How to win in Viking Campaign

I have beat the Viking campaign with a 100% using the Irish, Welsh, Viking, and Scots and unless you are playing the Vikings, to win easily do the following. To test my theory, I gave the vikings 9999 starting Florins and by doing that, they stay around the entire game. Here is the 10 commandments of VI. I didn't add tips for the Vikings because if you are good at all, you probably don't need them. I found these out playing HARD.

1. On turn two, DESTROY EVERY NO LANDLOCKED (Edited for clarification) ABBEY you have. Yes, you will lose some income but the Vikings will leave you alone this way, plus, its better to get a 1000 florins than to give the Vikings 2000.

2. Farms = Money, after your boarders are protected and you have a good 30 years to build, mass farm build. I have never been so amazed in this game than when I was just breaking even to being filthy rich in just 10 turns do to this.

3. Use the Vikings to your advantage, for instance, try to ally with them. If you are the Irish then Shipbuild spam until you outnumber the Vikings ships three to one. By doing this, I have in two of my campaigns effectively used the Vikings as a second army. They not only won't attack you because you would cripple their only source of income (Raiding) by blockcading their ships but they will often join you in battle. It is so sweet to see the Vikings Elite units working with you to crush someone else instead of against you.

4. If against a superior force like if you are playing Welsh and the Saxons attack you. Mass spam any unit in all provinces possible and try to take two of their terriories in one turn. Most often, this will cause a civil war. Try whatever you can to kill their king or better yet, cut him off from the empire. If you do take their land, SLASH AND BURN is a great way of neutering your enemy. Remember, war isn't about killing off their army - its killing all their options but to surrender.

5. If the Vikings do attack, try to hold the territory you have or at least garrison. Then hit them back NEXT TURN with everything you have in the surrounding areas. If you do this right, you can attack back when they try to defend and hopefully take on many Viking Prisoners. I would suggest Ransoming them back because to kill the Vikings, you must destroy their money, not units.

6. Unlike the original MTW campaign. The AI usually stays with you on your Tech advances, so don't expect a 16 unit army to destroy a 30 unit because even knowing your tech is higher than theirs, its not by that much.

7. Trading is worthless in my opinion, if you aren't the Irish or about to attack Ireland, don't build a boat. You might provoke the Vikings to sink it and start a war. While your at it, don't build Traders/Merchants either. By the time you have the buildings built you won't have a trading partner due to war.

8. Save Ireland for last. The Irish usually stay on that island without moving but they mass spam on units. Don't waist your units unless you have the main island to yourself.

9. Mercs own here. If you have the money, hire them in legions.

10. Thats basically it, due to no mass rebellions, smaller map, and more fun tech tree, 60% is a copout - a true victory is 100%.

Excuse my grammar and spelling, I am just too tired to fix it.

Don't build a boat? The Irish will eventually try to land on mainland near the end so you need a boat to cut off their rolling army. They'll send about 6 full stacks on one turn once the war is declared.

I played as Saxons last time, my first game too, and I didn't have enough ships to cut off the Irish. Well, they were taking out rebels in the north but I just had to stop them. The other factions (Scots, Picts) were losing badly against rebels, turtling in little provinces up north. In result, I lost more than 6 provinces in midwest region. I did recover from the blitz after couple nasty battles but I ran out of time and lost the campaign lol.

Excellent work, Budwise. ~:thumb:

However, how are you going to make money as the Picts? Their farm income is lousy and trying to upgrade it is wasting money, so they need their abbeys.

The Picts' abbeys don't seem to last long when I play them. Maybe a large garrison would help.

"1. On turn two, DESTROY EVERY ABBEY you have. Yes, you will lose some income but the Vikings will leave you alone this way, plus, its better to get a 1000 florins than to give the Vikings 2000."

"2. Farms = Money, after your boarders are protected and you have a good 30 years to build, mass farm build. I have never been so amazed in this game than when I was just breaking even to being filthy rich in just 10 turns do to this."

Bad idea, in the long term you're better off with them, it's sometime cheaper to build them in provinces without basic farms. To get rid of vikings cheaply...

Build a navy using your most technologically advanced coastal province as quickly as possible nad keep on churning out cheap ships to cover all your coastal provinces. Vikings never attack your navy for some reason. You can neuter them a lot more cheaply this way.

Build a decent army of spearmen and cavalry to begin with, then your factions elite troops later on. Generally pwn everyone in battles and conquer provinces strategically so you have to defend little and can put more into offfense.


