early
early
Lional of Cornwall
proud member of the Round Table Knights
___________________________________
Death before dishonour.
"If you wish to weaken the enemy's sword, move first, fly in and cut!" - Ueshiba Morihei O-Sensei
high
Lional of Cornwall
proud member of the Round Table Knights
___________________________________
Death before dishonour.
"If you wish to weaken the enemy's sword, move first, fly in and cut!" - Ueshiba Morihei O-Sensei
late
Lional of Cornwall
proud member of the Round Table Knights
___________________________________
Death before dishonour.
"If you wish to weaken the enemy's sword, move first, fly in and cut!" - Ueshiba Morihei O-Sensei
MTW/VI, GA-goal style.Originally Posted by [b
To create a Danish superpower early on trade and thus ship- building is the key to a sucessful campaign. Since I tend to kick back and relax from the conquest part of the game this guide is not for the land-hungry player.
Main goals:
1. Trade, ships to connect your Scandinavian kingdom.
2. How to afford military build-up.
3. More lands and the need for conquest. Most players argue to go for HRE early but I disagree since I found that most of the time you´ll lack the funds to maintain this hot-zone with troops and it´s far more important, if you want to meet the GA goals, to dominate Baltic trade.
This is how I usually start the game:
1087 AD Build keep and more troops in Den.
1090 AD Take Swe. Que up watchtower, fort, +20% farm upgrade and coppermine.
1095 AD Take Norway and que up like in Swe. Build peasants as gov´s in Swe.
1100 AD Add trading-posts and ports to the que´s in Swe and Nor. And shift peasant-gov´s to Nor while build vikings in Swe to re-inforce you main army. Que 3 ships in Denmark.
Around 1102-04AD I tend to get my first insufficiant funds messages so I stop all buildings except the gov- production. It´s really important to not stop this until you reach a 5 acc govc in each prov. You might even be down to 100 fl/ year. The status now is that all three provs should have fort, watch-tower, +20% farming, mines, ports and trading-posts. You should also have 2-3 ships and a full stack-army.
Here is where I differ from most players that go for HRE to expand the kingdom. I make peace with HRE and go for all the rebels around the Baltic sea; Pomerania, Prussia, Lithuania, Livonia. I appoint high acc gov´s (5) to theese provs and don´build anything, yet, except a watchtower and a fort (to retreat to if attacked).
Between around 1105-1110 AD I conquer theese four provs with my only army and builds a port in Pom to be able to get back to Den after the conquest. Now, I prioritize up-grading farms and mines in Den, Swe and Nor to get closer to being able to produce troops there and add income which I then re-invest in income up-grades in the Baltic sea provs which I the can use for producing more troops in Scandinavia. By now Den is pumping out ships and you can build additional troops in both Swe and Nor. Around 1115Ad you would be able to make 1000 fl/ year in profit and by 1125Ad you´ll double that to 2000 fl/ year.
From here you can either sit back and play strictly GA-style or take out Novgorod, conquer some HRE-provs, conquer Scotland/ Ireland etc. By 1137AD you should be making around 4.000 fl/ year in profit and even 10 years later you should have around 30-40.000 fl. in the bank. Good Luck
an alternative is to instead of attcking HRE to go for the English and take all of the British Isles and Flanders.
that way, you have two 1 province borders and this wouldn't increase until you go for the Baltic rim.
It seems inevitable that you come into conflict with the Polish though as they want the Baltic provinces as much as you do.
My early strategy is pretty similar to PseRamesses. I queue watchtowers and keep upgrade immediately on first turn in Denmark and start pumping out about five units of vikings. I usually attack Sweden on the second turn (1088), forcing the rebels to retreat to Norway with my King and two units of vikings.
Once Sweden is taken I queue watchtowers, copper mine and fort, I leave the farm upgrade till later as I'm more concerned with containing costs and spending as little money as possible for quick expansion. I keep pumping out vikings until I have about 10 units of them.
