The Danes

hi, I've recently decided to try out the Danes, but I haven't started yet, does anyone have suggestions of where I should attack first? and who to ally with, who to fight right away etc.? also do I have to make up new strategies up using the many different units the Danes have?

Hamburg is a key priority so i usually send my faction heir along with all of my troops in the capital to siege it. I send my faction leader with the force to your east and get the two provinces up in sweden. After Hamburg, take Man something which is a castle, stettin, and if you can breslau and prague. Your main advantage is that your foot soldiers rock. You can get dismounted huscarls before fortress and they are about as good as dismounted feudal knights with less upkeep. Also, the game says that the danes are awful at cav but the huscarls cav can take on feudal knights and are pretty good. Finally, war clerics are just awesome since you can build them in cities and only require church buildings which you would probably build anyways

There are actually two options. You can press south to secure your foothold in the continent, or go for Oslo and Stockholm instead, and then hit the british isles, following the old viking style.

I prefer to do it that way myself.

Well, if you really want to roll in the florins, convert some seaside castles to cities...

M'Lady,

The Danes have been my favorites since the good old days of MTW1. At a strategic level my stratagy in the grand campaign is much the same. At a tactical level things are a bit different.

I tend to grab as many continental rebel sites as possible *first* before I go after Sweden and Norway. The reasons for this is because no one else will get to them (Sweden and Norway that is) but if you waste time taking them early, then Poland or the HRE will get those Baltic rebel states.

You definately want to deprive Poland of these fBaltic states for two reasons. 1) These will give you a path to the Russian/Orthodox/Rebel regions where you can expand your empire when your neighbors aren't Excommunicated. 2) And two, it will weaken Poland and this will be important for your continued existence/survival.

When your neighbors are Excomunicated do the Popes dirty work and expand your foothold South into the Continent. If England is the one to be in the Popes penalty box, take advantage of your Longboats and go there to expand.

On a tactical level, what others have said about the Norse infantry is very true. One addition to your list should be the daunting "Obudshader". These killers are the western European equivilent to the Janisarie Heavy Infantry. They chew up and spit out most onther infantry and even heavy cav because of their special ability to form a spear wall.

Another *REALLY* good unit I've learned to love are the Norse archers. They are so so as far as missle troops go (not on par with Longbowmen or heavy crosbowmen) but they are *really* good medium infantry. I've actually had as much fun creating custom 1 on 1 battles with them vs almost every other infantry unit there is. Its actually cool to watch them whittle down the opponents with missle fire then close in hand to hand and finish them off. They can even aquit themselves well against heavy infantry. Their missle fire strips the heavies of their extra hitpoints and the Norse archers swords do the rest.

Oh yea, and Norse War Clerics simply WROCK!:viking:

Hope This Helps, and Good Luck!

I've played the Danes for only a little bit, but my usual strategy consists of taking Hamburg first and then the two cities north of me. Then I move a little east and secure the closest city or two, and then move west keeping to the north taking Bruges and Antwerp.

Take Hamburg. I also usually load the King and his direct contingent and ship him over to take Britain by himself (H/VH). Oslo and Stockholm can wait a little while. Use ships to move your troops there instead of walking.

HRE will attack you, so will Poland. Give up all illusions otherwise. I usually take Madeburg and use it as a castle while converting Hamburg to city since it has a port. Also take Stettin once your finances can afford it and convert to city.

Then turtle. I usually don't like to attack HRE because the land is not that rich compared to sea trade. After the above I will go on a crusade to the Middle East, use a full stack to walk through Hungary's lands, hire a merc ship and pray you make it to Nicosia alive. Take the castle, pay off Byzantium for peace and from there crusade to Antioch or Jerusalem to your heart's content.

You basically have three blocks of land by then - around Denmark, The British Isles which must be defended against landing stacks and of course Nicosia/Middle East. Basically your Danish troops would be fighting against Muslim armies, Western Europe armies and also Polish/Russian armies. Very fun to play in three different theatres.

Pretty screenshot: How not to take a fort, lesson for the French

https://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4820/0215eo7.jpg

What I recommend is to first make a mad rush for Hamburg, solidify youself there with a strong garrison, and then move north to take Oslo and Stockholm. Convert Oslo to a city for cash reasons, and then build up a stack or two in Hamburg, before sending it/them off to stab into either Scotland or England, whoever is doing better. This way you get the strongest one out of the way earlier, and then wipe the other one out easily. Then convert all of the towns on the British isles into cities except for maybe on castle in case it is invaded (not likely). By then you will have obscene amounts of cash and can pretty much do whatever you please. You should then take two Dutch (I think) cities if they arent already controlled by someone. Then you have the option of invading France or the HRE, but youre pretty much unstoppable once the British isles are yours, so it doesnt really matter what you do.

Sounds like the Danes are fun, maybe Danes for my next campaign. :balloon2:

as long as you get the two hander bug fix for the axemen you will enjoy the campain. Small note, snag russia as Allies

IN addition to many of the good suggestions above, there's yet more in the M2TW guide section for Denmark- https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72063

Continental route is the most crucial as with exception of Scotland, no-one will be going after the nordic regions within the first 10 turns.

Try to split your forces as much as feasible to take several towns at once, laying extended siege when your troops are not sufficient for an assault. Recruit as much cavalry as you can early on because if you can lay siege to a town and it sallies, 2 units of cavalry can break just about any rebel force streaming out of the gates by charging from both flanks.

Make use of mercenaries (mainly crossbowmen for open field battles and besieging villages or spearmen for capturing walled towns)

Also, to finance your early expansion, set all tax rates where possible to very high and do not convert settlements as this will slow your start down.

The first 10-15 turns determine the future success of your empire - so gain regions and finance your strategy by selling alliance+maps+trade for ~ 4000-8000 florins, depending on faction and diplomat skill. Make sure to sell it for tribute over turns (no more than 1500 a turn or they will not accept more often than not)

thanks for the info all! I'll use it well. on a side note I tried out Russia and I unified it all before even seeing the Mongols, I also took Hellsinki, Stockholm and Oslo! :D and allied with the Danes :P

I too would highly recomend the Danes, their roughly speaking, Scots on speed, mainly because they don't have the same lack of cav that so plagues Scotland, (not that it actually makes Scots that weak, with such good pikes and 2-handers and composite archers avalibile to them).