain can help. Get your shield wall on a hill, forcing the cavalry to slow as they charge up the hill...
Thralls as well are a last ditch defense, put them in hold, a couple of ranks deep, let the cavalry hit, then take them off of hold formation and let the flankers bend in and encircle...
Caerfanan
02-02-2007, 17:35
Hey all!
Just joined the forum today, but I've read it several dozen times! I play mostly with VI, and mostly with the vikings.
They have amazing, but expensive units, and as pagans, no abbeys or cathedrals. so yes, money is rapidly short (I remember playong the mercians after 4 campaigns with the vikings: what a shock, I was MAKING money!!! ;-))
I used two different stategies:
1/ Rush to the rebel provinces in the south east (East Saxe, Cantware, South Saxe, East Engle). The first pillages finance the developping in your starting province. Then, when money runs short, invade and pillage Northumbria, trying to keep the provinces as well. The pillage finance farming in the first conquered provinces. After this, one has to deal with the Saxon/Mercian problem. Sometimes they go at war against one another. In that case, I realised very quickly that the Viks had to weigh in the baklance to avoid to have one of those taking everything. Unified Saxony and Mercia is your enemy. After having taken down Northumbria, things can vary a lot, according to who is powerful. By that time, you have usually strong upgraded units. You can then either rampage through all the provinces of a strong faction for a while, to weaken them and exploit the wars issuing right afterwards, or take each faction one by one. but it is critical to make sure that no one gets too big, that can cause you some real trouble.
2/ The funny one. Rush to all provinces, pillage, sack, burn. Everything. Everywhere. To the ground. When finished, withdraw to Hoardaland, withdraw your boats to the Nordsaer to use the handy auto-ceasefire. Then resume the game "normally". At this point, you shiould have some 80K florins, developped provinces (strong units in hoardaland, merchants and drakkar or Janbardi in Jutland). While the others have almost nothing. You will normally enconter vast armies of weak units further in the game!
Ah, regarding a strong faction attacking you: I first tried te defend and keep my provinces, stubbornly. And I had really hard times. then I tried something else. Pillage everything with one very strong army, avoiding the enemy's big armies. When he is unable of producing any troops, I then fight his armies aming for the good units and the generals. Afeter 4-5 battles, my gracious foe usually crumbles...
What's incredible? I can't get tired of this game!!!
Artorius Maximus
02-03-2007, 22:40
The Vikings are an easy faction, its enjoyable to raid Britain with their units. My second favorite faction are the Irish.
Agent Miles
02-23-2007, 17:27
I remember that at least one historian believed that the Vikings were traders first and then raiders. Therefore, in my campaign I have chosen not to raid. I disbanded all my units except for two thrall governors and built a trader in Hordaland. I sent my fleet out to create the best trade route. Slowly I built up to a port and trader in Jutland, too. Now, the year is 830, I have an income of 2500+ per turn and a warchest of 25000 florins. I have taken (without ever raiding) Manau and Ulster. Soon the Irish faction will be gone. I am certain that with this big of a production base, the victory is mine. Pagan shrines keep the population faithful. I built inns and hired several Mounted Sergeants and a Mounted Noble unit. They are expensive, but I can afford it. Not raiding, as an alternative, is entirely workable.:yes:
Caerfanan
02-26-2007, 10:48
Aye, the vikings were very good traders. But what they couldn't take by trade, they took by axe! :whip:
The "sicilo-normand" empire (sorry, I'm not sure of the english name) was very wide, for this historical time (800-1000 AD)
You can gain a lot of money with traders in hoardaland and jutland, and with not destroying the ports! :-)
Thing is, by beig too neutral, you take the risk of facing a very big and wealthy saxon or mercian with upgraded huscarles!
I remember that at least one historian believed that the Vikings were traders first and then raiders. Therefore, in my campaign I have chosen not to raid. I disbanded all my units except for two thrall governors and built a trader in Hordaland. I sent my fleet out to create the best trade route. Slowly I built up to a port and trader in Jutland, too. Now, the year is 830, I have an income of 2500+ per turn and a warchest of 25000 florins. I have taken (without ever raiding) Manau and Ulster. Soon the Irish faction will be gone. I am certain that with this big of a production base, the victory is mine. Pagan shrines keep the population faithful. I built inns and hired several Mounted Sergeants and a Mounted Noble unit. They are expensive, but I can afford it. Not raiding, as an alternative, is entirely workable.:yes:
Though very interesting, I find that strategy unworkable as the Vikings. Once heirs start coming of age with their expensive bodyguard units, cash flow problems emerge. I suppose it depends on unit size, I play on huge so that's probably got a lot to do with it.
Personally I usually train absolutely no units, but begin by sending the entire army, minus the two thrall units which remain as garrisons, raiding. I then utilise the existing fleets to extend to first the Pictish provinces then moving clockwise systematically raid every abbey province on the coast. I never manually raze buildings as this cripples the AI and make for a lot of rebuilding. I finish up with Ireland then withdraw all ships to achieve peace. All of this time I would have been developing my two home province's trade and infrastructure. The next stage is to start churning out more ships to dominate the seas and bring in the trade. This brings the economy out of the red and gets things started. Next is to establish a foothold in the British Isles, usually in the south of Britain, then working north and finishing up with Ireland. Relatively easy.