Usually I leave Norway till later as I don't want to waste troops taking the province and garrisoning it. Once Denmark has upgraded to a Keep I start building the Shipyard and start pumping out longboats. As soon as the first ship is built I rush Pomerania and take it before Poland. Sometimes they get it first much to my annoyance. Once my second ship is built I put it into the Baltic sea and try to get Finland before the Novgorods, like the Polish, sometimes they beat me to it too.
Once they are secure I take Prussia, Lithuania and Livonia, building only watchtowers,docks, mines and forts. I don't upgrade to border forts till later as by this stage my funds are getting rather low and I'd rather put the money towards expanding my ships. I also only build trading posts in Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark and Pomerania as they give the best bang for buck. I don't do anymore upgrades until I start getting a better return in trade.
As soon as I have four ships and can reach Ireland, I conduct a viking raid on it and secure it before one of the other factions do and then try to take Scotland next.
From here on (usually about 1125) I sit back and concentrate on building up my provinces and economy, taking the odd German province if any rebellions arise too. Once I am feeling more confident I either take out the Novgorods or pick on the Germans.
I usually specialise my provinces like this:
Norway: Spears
Sweden: Swords
Denmark: Ships & Missile
Pomerania: Militia/Halberdiers
Prussia: Ships and Siege
Lithuania: Cavalry
Livonia: Strategy units
Finland: Strategy units
Ireland: Ships
Scotland: Whatever
That should be enough to get people up and going.
hmm, well i am always too tempted to take all of british isles as quickly as possible, so that's what i go for
pillage, plunder, burn...
@opeth, I suggest at least 20% in sweden as farms pay off faster than mines and sweden is a good agricultural province.
also, norways has a valour bonus for vikings and it shouldn't be used for spears.
thralls make reasonable spear before you can get feudal sergeants and I don't see any need for FMAA when V1 viking are better as well as huscarles.
also, border forts are useful as the +10 loyalty actually reduces costs in the long run.
EARLY: NORWAY ISSUE...
Hmm, taking Norway is actually my #1 priority when playing Danish in Early. Norway has +1 Valor bonus to vikings... And, you need only a fort to get those guys meaner guys with axes... :)
I Attack Sweden in year 1087: just with my King and 1 unit of vikings. The AI still retreats... :)
Kristaps aka Kurlander
A Livonian Rebel
Actually, there was a calculation here in the forum which showed that mines have the shortest payback from all upgrades...
Kristaps aka Kurlander
A Livonian Rebel
I still build a farm and mining complex in Sweden but not in the first 20 years or so. The 1500 florins I'd spend on these improvements I'd rather put towards a keep upgrade in another province and start pumping out ships for trade.
I try to avoid 'insufficient funds' messages, hence my choice to not go for farm upgrades immediately and concentrate more on establishing trade routes first, especially as the Danish don't own a handful of provinces at the start like other factions do. If I am playing one of the other more province rich factions (like England or HRE) then I will invest earlier in farming then I do with the Danish.
Never really crossed my mind about the +1 valour bonus in Norway, maybe I'll grab that right after Sweden next Danish game I play and see how things go.
It's hard to say whether to take norway.
if I rush, then yes as though it's not economically viable to garrison, the early boost to vikings make them better than FMAA and they also get AP.
if turtling, it's not worth it and I get trade going before norway as it's a real trade province and isn't worth anything before trade.
it's also no easy task to kill off 6 vikings early on.
Re: Danish
The Danes
Early, Expert, both GA and Conquest
Have you ever wondered what the short end of the stick looks like? It looks like Denmark in Early.
Your Danes start practically without land, income, troops, buildings, ships or agents. What they do have, right from the start, is a fickle neighbourhood. To make matters worse most of it is Catholic – and your mission is to conquer it because conquest is the name of your game.
Even in GA mode, all you need to do for the first 213 years is hang on to your homeland of Denmark and conquer at least 32 other territories. No Crusades, no Cathedrals, no bling bling. You just have to attack, conquer and consolidate at least one country every six turns; keep the Pope happy; keep your populace happy; invade piss-poor islands with exotic names and build whole new armies there from nothing; train agents; prevent rebellions; ward off enemy assassins and inquisitors; build a huge fleet, and tech up like mad. Oh, and all this on 1 dollar a day.