I agree with 3, except ship build spam no matter what faction you are.

I also agree with 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10

I've never noticed the AI tech up very much and mercenaries are only really needed when they are mounted noblemen or some vicious viking unit.

:knight:

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Originally Posted by Patron

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I've never noticed the AI tech up very much and mercenaries are only really needed when they are mounted noblemen or some vicious viking unit.

:knight:

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Really, I have seen them tech hard before, just never receieve their biggest unit. Like if they play Welsh, they will have everything but Welsh Bandits. Also, the Vikings attack my ships all the time and unless I have them outnumbered, I always will lose my fleet.

Also, I have never played the Picts so I can't comment on them but as a general strategy, what I suggested usually does work.

Against the Vikings, the Picts are the first to lose the ABBEYS. If you must keep one, keep the Landlocked one.

An alliance with the Vikings is your best defense against them. If you have that you can build abbeys reasonably safely, especially once you have enough ships in the water to shield your shores. Abbeys make for a big income boost much faster than farming which is especially valuable in poor farming areas.

Otherwise I agree with most everything, though as some factions (scots, welsh) attacking Ireland early on can be very beneficial. Once you have it it's basically safe from attack by anyone except Vikings (who you are hopefully allied to), and has very good farming income compared to the poorer Welsh and Scottish lands.

Ajax

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Originally Posted by ajaxfetish

An alliance with the Vikings is your best defense against them. If you have that you can build abbeys reasonably safely, especially once you have enough ships in the water to shield your shores. Abbeys make for a big income boost much faster than farming which is especially valuable in poor farming areas.

Otherwise I agree with most everything, though as some factions (scots, welsh) attacking Ireland early on can be very beneficial. Once you have it it's basically safe from attack by anyone except Vikings (who you are hopefully allied to), and has very good farming income compared to the poorer Welsh and Scottish lands.

Ajax

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In my game as the Scots, I lost Ireland very quickly so I can't comment on that. Yeah, well after you get ships in the water and can waste they years for an abbey, then go for it. But honestly, even with the 266 dollars a year, you still have to wait 12 years to build it and another 7-8 years (Too Lazy to do the math.) to get your money back, I don't feel like wasting all those years when I can build something I need now.

If you can hold Ireland as the Scots, BY ALL MEANS DO IT. I just couldn't pull it off. Just don't kill off your mainland to do it.

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Originally Posted by Budwise

Yeah, well after you get ships in the water and can waste they years for an abbey, then go for it. But honestly, even with the 266 dollars a year, you still have to wait 12 years to build it and another 7-8 years (Too Lazy to do the math.) to get your money back, I don't feel like wasting all those years when I can build something I need now.

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An Abbey costs 2000 florins and takes 12 years to build, and after that grants a significant income reliably every year regardless of how poor the province is.

A forest clearing costs 1500 florins and takes 16 years, basic farms means another 1500 florins and 16 years, 20% is another 600 florins and 6 years, and 40% is another 800 florins and 8 years. Full farming upgrades cost you 4400 florins and take 46 years to complete. And in a poor province you still won't be getting much return for that investment. I don't see how the abbey is a waste. Compared to other Viking-era options, it seems like very fast cash. Plus it increases happiness and Catholic faith in its province.

Once you have basic farms in place it doesn't take too long or cost too much to finish the upgrades, and of course farming is the foundation of a Viking-era economy, but in my early game it's the abbeys giving me the cash to build those farm upgrades, along with whatever military or political buildings "I need now."

Ajax

Interesting ideas. Thanks.

I tend to build ships for transport, and blocking sea attacks, rather than trade.

Thats why I love this game so much, you can play how you choose. Personally, the quick thousand helps a lot more for me and as long as I keep the Vikings from attacking, I tend to have enough money. But, if you can hold your Abbeys, then your strategy is better than mine. I forgot to mention that I do build and keep abbeys in LANDLOCKED territories. I find that they get raided a lot less and I keep them for longer.

What I wrote is just a guideline that I follow when I play VI. Its not edged in stone so take what you can use and discard the rest. Its just what I use to play and from the feedback, a lot of its good.

I have just seen so many strategies for the Main campaign and I have never seen a guideling for VI - so I made one.