Agent Miles
03-03-2007, 16:09
Actually, I tried it with huge units last night and it works just fine.
https://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q36/AgentMiles/Viking%20Huge/?action=view¤t=VikingHuge.jpg
Just wait until your first son comes of age, then invade Manau. You get over 5k florins. By 836, I also had all of Ireland. I think this way is a little more challenging, but definately workable.
Caerfanan
03-05-2007, 10:53
Actually, I tried it with huge units last night and it works just fine.
https://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q36/AgentMiles/Viking%20Huge/?action=view¤t=VikingHuge.jpg
Just wait until your first son comes of age, then invade Manau. You get over 5k florins. By 836, I also had all of Ireland. I think this way is a little more challenging, but definately workable.
Well, the vikings have a lot of interesting things for trade, anyway: better boats (so they keep their trading lines), trading goods in jutland AND hoardaland. Taking Manau and Ireland is a good Idea. If you are really trade oriented, I would've taken Orcades and Domon instead?
I remember having once some 1600 florins revenue with Jutland.
Agent Miles
04-11-2007, 14:33
If you take Manau and Ireland you have five provinces with iron. Thus, if you specialize, you could produce five different units with silver weapons and armor. Archers (who get a valor bonus), armored spearmen, Viking Raider Cav (VRC) and a mix of your favorite Viking madmen make a great army. VRC also get a valor 2 bonus from a horse breeder. With the silver upgrades, this makes VRC better than any AI cavalry.
John_Longarrow
04-12-2007, 23:01
As the Vikings, a big no-no is to allow your homelands to be lightly garrisoned while you don't have assassins there. If ANYONE gets a couple diplomats to your homelands, they can bribe your folks there.
As I've done that a few times to take out the Vikings, I know its a nasty trick that works wonders.
Caerfanan
04-16-2007, 10:09
If you take Manau and Ireland you have five provinces with iron. Thus, if you specialize, you could produce five different units with silver weapons and armor. Archers (who get a valor bonus), armored spearmen, Viking Raider Cav (VRC) and a mix of your favorite Viking madmen make a great army. VRC also get a valor 2 bonus from a horse breeder. With the silver upgrades, this makes VRC better than any AI cavalry.
You're right about iron I'm actually finishing a campaign in which I took all the Island except the main one and the Orcades, and used to plunder regularly the rich provinces, then having autoceasefires then resuming my trading. Having 5 provinces with Iron is perfect, as you can concentrate your unit producing there.
Caerfanan
04-16-2007, 10:11
As the Vikings, a big no-no is to allow your homelands to be lightly garrisoned while you don't have assassins there. If ANYONE gets a couple diplomats to your homelands, they can bribe your folks there.
As I've done that a few times to take out the Vikings, I know its a nasty trick that works wonders.
That's right, but a simple parry is to keep heirs in your homeland provinces. they cannot be bribed! :beam:
Weak is the word,they keep bringing peasants,spearmen and armoured spearmen against me,with the occasinal Celtic warrior units thrown in,due to the fact that I raided and pillaged everything and paralysed there troop production.Meantime I'm massproducing Hiscarles and Joms vikings and am wiping the floor with them,even huge rebellions don't bother me,just more training for my troops.
Insonia75
09-01-2009, 02:21
I believe Favre means it when he says his drive to want to still play outweighs his legacy. I guess you could look at his stats to see just how much he really ever cared about his legacy 22TDs last year with 22 INT. Ive always like Favre, Im happy to see him play against Green Bay and I do think its good for the sport because people like Lethean are making topics about NFL when hes never sat through a complete NFL game
Blame the Vikings if you just have to blame someone. He may be passed his prime but its the Vikings who were willing to gamble on the guy.
That's right, but a simple parry is to keep heirs in your homeland provinces. they cannot be bribed! :beam:
just delete ports after completing shipbuilder and it's it-no agents can get there...:clown:
Ameretat
10-07-2010, 20:34
The vikings are just too easy in the campaign - especially if you take Ireland early. Just move your fleet north and then west. Keep a ship off the norwegian coast and one in the north sea, then create a line to Ireland. You can raid the northernmost pictish provinces on turn two and sack them without resistance. You can then raid another two provinces on turn 3 and invade Ireland on turn 4 - assaulting both their provinces at the same time seems easier to me than taking them one after the other. After that, just wait for the conquered Irish to settle down a bit, build towers and border forts and some peasants to keep the locals quite, and secure the rest of Ireland and Manau. After that, once you have built forest clearances / basic farms in your Irish provinces, your cashflow problems should be over. Especially since you have only attacked the picts and scots so far, so everyone else are potential trading partners and even the picts and scots might still agree to a ceasefire or even alliance. Once you have your trade routes set up, it becomes ridiculously easy to just level your rivals one by one - even teaming up with other factions on your current victim. Which makes the viking campaign make a touch too easy, especially considering their unit roster. Best units + viking navy + best potentials for a very large income = Danelaw.
I of the Storm
10-11-2010, 09:48
That's probably the smoothest strategy for the Vikings. However, I've had difficulties pulling this one off above Normal difficulty, since I experienced severe loyalty issues (apart from difficulties with public order), due to the fact, that you have your homelands on the eastern map edge, and the rest of your empire on the western edge. At one point or another I always had to decide whether I'd like to be the scandinavian vikings or the irish vikings...:juggle2:
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