How is this persons strategey?

[Age]

How is this persons strategy and what happens when you set it at expert lvl?

[LordK9]

It's been so long since I played VI and I couldn't sit thru the entire video but he seems to be approaching things well as the Vikings. The homelands are uninvadeable as I recall (only vikings have ocean going ships so that area between can not be used by non-viking ships) so one may as well use peasants to garrison. Raiding then, once built up, settling is the way to go but the vikings are so much better unit wise, more areas could have been attacked at the same time.

Never used expert - as I recall, like most games, the main affect was depriving you of resources and increasing that of the AI. It's possible that it makes the AI more aggressive - seem to remember reading that on this or another forum but not at all sure.

[Gilrandir]

It's been so long since I played VI and I couldn't sit thru the entire video but he seems to be approaching things well as the Vikings.

I don't agree. The guy seems to have no clear cut stratagy as far as raiding is concerned. He should have targeted provinces with abbeys first while his choice of provinces to raid seems haphazard. Secondly, once you besieged a garrison you should strom the castle or starve it out - otherwise you won't get any money for raiding. Invading a province and escaping makes now sense. Thirdly, it is not wise to start improving farming facilities of the core Viking lands - doesn't pay off in the short run. Training peasants is also of questionable value.

Generally, a good choice was making Ireland into a base to start settling and teching up in - it is separated from the main island and once the Irish are disposed of he would have some 30 years before other factions start building ships. Though in my Viking campaign I opted for Cantware or some other rich povince in the south. But that, I guess, is a matter of taste.

the vikings are so much better unit wise, more areas could have been attacked at the same time.

Couldn't agree more.

Never used expert - as I recall, like most games, the main affect was depriving you of resources and increasing that of the AI. It's possible that it makes the AI more aggressive - seem to remember reading that on this or another forum but not at all sure.

I always play expert - the very essence of challenge. It doesn't really make the AI aggressive, it just doesn't give you an easy time and uses almost all possible mistakes you might have made against you. And in battles it gives bonuses to the AI too.

[Trapped in Samsara]

Hi

The AI isn't any 'smarter' on expert than on high difficulty on either the strategic or the tactical maps.

On expert the non-player factions get more florins at kickoff, and AI troops receive enhanced combat and morale stats.

I stopped playing on expert when the tedium of slaughtering wave after wave of kamikaze peasants and the like (because the morale bonus wouldn't let them flee the field of battle even after I'd killed their general and routed all the decent troops) just became too much for me to take, and was too time-consuming.

Best regards
V

Sapere aude
Horace

[Age]

Thanks.I saved my campaigns and I ma doing it differently then the guy in the video.I always go after Northumbria first then move around the coast.I use normal to hard.

[LordK9]

As I recall, you were playing this before I ever started and defer to your judgement, but (and there's that word :) ) I was mainly thinking the large scale strategy of first raiding then when better built up, start settling. He didn't know why viking ships could move two areas and picked the poorest areas of the map to raid. I too preferred the richer Saxon and Northumbrian areas at the beginning. I tried the Ireland strategy once and it was indeed a good one. As far as peasants, yeah, in general I avoid them like the plague but as the viking player, the only thing you have to worry about in your homelands is revolt and they are the cheapest to make and keep.

[Gilrandir]

One more thing that the guy ignored - he never built watchtowers and border forts. They raise the province's loyalty and keep assassins and spies away. Useful if you don't want to see your (as Vikings) homelands get out of hand. They don't keep away the emissaries away, though, - and those crooks can bribe your army. Three time during my last Welsh campaign I had it happen to me. But then I trained an assassin and each time I saw a Saxon emissary penetrate into my kingdom I executed him. Three dead emissaries - and my assassin has three stars. At a boy.

[Age]

I always did the same thing with emissaries taking them out with assassins.This worked well when I played the Saxon actually I ma still on that one.

[Stazi]

I usually split my armies into single unit stacks. Emissary bribing one stack? Not much of a problem.

[Gilrandir]

I usually split my armies into single unit stacks. Emissary bribing one stack? Not much of a problem.

It is a good tactics until you start having large armies - then the splitting crowds the province with troops and it is difficult to keep track of them.

[Age]

How is this one as I like the Danes?

[Gilrandir]

How is this one as I like the Danes?

Watched only the first part. Generally, this one is better (in my view). The mistakes that I noticed:
- he has problems with provinces' loyalty. That is because he doesn't build border forts in the first place. And those also allow to see the composition of the army in the bordering provinces. Also the governor with fear (the more the better) helps to keep the province more loyal.
- I usually don't start any wars when my king is likely to die (over 56). When it happens the chances for inner discontent grow and you may have problems both with keeping your generals/princes loyal and fighting against an enemy.

Danes can push south for some time without risking an excom since they are attacking a larger faction, and that is good news for those who play it. The general strategy in playing Danes is teching up towards producing huscarles and then training them in heaps bearing in mind that you wouldn't be able to do that in Late.

[ferdi]

You wait much for Norway. And you dont tech up for ships. so you miss to get the rebel provinces Pomerenia and prussia . Ship is everything for Danes.

[Age]

I would like it if my game would load to give it a shot.

[LordK9]

Hmmm; I don't remember being able to even build those "huscarls" but I've only played Denmark once in early. Somehow, I thought they could only happen as rebel troops. I remember that it can be tricky - going after Sweden and Norway as they are fairly poor provinces early on seemed to actually drain me so that I couldn't build much and large garrisons had to be kept to prevent revolts. It may be wise to wait as I assume he did (didn't watch the video - they are always tiresome to me :) ). Denmark has an early ship advantage - the longboats are a good first ship and cheaper to build then others so I agree with Ferdi that ship building should be an early priority.

Sorry; I have no clue about your load problem - I'm just not technically inclined so I couldn't answer in that thread.

[Gilrandir]

I remember that it can be tricky - going after Sweden and Norway as they are fairly poor provinces early on seemed to actually drain me so that I couldn't build much and large garrisons had to be kept to prevent revolts.

I have already said what has to be done to keep a province loyal - watchtowers and border forts, a governor with dread and spies. The latter is the cheapest and most efficient. As for economic potential of the provinces in question: it seems to be scanty, but you have to built a port, a trader (and its prospective upgrades) and ships, of course. Then florins would flow into your coffins. But it is true for any province the Danes can get hold of in the first decades of the game (like Saxony, for instance) - no rich province for them within an easy reach. Plus Sweden has iron - so if you start training huscarls there with armor and weapon upgrades your armies would be unstoppable.

[LordK9]

I really can't say if I built forts there - probably not as I generally did this at non-controlled borders mainly to reduce agent infiltration.

[Age]

You would need a keep and a palace to train huscarls iirc.The same goes for shipbuilding keep-shipwright.

[Age]

How is this one being the Scots.Don't know how he got big armies so early?

[ferdi]

hahhahahhaaha. he plays so silly. i watched by guffawing .....

[Gilrandir]

Don't know how he got big armies so early?

Clansmen are cheap and easily attainable. One can have lots of them.
The mistake that I noticed was making his king lead the army to the battle while he has fewer stars than the other generals. Thus the valor of the units depends on the king's stars not on those generals'. Generally I have a feeling that the difficulty level of the game is not high.

[Age]

I didn't know they were cheap but i know what you mean about the stars unless it is viking.I sent in 3 star general and defeated high star generals.

[Yesugey]

He plays good for a beginner who has no idea what he is doing though.

First time I played as Vikings, I simply settled around Picts and went bankruptcy while trying to defend it.