In the High period (after 1205) Livonia is added to your Homelands. In Late (after 1300) your Kalmar Union must top the German Hanse League in trade income as additional GA goal.
Wat’s more, you can not pull off any opening blitzes, ransom parties, raids or stunts. Those are just not in the cards. On the other hand you can not afford to sit back and count your Vikings or you will be overrun.
In short, the Danish faction is the toughest nut in the pack. Since we like ‘em that way, let’s get cracking.
For starters we have:
- one barely developed country
- almost no income
- almost no troops
- a dynasty prone to all the known vices if you don’t let them fight often
- an environment that is in constant flux for at least 50 years
- one angry neighbour in Lederhosen
- no ability to crusade
- lots of deep water staring back at you
Redeeming factors are:
- lots of deep water staring back at the opposition (i.e. serving as your natural border)
- Vikings "R" Us! You can raise them wherever you go. Alright, so can some of the neighbours; and alright, Norway has the better Vikings because of the provincial bonus. But it’s a start since Vikings are good value for your money in Early and Norway will be yours soon.
- you have only two borders to defend; if you play it well you will have only one border to defend for a couple of years
- the other factions’ emissaries will all come to you (this literally saves expenses)
- rebel Sweden is ideal prey. It is weakly defended and it has an iron deposit, the largest granary around and a huge trading potential
- you will be left alone by your Catholic neighbours as long as you don’t install huge armies in border provinces as your territory is not a GA goal for any faction
Since the attitude of the neighbours as well as territorial changes in the region are different in each new Danish campaign, there is no ideal opening scenario. There are only general rules. In any case your goal should be to raise Denmark to the status of a regular Catholic kingdom by the year 1205.
1. Take care of your income first or you will be bleeding interest by the year 1110.
Trade is your lifeline for the first one hundred years, so Denmark goes to Keep right away, then to Shipwright, after which it starts pumping out bonus Longboats like there is no tomorrow. Send the ships into the Baltic first; you may need them right away against the Polish if you are unlucky. Meanwhile, raise Vikings and one or two Archer units.
2. Ally like mad.
Be nice to every Tom, Dick and Harry who comes along; you will have to make difficult choices between your allies (for instance the French and English) soon enough. And soon afterwards you will have to pick a preferred victim as well, a neighbouring country which you are going to completely take apart and conquer in the most treacherous fashion. Usually this is either the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish Kingdom or the English Kingdom.
In case of distant alliances you should be clear in your preferences and stick to them. Be nice to the Italian signore who always gets there first (namely by sea) because you need his friendship if you want to keep your Mediterranean trading fleet afloat. Be very nice to the Papal emissary; you need the Pope’s backing against your neighbours. Besides, once His Holiness is in the money he will be sending you one-thousand-florin gifts for ‘services rendered to the Church’. Little does He know…
3. As soon as you have your first heir (this should be around 1090) you take Sweden.
There are various ways to go about it, all of them easy. However, if you want the rebel Vikings in Sweden to fight instead of flee to Norway (making that harder to take later on) you should bring either only your Royal Knights or one Viking unit plus one Archer unit. I prefer the latter because it trains a new General (you don’t have any other beside your ruler) which comes in handy in Norway later on.
In any case, the Vikings in Sweden will stay and fight only as long as your combat strength does not exceed theirs. In order to find out, you can consult the Unit Comparison Tool of Clan Berserk. Click on the ‘units’ icon in the overhead menu bar, insert units and compare the combined Combat Ratings.
Once you have taken Sweden, put a Governor with at least 4 Acumen in charge and queue the Watch Tower, Copper mine, 20% farming, Trading Post and Port there. After that, tech up to Metalsmith for your first weapons upgrade. Meanwhile, tech up to Armourer in Denmark. You will these upgrades to sustain your initial campaign of conquest. Always put quality above quantity.
