Doug-Thompson
11-11-2003, 20:17
I would have added this to the thread that mentioned it, if I could find it.
Somebody mentioned that a "Viking Blitz" by the Danes was quite successful. You just keep building Vikings and take over Germany. I'd tried something similar a long time ago, before the Viking Expansion, and wasn't too impressed.
I tried it again last night. Maybe something's changed since the expansion pack. More likely, I just started much earlier.
I owned provinces as far west as Lorraine and Freisland, as far south as Swabia, and was invading Bohemia before I finally got a warning from the Pope. I wanted to take Bohemia so I stormed the fort there.
That's where I discovered that Vikings are really good at storming thiings. I don't think I'd ever inflicted more casualties than I suffered in a fort assault before.
Vikings consistently took forts, keeps and even castles with relatively few casualties. Sorry, but I didn't keep figures.
================
The Holy Roman Empire never put up much of a fight. There was some to and fro, but mostly the empire garrisoned provinces, trying to preserve loyalty. Then they had a rebellion that let me take Barvaria, too.
The few real battles fought were massacres. I auto-resolved. Vikings consistently wiped out spearmen and other early units. Even royal knights suffered heavy losses against Vikings.
The Vikings are a lot like Almohad Urban Militia -- a cheap unit you have to greatly outnumber to beat, and which will cause severe casualties even when defeated.
Since whipping the Germans and making peace with them, I've defended provinces with Vikings that were outnumbered by more than 3 to 2 in many cases, just for the casualites they cause -- and won several times.
==============
The Danes were able to take Sweden and Norway with ease after locking up Germany. A few cheap longboats let me dominate the Baltic and the North Sea.
It's not 1180 yet.
Now I'm close to establishing the mother of all trade empires, with ports on four seas. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
A Byzantine invasion of Hungary allowed me to take over that province without making war on the Catholic Hungarians. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif. At the same time, the Poles foolishly attacked. I was excommunicated after counter-attacking, but the Italians convienently set up a puppet pope after only one turn of excommunication.
Now I own Moldavia and Kiev on the Black Sea, Lithuania, Pomeriana and Prussia on the Baltic, Friesland and Saxony on the North Sea and will soon kick the Egyptians out of Serbia and get to the Adriatic.
That will give me ports everywhere. I'm as rich as Midas, and will soon be able to spew super-cheap longboats in all directions. Two longboats cost as much as one ship of other types. There's nothing to stop me from taking over the water, especially since I captured Moldavia with an intact shipwright. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
The Byz accepted a ceasefire and are at war with the Egyptians. The Poles are wiped out. I'm at peace with everybody but Novogorod, which doesn't even qualify as a nusiance.
Somebody mentioned that a "Viking Blitz" by the Danes was quite successful. You just keep building Vikings and take over Germany. I'd tried something similar a long time ago, before the Viking Expansion, and wasn't too impressed.
I tried it again last night. Maybe something's changed since the expansion pack. More likely, I just started much earlier.
I owned provinces as far west as Lorraine and Freisland, as far south as Swabia, and was invading Bohemia before I finally got a warning from the Pope. I wanted to take Bohemia so I stormed the fort there.
That's where I discovered that Vikings are really good at storming thiings. I don't think I'd ever inflicted more casualties than I suffered in a fort assault before.
Vikings consistently took forts, keeps and even castles with relatively few casualties. Sorry, but I didn't keep figures.
================
The Holy Roman Empire never put up much of a fight. There was some to and fro, but mostly the empire garrisoned provinces, trying to preserve loyalty. Then they had a rebellion that let me take Barvaria, too.
The few real battles fought were massacres. I auto-resolved. Vikings consistently wiped out spearmen and other early units. Even royal knights suffered heavy losses against Vikings.
The Vikings are a lot like Almohad Urban Militia -- a cheap unit you have to greatly outnumber to beat, and which will cause severe casualties even when defeated.
Since whipping the Germans and making peace with them, I've defended provinces with Vikings that were outnumbered by more than 3 to 2 in many cases, just for the casualites they cause -- and won several times.
==============
The Danes were able to take Sweden and Norway with ease after locking up Germany. A few cheap longboats let me dominate the Baltic and the North Sea.
It's not 1180 yet.
Now I'm close to establishing the mother of all trade empires, with ports on four seas. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
A Byzantine invasion of Hungary allowed me to take over that province without making war on the Catholic Hungarians. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif. At the same time, the Poles foolishly attacked. I was excommunicated after counter-attacking, but the Italians convienently set up a puppet pope after only one turn of excommunication.
Now I own Moldavia and Kiev on the Black Sea, Lithuania, Pomeriana and Prussia on the Baltic, Friesland and Saxony on the North Sea and will soon kick the Egyptians out of Serbia and get to the Adriatic.
That will give me ports everywhere. I'm as rich as Midas, and will soon be able to spew super-cheap longboats in all directions. Two longboats cost as much as one ship of other types. There's nothing to stop me from taking over the water, especially since I captured Moldavia with an intact shipwright. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
The Byz accepted a ceasefire and are at war with the Egyptians. The Poles are wiped out. I'm at peace with everybody but Novogorod, which doesn't even qualify as a nusiance.