Viking strategy

[Craven]

ok i just got the viking invasion now i understand that fact of raiding to get more money, but i seem to have a problem paying for my army's so do i ever hold territory for the money or just raid and leave back to my home provence's?

[ichi]

Both, IMO. Raid constantly, getting the raid money and weakening the other factions. Don't always attack the weakest or you will simply tilt the balance of power until other factions get strong.

Keep 'em all down if you can, running several raiding parties at once.

When it is convenient (you have some money, some armies, and the north of Scotland is poorly defended, then start at the top and work your way south.

Don't get committed - if you start to get a strong opposition just fall back.

ichi

[motorhead]

at first, raiding will pay the bills, but sooner or later you have hold land. Taking the Isle of Man is good, as this will reduce your ship support a bit. Trade can also be very profitable. Build up trade buildings, grab and hold provs with trade goods. Use thralls for garrison duty to keep province loyalty high.

[FoundationII]

I just raid all the lands and when I have enough money I build an invasion army and (I conquer a small piece in the north of britain in the early game) I invade and stroll downwards easily because nobody can stand against my hardened berserkers (valour 4 or 5) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[frogbeastegg]

I follow a slightly different strategy. I raid until I build up around 30,000 florins while building up my two homeland provinces and pumping out ships. Then I recall my two raiding armies and fix them up by retraining all the units so they get the morale/armour/weapon upgrades I have been producing. Then I send both armies on a trip to get some Irish beef and a little bit of Ireland on the side. OK, actually I conquer the whole place and the beef is just an excuse to get past customs

When all of Ireland is mine I build it up with the mines and farms while patching up my now battered armies. As soon as each one is operational again I start raiding Britain, conveniently just as the locals have rebuilt all those lovely abbeys for me to raid. Once Ireland is built up I get thousands of florins spare after paying my support costs, I also have a pile of cash from all that extra raiding. At this point I start collecting the little isles like Manau. It only takes a few years to complete the set.

Once that is done my homelands are usually maxed out, Ireland is a cash cow and secondary troop production base and the little islands are...um nice holiday locations for retiring berserkers. At this point I hit the main land for the third time - this time to stay. I always start at the lower end of the island as the Saxons and Mercians can be very dangerous if you let them build up too much. You also benefit from the rich land and gold deposits in the area. Quite often I start with Cerniu and Defnas before leaving a garrison there to draw attacks from the Saxons (or who ever owns that bit). This enables me to grind down their armies in more favourable circumstances - I love defending All you need is a few units of armoured spearmen, a couple of archers, a few huscarles and a unit of cavalry - 12 units max. Cheap and very effective when on the defensive. In the mean time I send both of my invading armies to Wales and stomp the whole place flat. Then I place garrisons at Clwyd, Pouis and Guent and hold there. Usually the Mercians play nice and leave my borders alone, on the occasions they don't I get to wear down their armies quite nicely. All the time reinforcements are flooding in from Ireland and the homelands.

Then it is a simple matter of advancing from Defnas through the now exhausted Saxons and sweeping up the rest of lower Britain. Once I have conquered everything up to Pec Satan and Dere I am completely unstoppable. At that point I usually hit the minor victory and take it because I am getting bored.

Make sure you build pagan shrines in every province as they convert the locals to your side. This delays you getting officially converted to Christianity and losing part of your raid bonus. It also cuts down on rebellions.

[castle]

I destroy the shipbuilding capabilities of all the other factions. Gain a foothold by first the southern rebel provences using the pillaged money.

[Kekvit Irae]

My strategy is about the same as Mr Most-Unusual-Thief-Weapon-Ever. I raid a bit then go after Ireland. Only once I have Ireland do I concentrate on anything else

[Gregoshi]

Welcome aboard Craven. Thanks for joining us here at the Org.

As the others have said, raid first, but pick a location to slowly establish a permanent hold in England. The rebel provinces in the southeastern corner is a good place to start as these provinces will keep you out of war with other factions and more importantly, they are rather rich in florin. The drawbacks? Your permanent base is next to the rich and powerful Mercia and Saxony.

[FoundationII]

I now tried to defeat the Saxons right away.
I raided their provinces first and tried to hold some lands, I won eventually but it costs a lot of money, because my thralls were not as good as spearmen and broke too easy, my berserkers were no match against mounted nobles in a head on attack, and the Saxon Huscarles are very strong units + the saxons have a better income.

[The_Emperor]

My tactic is to raid the mainland a few times in valuble provinces to gain the money to train some troops.

Afterwards I invade Ireland and hold it, ireland has some fairly rich provinces and its farm income is greatly needed to deal with that Viking debt.

Following on from that the rest should be easy.

[Cazbol]

After a few raids I decided that the money generated that way wasn't enough to justify this strategy. I therefore changed to the strategy that Gregoshi mentions, take the rebel provinces in southeast England. I then took on the Saxons. Their best units are in limited supply early on so a with a little care and some strategy they fell without too much trouble. The rest was easy.

[Brutal DLX]

Vikings are the easiest faction to play. Hands down.
Their homelands can never get conquered, they can always retreat even if the province they stay in has no port, and they get massive money from raiding.
So just do what others mentioned before, raid all the provinces with abbeys, and then some that only have light garrisons but have some upgraded buildings already. Upgrade your home provinces while pumping some more ships, then you can start conquering. Easiest way is to take Ireland, medium is to invade south England first, somewhat harder is taking the Scottish/Pictish lands, as they are very poor and taking them allows the Mercians/Saxons to prosper in the meantime so you may have a harder fight ahead of you. But all strats are viable, of course.

[Craven]

Wow thnx evryone im glad i decided to ask for help on this forum and i think i got a idea on what to do THNX ALL

[Dogmeat]

heh i conquered the viking homelands. Took me ages, lots of priests and spies to force a rebellion. Bribing any successful armies allowing you a foothold on the island. You can even bribe any current loyal viking stacks without royalty present. No chance of reinforcements though

anyway my tactics for my first Viking campaign

1. Raid The northumbrians are the perfect target, they are relatively weak compared to your warriors and you should be able to pillage area after area with little to no resources. The Mercians and the saxons also have rich lands. Buts its wise not to declare war on them all at once.

2. Build At the moment they are... well, crap income wise. Try to build up trading and farmlands to produce a reliable source of income. It will take a while. But you can't rely on raiding constantly. Find a foothold on the mainland. They tend to be richer and if you can a good farming province you will have florins pouring in.

3. Ships Dedicate one or two provinces to producing ships (i prefer to use the homelands to send hardcore troops out). Surround the entire island. Most of Blighty will be begging for an alliance anyway so your trade income should pile up. Finish off the Northumbrians if you haven't already. Build up your forces, its time to bring back paganism to the mainland

4. Invade I personally prefer to eliminate the southern enemies first. The Scots/Picts are no real threat, leave only a small force guarding the border, and move southwards Mercia and the Saxons are the only factions with units that actually compare to your brave warriors. The Mercians were at war with the Saxons and the welsh anyway so I merely finished them off. Expanding my empire with attacks supported by welsh and saxon allys.

5. Conquer I now had a large pagan empire expanding most of England. The welsh and Saxons are likely to panic and attack you at once, they did me. I sent the bulk of my forces against the Saxons who were weakened by the Mercians. The welsh were of little concern. I dedicated one elite stack under a 7 star heir to finish them with no trouble. The Saxons were tough. Due to their Huscarles. But these are the few, the rank and file troops of the saxons were no match. England is now conquered

6. Pillage Convert all England/Wales to paganism. Scotland/Pictland is likely to invade from the north. Finish them off quickly, destroy all their ships, even when attacking simultaneously they will weakened with attacking each other. They should not last long. Britian is now conquered Ireland is all that remains. Destroy their fleets and invade. You will probably be severly outnumbered, but the Irish are weak. Its a good chance to rack up some impressive virtues

7. Rejoice Anyway... just a matter of cleaning up any rebel islands and you should be victorious. Praise Odin


Well its how i did it anyway. All too easy http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[FoundationII]

Greetings,
I defeated the vikings too, have loads (when I say loads, I mean LOADS) of bishops, emmisaries and spies.
When it rebelled and beat the vikings out after a few times, I bribed them.
After a few bribes (the province tends to revolt as soon as I bribed the army) I could create a force, so the rebellions stopped and I kicked the vikings out of their lands.

[ROCKHAMMER]

Just completed my first game (as the Vikings). I spent most of the first years just raiding and moving around my navy to access new provinces to raid after I finished off the ones I had access to.Once I had a strong enough military I started taking provinces in the south of England (more profitable than the others) and holding them.Iworked my way North from there and took Ireland last.It was actually pretty fun just running around raiding , not having to worry about production or peasant happiness. Just attack and attack again.Kind of like a medieval Rock Band on tour.. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[PseRamesses]

The chronologies of a Berserker.

796-811 AD: Raided through 12 provinces of the rich Mercian and Saxon homelands getting 31.287 fl. while building up my homelands.
813-828 AD: Raided 10 provinces of Northumdrian, and Pict homelands getting 24.107 fl.
830 AD: Settled Manau building up a port and shipbuilding industry.
833-851 AD: Raided 12 provinces of the Welsh and Scots with Manau as base getting 55.866 fl.
854-869 AD: Raided through the now rich rebel provinces of southern Engle and som easy pickings of the Saxons and Mercians too getting 56.561 fl.
871-877 AD: Raided 6 low-guarded provinces of the Northumbrians and Picts: 27.231 fl.
878-894 AD: Settled all of Ireland building up cash-income there and a military base in Brega getting 46.308 fl.
899-912 AD: Settled all of Scotland down to Fib and Cyil hitting them on two fronts from Ireland and the Orcades. I´m not counting the cash anymore, he he
920-928 AD: Raided through Northumbrian and Welsh territories settling in yet another 5 provs.
929-993 AD: I´m now settling in every provinces I´m conquering getting 376.525 fl. and in 993 AD all of Engle is mine