4. Take Norway around 1095.
I don’t think you should wait and buy the Norwegian rebel army later on like some players suggest. Even if you can afford it, which is not sure at all, you will first need to train an Emissary. And in order to do that you need a Royal Palace which requires lots of money and years of construction which can be put to better use. So, attack Norway with whatever you can spare. Opinions differ on what units to bring. It’s up to you, but make it short and painless since you will need a sizeable garrison there for some time.
After you have taken Norway, install a ‘friendly’ governor and queue a feel-good building followed by a Trading Post, Port, Keep and Shipwright.
A word on Vikings
From now on, train your Vikings in Norway for the Valour bonus, retrain them in Sweden to give them the weapons upgrade and/or retrain them in Denmark to give them the armour upgrade. As a result you are the owner of a bunch of nasty choppers and grinders which your rivals can not equal until 1205 when the Chivalric Men-at-arms come along. They are particularly effective against German peasant armies but they will eat Feudal Men-at-arms (who are armoured) as well.
Apart from their anti-armour bonus, the Vikings' strength is in the 'shield wall', which means you should always put them on 'hold formation'. And since they have no rank bonus you can spread them thin, two ranks deep if need be, so they will not be surrounded by an enemy unit.
When defending, let your Vikings hide in woods and jump the enemy armour first. When your Vikings have been decimated, retrain them locally – unless they are reduced to less than 40 men, in which case they would lose a valour point and you had better send them back to Norway for retraining.
5. Further conquest will depend on your environment.
The environment will change constantly in the first fifty years, and it will change differently in each new Danish campaign. However, the rebel territories should always come first. You can try and take some of the Baltic rebel states if the Germans or Polish haven’t beaten you to them. Or you can try and take rebel provinces in the British Isles. Always remember that you can land troops in provinces without ports, but you can not withdraw them from there if things go wrong. Wherever your expansion takes you, always build Trading Posts, Merchants, Ports and (if worthwhile) some agricultural upgrade first.
6. Sooner or later you will have to crush another Catholic faction.
If you are lucky, the Pope will let you fight other Catholics for quite a while. But be careful, you are still too weak to face multiple opponents. The Germans are watching you, so watch them. You wouldn’t be the first Danish player who forgets to do his daily Lederhosen-check and gets an unannounced visit from the Kaiser followed by the ‘bye-bye’ screen with the funny music before 1205.
So, fight one faction at a time. Choose your victim carefully. See if he owns a fleet that can do considerable damage to yours. If you decide to attack, stick with him until you have eliminated his faction if you can. Meanwhile respect all other alliances and neutralities (and never oppose another faction's Crusade unless you are sure you can handle his fleet as well).
Once you have chosen your victim, attack one of his provinces at a time. Start with territories that do not belong to his homeland or GA goals. Bring enough troops to finish it off in two turns: one turn for the battle, one turn for storming the castle – this way you will be safe if the Pope threatens excommunication after two years of hostilities. Offer a ceasefire (or force it) whenever you can. Bow out, smile in every direction. Lie low for a while. Then attack again. In particular, try to induce a civil war in your favourite victim’s camp, resulting in easy pickings. The Germans are always ready to go at each other’s throats should the Kaiser drop his clanger. Keep the other factions divided as best you can. The French and the English will be constantly at it; if one is winning, support the other and vice versa. Oppose a Crusade that belongs to another faction's GA goals whenever you can afford it. Kiss every Italian or Sicilian princess. Stay away from Byzantine uber-fleet concentrations, those guys are trigger-happy.
7. Huscarls top Vikings, barques top longboats.
Huscarls are Vikings with a vengeance, and it is personal. They are elite, armour-piercing and near-impenetrable on 'hold formation'. In Early you can just wind them up, let them loose and watch the show. Later on they still make great bridge-takers or bridge-defenders against spear-heavy enemies and even against Mongol Heavy Cavalry. Keep your Huscarls close to your commanders if you can. As a unit of last resort, Huscarls will never run without putting up a good fight to cover your retreat. Huscarls also make good governors with decent acumen and above average piety and loyalty.
Train your Huscarls in Sweden (with the weapons upgrade) and retrain them in Denmark if possible to give them the armour upgrade as well, or vice versa. Your Huscarls should gradually replace your Vikings and Norway should take over shipbuilding (barques, not longboats) from Denmark which now has other priorities.
