Plundering your way to world dominance by 1300.
It can be done. It takes a little luck, paitience, and a lot of micro management!
I just finished my 4th game running as the Danes, and dominated the AI from the start at the hard difficulty setting..
Your advantage is the Viking unit. Unless one of your princes has a solidly nice command rating, leave 'em home to guard Danemark. For everything else you want to build as many viking units as you can possibly afford. Buld stratagy is simple. Fort first so you can build more vikings, mines, ag, watch towers, border forts. then trading post. We know where your capitol is, but Sweden had best be where you spend the big buck for the improvements to get you ChivKn, and Gend, and of course, pike units. Norway makes a good place for your arty supply if you insist on having a real siege train. (Where do you think I train my green infantry!) You build longships as you need them. Get docks up of course, you want the trade bonus! At some point you will have a costal city or 3 building longships if you want a real economy to build the magnificent army you really want. You'll be using vikings all the way through though. While not the equal of late period infantrythey are absolutly reliable. They are the most powerfull low tech infanty unit availible, easily able to hand a load of hurt on any early and middle tech units they run up against. Even late period units can take a beating from high valor viking infantry.
High valor units should be send back for re-equipage on a real regular basis..also keeps a vetern "home guard" constantly rotating through where ever you keep the city with the master armorer, and the smithy. Early goals are non-conflict with other empires...untill your ready. Your ready when you can land strong forces in Scotland and Ireland..Highland Clansmen are lively light infantry, and realy good at sucking an infantry charge out of the other side. Use 'em as a tactical vacume. (evil grin). The Irish light infantry is not to be sneezed at either.. Always pay ransoms..It keeps the army happy, always be mercifull... take the money and let 'em go. Keep the King on tour in newly counquered areas. His special abiliies will ease a few bumps as you expand. Don't be afraid to strip a title off of a general so you can give him a better. Got a spare princess? Take that dissapointed general and marry him into the royal family if you need to raise his loyalty a bit. You may also get an un-brible trait for him when you do this.
For the developer guys.. Nice job, really really nice job. Looking forward to the patch, and wondering if you'll think of doing an expansion that will push the game forward up into the 16th Century? Weapons continued to evolve and armys got larger. Fortifications and siege craft evolved into an intricate science untill French re-invented the concept of a fast moving army, which Napoleon used to decidedly dominate continental Europe for a few decades. Certainly had a nasty rep with anyone he ran across. I can dream to. I look forward to what you put together next.
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