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Thread: The Vikings

  1. #1
    Senior Member Senior Member Cheetah's Avatar
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    Lional of Cornwall
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    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.

  3. #3
    Tired Old Geek Member mfberg's Avatar
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    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
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    Member Member Oleander Ardens's Avatar
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    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...
    "Silent enim leges inter arma - For among arms, the laws fall mute"
    Cicero, Pro Milone

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    Member Member Poised's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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 :)

  6. #6
    Senior Member Senior Member katank's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  7. #7
    Member Member Poised's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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)

  8. #8
    Senior Member Senior Member katank's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  9. #9
    Member Member Aurelius Maximus's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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...

  10. #10
    A very, very Senior Member Adrian II's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    Quote Originally Posted by Aurelius Maximus
    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.
    The bloody trouble is we are only alive when we’re half dead trying to get a paragraph right. - Paul Scott

  11. #11
    Floating through the net... Member King Edward's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.
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  12. #12
    Senior Member Senior Member katank's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  13. #13
    Member Member Poised's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  14. #14
    Senior Member Senior Member katank's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  15. #15
    Member Member Poised's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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 :)

  16. #16

    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.
    Eirik Rødskjegg

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  17. #17
    Member Member Aurelius Maximus's Avatar
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    Talking Re: The Vikings

    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...

    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...

  18. #18
    zombologist Senior Member doc_bean's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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)
    Yes, Iraq is peaceful. Go to sleep now. - Adrian II

  19. #19
    Tired Old Geek Member mfberg's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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
    It is not complete until the overwieght female vocalizes.

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    Brain : The same thing we do every night Pinky. Try to take over the world!

  20. #20
    Member Member Throb's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  21. #21
    One Knight Stand Member Spartakus's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    Quote Originally Posted by Poised
    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.ent...liade/145.html
    Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

  22. #22
    Member Member 2faced's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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 .

  23. #23
    The Tame Berzerker Member Age's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  24. #24
    Member Member 2faced's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  25. #25
    The Tame Berzerker Member Age's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  26. #26
    Member Member 2faced's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    Make as many alliances as you want. Just prioritize them, i.e. who do you most want to be allied with?

  27. #27
    The Tame Berzerker Member Age's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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

  28. #28
    The Tame Berzerker Member Age's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.

  29. #29
    Member Member ShadowMagnet's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.
    "Only fools learn from their own mistakes. The wise prefer to learn from the mistakes of others" Otto von Bismarck

  30. #30

    Default Re: The Vikings

    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.
    Fee Fi Fo Fum, I got in me veins the blood of an Englishman, Welshman, Saxon, Anglo, Scotsman, Picti, Irishman, Norman, and a bloody heathen Viking. No joke!

    This idiotic message brought to you by a person with a pure "British" family tree. If it settled on the British Isles, its on my tree tree, except Romans. Cheers!

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