I have just started my first VI campaign and so far, so good. I choose the Saxons - purely because one of their starting provinces is where I live! ( that nice diamond shaped island just off the South coast of England) - mind you, now I have built a few, those Huscarles are OK aren't they!! To begin, I conquered the rebel provinces to secure the south coast and made an alliance with the welsh and scots. I then built up resources and troops - principally Fyrd with some archers and when I can build them Huscarles. Inns are very important - I concentrate on getting Gallowglasses, Kern and good cavalry. The Gallows and cav are obvious but the Kern are a nice unit to have due to their armour piercing ability. They sit behind the shield wall, wait until the Huscarles - or even better royal cav - close with the shield wall and then they pelt the appropiate unit with javs.

So after the build up - don't forget to include a few spys assassins etc - it is time to stuff the Mercians. I have had 1 large battle with them where my shield wall stood nicely, my Huscales, backed by Royal cav broke their line and I routed the whole army, killing the King at the same time. Key event - the Kern + archers showering the Mercian's King's unit with missles to kill him while he was fighting a unit of Fyrd.

Two more things of note.
1) The reason for taking Cantabrae (eastern most south coast province) is to build up a small navy to seal the English channel.
2) I have had 1 Viking raid so far. Initially I was worried - I only had 1 unit of Fyrd and 1 unit of archers and the Vikings had beserkers, huscarles, spears and carl.I then noticed that all the units were small, so I deployed to wards the back of the deployment area so they had to come over a lot of open ground, up hill to attack me. My archers shot up the danger units - beserkers and huscarles, so the time they got to me they were so shot up - I had killed all the beserkers and Huscarles - that my Fyrd made short work of them - about 6 Vikings made it back to the boats!!!

So far, so good - only set back - the Abbey I had built got destroyed by a storm the year it was finished. ~:cheers:

Nice work.

Berserkers are horrible if they get in close...

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Originally Posted by King Kurt

So far, so good - only set back - the Abbey I had built got destroyed by a storm the year it was finished. ~:cheers:

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Arrows to kill main viking force - 120 FL
Cost to train and arm Fyrds - 200 FL
Price of victory party after winning - 350 FL
Humor in having you Abby destroyed by a storm two months later - priceless.

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Originally Posted by m52nickerson

Arrows to kill main viking force - 120 FL
Cost to train and arm Fyrds - 200 FL
Price of victory party after winning - 350 FL
Humor in having you Abby destroyed by a storm tow months later - priceless.

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Suffice to say, I managed to stiffle the chuckle!! - but it didn't take the edge of stuffing the Mercians - next stop Birmingham and the M6~:cheers:

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Originally Posted by m52nickerson

Arrows to kill main viking force - 120 FL
Cost to train and arm Fyrds - 200 FL
Price of victory party after winning - 350 FL
Humor in having you Abby destroyed by a storm tow months later - priceless.

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~:joker:

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Originally Posted by m52nickerson

Arrows to kill main viking force - 120 FL
Cost to train and arm Fyrds - 200 FL
Price of victory party after winning - 350 FL
Humor in having you Abby destroyed by a storm tow months later - priceless.

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Some things cannot be bought by florins for everything else there's M:TW VI.

The Abbey going must have been a sign - MTW has excommunication - Viking campaign must have acts of God!! I went for 3 Mercian provinces at once, in 2 they ran away, the other they stayed and fought. Foolishly, I miss judged the balance of forces, autocalced as I was keen to get to get on - and lost. Next year the Vikings invade Cantware again - another mistake, I had 2 boats in Dofras Sund, I should have put 1 in Seaxe sea - this time they brought their friends - 2 units of beserks, 1 of huscarles and 1 full strength Viking Carl. Despite my archers and Fyrd doing their bit, they were overrun. Also the Welsh - no doubt attracted by various illuminated manuscripts of sheep in provocative poses - invade Defnas.
Over the next couple of years I adjust things around - I have a break - Cantware has a loyalist revoult so I pick up a couple of units for nothing and clear up the remaining Vikings - who were trapped by my navy covering both sea areas now. I also get lucky with an assasin - I had been producing them in Defnas, so there were a few about - he kills the Welsh King which makes him a 3 star overnight. H~:cheers: e is now strolling round the SW peninsula killing all in sight. So things look a bit better - I have invaded and taken Guent - then my king dies - natural causes I hasten to add. No problems with an hier - but I have had a warning about general's loyalty, so I will have to attend to that - any suggestions?

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Originally Posted by King Kurt

but I have had a warning about general's loyalty, so I will have to attend to that - any suggestions?

