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Originally Posted by CountMRVHS
The first Viking attack (that I could see) was on the Mercian province of Lindissi. This is unusual, as it is normally the Picts who suffer first. It could have been that the Vikings were raiding the rebels in the SE of Britain, but of course that wouldn't show up on the diplomacy and I had no agents down there to see.
It depends on where the Viking ships end up. Nine times out of ten they will deploy north, but occasionally a ship ends up on the east coast opening up an invasion path.
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I was pleased, however, to see that the Vikings had a formidable stack roaming around, led by their king. I saw it jump over to Wales -- very unusual in my experience -- and get into a war with the Welsh, then hop up to Manau and the northern Islands of Domon and Orcades, as well as Cait. For several years the Vikings shuffled back and forth between the provinces of Guined and Defet on the NW and SW of Wales, respectively - experiencing frequent rebellions in these provinces, which the Vikings would defeat, only to leave another tiny garrison which would lead to another rebellion.
I've seen the attack the west coast of Britain a lot, it's due to some of those provinces being rebel, which are a magnet to the AI.
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The height of ridiculousness was when the Vikings repeatedly attacked Reget -- which was led by a 6-star Rebel general and hordes of Armoured Spearmen. Needless to say, it took them several years and repeated attacks before they even managed to drive the rebels back to the fort, but when that happened -- you guessed it -- another rebellion drove the Vikings out. :wall:
Reget is a very rebellious province. A rebellious factor of 4 I believe. (Like Portugal or Lithuania on the main map.) The Vikings or another AI faction will always for it and usually, even if they do win the province, fail to hold it down.
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I wonder, then, what can be done about this. The Vikings seem predisposed to attack Rebels, leave, and attack them again when they lose control of the province. Is this due to their AI behavior as "BARBARIAN_RAIDER"? Would "CATHOLIC_EXPANSIONIST" lead to more successful conquest for the Vikings?
The answer would be to make the Vikings a Catholic Faction, and indeed change their starting AI to "CATHOLIC_EXPANSIONIST". While in "Golden Horde mode" they will always be a suicidal and wasteful faction.
Another idea would be to reduce the support costs of Viking Huscarles, as the many heirs that come of age soon paralyse the Viking economy. It would also be a good idea to remove the deep sea region separating Scandinavia from Britain allowing bidirectional trade.
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Earlier I had modded my VI game so the Vikings started out with a lot more money and about a dozen ships -- but now I'm wondering if that extra money and navy simply encourages them to sit still. Would it be more productive, instead, to give them the normal amount of money and boats but a slightly larger army, forcing them to attack and giving them the ability to attack with a bigger force earlier in the game?
The bigger army will simply increase support costs. The issue is the raiding behaviour. The Vikings will attack, raze and leave, which will give them very little income in the long term, removing the raiding is the key, and I believe that so long as the Vikings are Pagan the raiding behaviour will persist. Starting them out as catholics with the "CATHOLIC_EXPANSIONIST" AI type, cheaper support costs for Huscarles and smaller starting armies should fix that.
:bow:
