Killing Huscarles

So I decided to pick up MTW:VI again after a long absence, and started a campaign as the Picts on Hard. The Vikings were in a foul mood and were aggressively raiding - not just me but many other factions as well. I managed to quickly assemble a reasonable army and drive the Scots from the north.

It took me a while to expand after that. This is because I had to deal with the Vikings, who were soon totally focused on me, and because I was allied with the Northumbrians to the south. I concentrated instead on building a fleet, and eventually managed to drive the Viking ships from the shores of Britain.

To the south, the Mercians were busy. They defeated the Saxons and declared war on Northumbria. At this point I decided to pick up some of the spoils of war and invaded Northumbria, seizing about three provinces. This helped my economy a bit.

My next campaign was in Ireland, where I quickly and easily swept aside the large but poorly equipped Irish. This gave me a solid economic base. However, the Mercians finished their conquests in the south, occupying Wales and the rest of Northumbria. Britain was now split between the Picts and the Mercians, with the Mercians leading in economic, military, and technological prowess. My only advantage was control of the sea.

So now I face war with Mercia. I'm winning so far - I've seized four provinces and sunk their upstart fleet. After the initial surprise attack some of their provinces rebelled, and the Saxons reappeared in the south (however, they're not currently at war with Mercia). So eventual victory is virtually assured. However...

Those Saxon huscarles, like their Viking cousins, are a bear to fight when you've got none of your own. I just got mounted nobles, so I'll finally have some decent cavalry to flank and charge with. What do you guys use to take on the fierce armoured axemen?

you're the Picts, you've crossbows, shoot em! mass xbow firing before you unleash celtic warriors to the front and cavalry round the back, skirmish and whittle rather than going toe to toe.
also hire mercs, like merc huscarles, or anything with javelins. if you front huscarles with decent merc stuff, you can hold them till you get round the back, but be careful fielding hire viking types as they will suffer from the armour piercing bonus. expect, as the guide says, heavy casualties on some occasions, but they'll be replacing expensive huscarles and you'll hopefully only be replacing cheapo celtic warriors and stuff. i have to admit that my last Pictish campaign bogged down against Mercia, but then i didn't have Ireland.

Get some Kern from Ireland, stand them behind your best shieldwall infantry and let the huscarls attack the shield wall. The Kerns' javelins massacre the Huscarls until they break - then your fleet of foot Kern can chase them off the battle field - see easy isn't it!! While recruiting in Ireland, pick up a few gallowglasses as well - a great unit either charging in frontally - a bit throwaway, but do a lot of damage - and even better coming in the flank or rear.
As a Pict, I would have thoght your mounted XBows would be a good counter as well.:2thumbsup:

By now you've been building v2 celts from Athfolta nonstop, right? Look around for the ones that got pride, for v5. You should have plenty. Collect them into packs and give them to your best generals. Proceed to eat huscarles by simply attacking them frontally.

I say destroy their economy. If you have massive ships out and they don't have any, you must be able to see that they don't have a huge garrison everywhere. SO, use a massive garbage army to raid and leave. If you lose them it okay due to your not using good men but you should be able to raid a lot of provineces before they get you. Just burn EVERYTHING to the ground. You shouldn't need the buildings when you invade anyways.

Wow that sounds hugely like my pict campaign but I failed to take ireland (I had a battle where I destroyed equal amounts of enemies as they kill mine and equal that in captives but my army finally broke and I forgot to kill prisoners. By that point the mercarians had taken everything below northumbria and I decided to attack them and got creamed by their massive amounts of huscarls. You seem to have been much more succesful than I was. I should probably try another campaign.

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Originally Posted by King Kurt

Get some Kern from Ireland, stand them behind your best shieldwall infantry and let the huscarls attack the shield wall. The Kerns' javelins massacre the Huscarls until they break - then your fleet of foot Kern can chase them off the battle field - see easy isn't it!!