8. Endgame
By 1205 you should have made significant inroads into the European mainland and taken the odd island in the Mediterranean, a strip of Barbary Coast (Northern Africa) and/or part of Britain. Your financial worries should be over (at least 200.000 florins in the bank) and tech-wise you should be ready for the conversion of your forces into regular Catholic armies. No more Viking nostalgia, although you may want to maintain some uber-Huscarls as flankers in your Royalty’s armies (something I prefer). So, start churning our those Chivalric Sergeants and Pavised units in readiness for the Horde.
If the Byzantines dominate the Mediterranean by this time, they will not be in the least impressed by the Mongol invasion. Byzantium will fight both you and the Horde at the same time, so don’t be surprised if you have to face the yellow Horde and purple Jedi simultaneously. Don't ever forget that you are not fighting the 'Byz', the 'Almos' or the 'Spanish' - you are fighting a machine, called 'AI', which controls all other factions and may make them act in a coordinated fashion to take you down a peg or two. Consider it an honour if they try.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Last edited by Adrian II; 02-15-2007 at 19:50.
The bloody trouble is we are only alive when we’re half dead trying to get a paragraph right. - Paul Scott
Re: Danish
A great post Adrian II! Can I be so bold as to query this section though?
The blurb in the description for "Vikings" does indeed mention about the Vikings' strength being in the "shield wall", but this does not really apply to the unit. The Viking stats are:
Charge: 3, Attack: 3, Defence: 0, Armour: 2, Morale: 4
As you can see they're nothing special in the defensive department. Compared with Feudal Men At Arms:
Charge: 3, Attack: 3, Defence: 2, Armour: 3, Morale: 2
The key difference here is the base defense, armour and morale values, as well as the Vikings' AP ability. These units are essentially attackers. They don't get any attack/defence bonuses vs cavalry, the Vikings do get their attack bonus vs armoured troops of course. With upgrades the Vikings become the stronger unit, and this down to the higher starting morale, the AP ability. The valour bonus region is another advantage. While the Vikings don't get a valour bonus from a dependancy building, and the Feudal Men at Arms do, teching up to a Master Swordsmith in the early era is no small task.
In view of all this I'm not sure why I would put Vikings, in particular, on hold formation and try to use them defensively. If I were to do this, I would presumably do the the same with FMAA, and going by the stats above they would be better suited in some respects. The only time I would place any sword infantry on hold formation (excepting desperate situations where you have no spears, and a few exceptional units such as VG and Huscarles), would be in certain cases when charging, to prevent them forming into a "swarm". As soon as the charge hits home, I will change them back into engage at will. Also there are certain cases where it is desirable for infantry to plug a gap (spears are general better for this, but on some occasions units other types of Infantry can do the job), having the unit on engage at will causes men to stray and the unit to lose cohesion rapidly. It is then easily flanked and destroyed.
Good to see someone else that appreciates the Vanilla Vikings by the way!
Last edited by caravel; 02-07-2007 at 14:43.
Re: Danish
Good to see someone else that appreciates the Vanilla Vikings by the way!
We are of one mind when it comes to that. One particular charm of this game is that nearly all factions have certain more or less unique units and I always treat these with particular respect.
On topic though, let me try and answer your point. I believe you are counting without the Norwegian valour bonus, even though you mentioned it. This is essential.
The +1 Norwegian valour bonus adds +1 Attack, +1 Defense and +2 Morale points. Now if you put your Vikings on ‘hold formation’ as I recommend, they suffer -2 Attack and gain +2 Defense points. Together with an armour-piercing bonus against FMAA of +1 Attack, you get some really nice stats. In 'Hold Formation' your Vikings' Attack doesn't suffer fatally, whilst their Defense benefits considerably from the formation.
Vikings: Charge 3 Attack 3 Defense 3 Armour 2 Morale 5
All in all this makes them superior to ordinary Feudal Men-at-arms:
FMAA: Charge 3 Attack 3 Defense 2 Armour 3 Morale 2
Of course upgrades add to the stats on both sides, but if you tech up to Metalsmith in Sweden and to Armourer in Denmark (skip the Swordsmith in both provinces!) and then process your Norwegian Vikings through these upgrades, they are a killing machine in Early. That’s what I was saying. You are of course right that your ordinary Viking is slightly inferior to your ordinary FMAA.
As for the added effectivity of the 'shield wall', I couldn't vouch for the existence of any 'shield wall bonus'' . To me this is just another, historically more correct name for 'Hold formation'. I like to think that the developers, who introduced all those special units with such love and care, intended it that way when they wrote the blurb.
Hope this didn't sound too stupid.
Last edited by Adrian II; 02-07-2007 at 19:12.
The bloody trouble is we are only alive when we’re half dead trying to get a paragraph right. - Paul Scott
Re: Danish
I was trying to include it, unfortunately I probably wasn't very exacting. My point about it was, that the Vikings don't get a valour bonus from e.g. a master spearmaker or a master swordsmith, wheras units such as FS and FMAA do, but of course that take a lot more teching up.
This is all very true.
You have made a very good case for using Vikings defensively in the early period. I wonder how they would do in the place of Feudal Sergeants? :
Vs Infantry:
Charge: 5 Attack: 0 Defence: -1 Armour: 1 Morale: 2
+ Hold Formation:
Charge: 5 Attack: -2 Defence: 1 Armour: 1 Morale: 2
Vs Cavalry:
Charge: 5 Attack: 1 Defence: 3 Armour: 1 Morale: 2
+ Hold Formation:
Charge: 5 Attack: -1 Defence: 5 Armour: 1 Morale: 2
I'm guessing that at the end of the day that +5 defence bonus may swing it in their favour, build some churches and get the morale upgraded and it looks even better.
Last edited by caravel; 02-08-2007 at 14:15.
I take Norway a couple years after I get a fort in Sweden. My way of killing the six norge vikings: about 3-4 vikings from Denmark, the king and his two heirs (he has two by the time Swedens has a fort), a couple woodsmen from Sweden (cost savings: they cost only 22 per year to feed) and 3-4 archers from Denmark. Once in Norway: I pull them one by one using the archers: thin them out with arrows, charge with a viking unit and crush with the royals from the rear.
At the time, when I attack Norway, Denmark has only one spearman unit garrisoning it and Sweden has no garrison except the woodsman unit coming out of the training camp the year after. I am allied with Germans by this time also.
As to garrisoning Norway: I don't know what you guys are doing, but I've never had problems with it... The first year after I crush the initial 6 viking rebels there, I leave a couple woodsmen units garrisoning it. After I get the guard tower, border tower: it's only one thrall unit - basta. In the initial years after taking it, I might have a rebellion, but it's usually easy to crush and profitable too. With a fort and militia qurters up it's a loyal province of the kingdom in no time, same as denmark and sweden.
Of course, in the initial years, I am taking some risks (i.e., Germans might attack Denmark while the king is campaigning in Norway, or someone might land a sea-born company in the province before I have my fleet establish control of the region).
I will try to post the exact sequence one of these days here ;)
My typical building sequence for Norway is:
1. A fort (I don't build the guard towers first since I like rebellions: I just hear that jinxy sound of money coming into my coiffers as soon as I see the rebellion popup): I just cannot wait to get those +1 valor vikings out.
2. A trader and a port (by this time I'd have longboats coming out of Denmark already).
3. Keep and a church (morale boost for the vikings); then an armorer.
4. I stubbornly refuse to use landsmen and huscarles... I guess, I like the Danish in the Early, the way they were before the VI expansion :)))
Kristaps aka Kurlander
A Livonian Rebel
it's not too bad to kill the vikings there but still, the garrison takes costs as I don't use rebellions for money although perhaps I should.
landsmenn aren't worth it over vkings esp. since you get a discount for vikigns and they are only 133 while landsmenn are 200.
the +1 viks from norway also are superior.
I find it difficult to believe that you forgo huscarles though as they are the one of the best infantry units around and beat CMAA easily.