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Ugh; Kerns are the bane of Huscarles! :furious3: I still remember my Viking campaign where my king and his 2nd son were almost completely massacred by just 2 units of those guys. They whittle you down with their damn darts, and refuse to engage when you try to charge them. I felt like Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner.... :wall:

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Ugh; Kerns are the bane of Huscarles! I still remember my Viking campaign where my king and his 2nd son were almost completely massacred by just 2 units of those guys. They whittle you down with their damn darts, and refuse to engage when you try to charge them. I felt like Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner...

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I see you still haven't got over that one Martok...!

BEEP BEEP! (bring cavalry)

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Originally Posted by Boris of Bohemia

By now you've been building v2 celts from Athfolta nonstop, right? Look around for the ones that got pride, for v5. You should have plenty.

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Um, err, yes, ha ha, of course I've been doing that! I mean, I'm not a complete noob - of course I have enough insight to use such an obvious tactic. :idea2: I'll get my prideful Celts right in there.

But, um, purely hypothetically speaking, suppose I hadn't been making them nonstop... or if they were only v1...?

Actually, I'm starting to use the mounted crossbow counter, and it's working reasonably well. I've been using foot crossbows, but even with their AP bonus, they often don't really kill enough huscarles before they close. I've decided I vastly prefer attack to defense for this reason. Recently I've fought some touch-and-go battles in which I was heavily outnumbered and outgunned, and was saved only by the timely death of the enemy general. These fights have badly mauled the Mercian huscarl corps.

Actually, I did fight one battle using kerns. The Mercians won a lucky sea battle in the south, which opened up a path for them to invade Ireland. They sent two full units of huscarls and a load of archers. All I had was a previously bribed stack with one unit of spearmen, one of peasants, one of dartmen, 3 or 4 kerns, and one small unit of cavalry. I thought I was done for.

However, the Mercian commander marched up the hill with his huscarls while the other huscarl unit chased my cavalry, which was harassing enemy archers. He started to massacre my spears, but multiple units of kerns pelted him with a storm of javs from both flanks. Soon the Mercian general died and the battle was over.

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Originally Posted by matteus the inbred

I see you still haven't got over that one Martok...!

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Aye. :laugh4: Some battles are just hard to forget!

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Originally Posted by Vladimir

BEEP BEEP! (bring cavalry)

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Smartass. ~;p Yeah, even my piss-poor Viking Raider Cavalry would've been enough to take care of those bastards. Would that I'd had any with at the time.... :oops:

My favorite Viking pursuit troops are berserkers. I'll send a full stack of 'em with a prince general as a raiding party and just go nuts against whatever stands against me. It's not necessarily an efficient method, but man is it fun.

(and as the Picts you can use them, too!)

Ajax

I personally like Gallowglasses. They're my favourite special infantry unit. And while they probably won't survives vs huscarles, they're still friggin good. Perhaps a few armour/defense points on them.

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Originally Posted by antisocialmunky

I personally like Gallowglasses. They're my favourite special infantry unit. And while they probably won't survives vs huscarles, they're still friggin good. Perhaps a few armour/defense points on them.

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Gallowglasses at the same/better valor can defeat Huscarles frontally if they're positioned at a higher elevation. They'll take heavy casualties, but most often will win - don't, however, try this with an inferior General leading them. And watch out for Jedi Huscarle Princes - they are a whole 'nother story.

Jedi Huscarle princes are a favorite weakness. I will throw armies of infantry at Huscarles to try to get one of them up to v5+ and make them mean enough to take on enemies by themselves. In one Welsh campaign my celtic warriors were very effective on one attacking group, I lost all my men, he lost all his except the prince, and the next year the prince ascended to the Viking throne. Over the next 30 turn the vikings did not lose a single battle with their king. As far as I know I succeeded in giving him good attacker, last stand defender, and at least one command star, the only problem I had was convincing them not to attack me too much.

mfberg

Hmmm, that's a good way to make the vikings a actual threat. Train their generals for them.

Anyway to add challenge is good by me

Try turtling for 30 years as Wales on Expert then...

:sweatdrop:

I rather play a peaceful game as a the Vikings.