Take scandanavia fast..... and then take the province directly under denmark (saxon something I have a chinese version of hte game:/) to act as a buffer zone and also give you to option to strike at a huge number of province when you want to.
Then try to build up and take finland/scotland/ireland when possible.... invading the british isle is usually the easist and simplist.. like others said u still have one boder that way... now you have 3 border along with flanders and finland (though u can choose to expand a bit in this direction ... or hold it with a small garrison) almost all ur land have good trade, go for it... once u link up ur trade rout u'll be so flithy rich you can do anything... I usually just sit back and wait for chances to take rebel lands. then when ur rdy overrun western europe and later the iberians fast. then go through north africa as the hoard should be helping u tear up east europe and mid east... clear them up using stratigic units and then at last take the italian penensulas and the damn pope.
finland? it's a pretty worthless province IMHO.
Novgorod would be better.
sure they have jedi boyar generals but your huscarles can maul them.
Finland has trading and is extremely easy to take usually.... that's why I take it... if i can get my shot at norvogod then yes I go for that too as it's a pretty rich province and also have trading....
it's only 1 trade good though and it's not very loyal.
it also serves little strategic purpose unlike novgorod or other baltic provinces.
after securing novgorod, livonia, lithuania, etc. then go after finland.
That works too, except that I like to start with finland as a. it tend to be badly defended and b. it's on the road to novorgod anyway :P
Anyway in my current danish (early/GA/hard) campaign i'm still in second place in GA score with about 90 years left:/, spain is in the lead cause it managed to go all the way from the iberians to the middle east (thus completeling a **** load of GA goals) while I have all of the baltic and acturally every costal province along the northern part of the map and most of the stepps ... but now I'm out to kill Spain as obvioulsy I nee to kill them if I want to win by GA score (I can crush the rest of them too I guess but easier to just kill spain :P)
So now I'm using the scorch earth hide and seek tactic against them landing mutliple assuals on the iberian and than running from one province to another... working really well as I manage to take out a HUGE amount of their troops this way as their forces split and manage to squeeze out gold in the process to help finace the war (having trouble running trade route now everyone is against me and I have to keep 3 ship in every water in the med to not get sinked)
Anyway I now have the iberians under my belt and probably win anyway thx to homeland score diff....
hey mate try medmod then your danish longboats get sunk by the smart AI
In medmod, I doubt the Danes can even get a single ship into the med
I only try and get Finland early because I'd rather have it then let them stink'n Novgorods get it
I tried a different approach to make the conquest of Norway much easier. This was on normal difficulty so I don't know if it would work on harder modes but I will try in the future for sure.
In 1087, attack Sweden with your king alone. This way they AI won't retreat and you will get to fight them. If you win, it is -120 vikings to fight in Norway and it isn't really hard to win 21 vs 120 on normal. I proceeded like this :
Close in to the first squad of enemy vikings so they charge you, then tell your knights to charge to the left and begin a flanking motion until you are behind their general's squad, and charge them, this way, the first squad will be stuck behind the general's one and they won't attack, soon you should kill the general and their moral at the same time making them rout. Fall back a little and charge the other squad immediatly. You should win this with a few casualities (I had 6 deaths) but they should rout pretty fast. You can then capture the rest of the vikings.
Now you will get to fight 240 vikings instead of 360 in norway.
Re: Danish
This works even better when you play with huge units like I like to. It doesn't alter opening setup any, but....units are exactly twice as large (except Rks...I wonder why?)....so they are automatically thrown together in any provence where there's two on default....making only one unit! King still faces 120 Vikings, but only one unit of them. You can just charge and damn the consequences b/c they can't flank you while you're tied up with one unit as they could on default unit size...plus you're king will replace his losses in a few turns!
We are men of action...lies do not become us.
that's quite interesting.
will give that a whirl
it's a bit cheesy though to exploit the jedi general and replenshing king unit but I do that all the time.
having 240 viks to face is certainly easier than 360. good tip
Sorry katank haven't read this for a while, as the danes in scandinavia you CAN'T get a boat to scandinavia. you can't go past portrugal. problem solved.
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