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you can make him a governor of a province which increases loyalty. You can also get him out of the stack so if he goes rebel he doesn't take the whole stack with him. You can also kill him if he's not so good.

The warning implied generals - not 1 in particular. I will look to do the things suggested, but I wondered if doing things like building a royal mint might help - do these affect just the province they are in or does it affect the whole faction??~:cheers:

The warning implied generals - not 1 in particular. I will look to do the things suggested, but I wondered if doing things like building a royal mint might help - do these affect just the province they are in or does it affect the whole faction??~:cheers:

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Originally Posted by King Kurt

The warning implied generals - not 1 in particular. I will look to do the things suggested, but I wondered if doing things like building a royal mint might help - do these affect just the province they are in or does it affect the whole faction??~:cheers:

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No, they provide you with a title you can give to a general in addition to a provincial title. The title does nothing except adding stats to the general.

The best way to increase the loyalty of generals is to increase your influence. You do this by succesfully conquering provinces and by crusading. Also relieving sieges of allied castles helps.

Another option is to start building all kinds of cheap, quick-to-construct buildings and acquire the magnificent builder virtue.

Thirdly, you can distribute titles and wed your princesses to important generals (meaning the ones commanding the armies). Unfortunatly, this also means stripping others of their titles, making them disloyal in turn. Keeping suspected traitors in the king's stack also helps, but this makes them unavailable for frontline duty. They also won't get any governement related V&V's anymore. These go to the stack leader, in this case the king.

Lastly, you can separate disloyal general and make sure that the stacks are lead by incompetent but loyal ones. I consider this rather cheesy, though.

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Originally Posted by miho

you can make him a governor of a province which increases loyalty. You can also get him out of the stack so if he goes rebel he doesn't take the whole stack with him. You can also kill him if he's not so good.

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A quick fix is that you won't have a civil war if all your heirs and former heirs are in the SAME STACK AS YOUR KING. No leader, no mass civil war.

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Originally Posted by Budwise

A quick fix is that you won't have a civil war if all your heirs and former heirs are in the SAME STACK AS YOUR KING. No leader, no mass civil war.

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As an added bonus, over time, in the same stack as your king, they will improve in loyalty.

DE

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Originally Posted by Deus Ex

As an added bonus, over time, in the same stack as your king, they will improve in loyalty.

DE

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Nice thread linking. We discussed loyalty increasing before.

I created a harder version of the Viking campaign, set later. It can be installed alongside the original and without affecting any game settings. The Scots and Northumbrians are the most difficult choices.

http://www.3ddownloads.com/strategy-...Army_Amagi.zip

The campaign is intended to be played at the expert level of difficulty. It begins in 867, with the Great Army in possession of York, and ends in 1016, when Cnut's invasion and conquest made England part of his Viking kingdom.

I have just finished a VI Campaign as de Vikings... OUTRAGEOUS UNITS!...

Here's my story. I started training infantry units, just infantry: Carks, to be specific. And they were quite a blast. I made an army of 10 units. On the other province I started building and sending boats throughout the east coast of the British Islands. When both, army and boats were ready, I started raiding all the coast, north through south and getting as much money as possible. It wasn't that difficult as most of the provinces are still rebels or very weak (except Mercs and Saxons) I gathered so much money I could start building and developing my lands very efficiently, and as soon as I noticed the money level coming down I started a new raid again to all those weak provinces on rich factions and started all over again. This would take me about 30 - 40 turns, but, believe me, it is very profitable.

By the end of those 30 - 40 turns, I had achieved such a developed land that no one would equal me. And I wouldn't really matter on being raid as others can not approach the Viking lands.

I never needed to train other units but Carls. They are very cheap to build and keep. The only ones I would train are the Peasants to start colonizing as I came conquering Britain. At the end of the game I got the 100% of the British islands and only using infantry units: Viking Carls and Peasants, and having all other factions laying to my feet.

This was Vikings. I don't know how it would work with other factions. Try and let me know.

What's the best way to actually attack the Vikings? I'm the boss of mainland Britain, just about (I have to deal with the Picts, a re-emerging Northumberland and a 2 province Welsh) but I can't get to either Ireland or the Vikings because every time I build a longboat is gets stamped on by a fat stack of Viking boats. Been trying to make peace with them for decades with no joy. Their raids are largely pathetic - a couple of Joms vikings with individual Harscules of high valour and plenty stars. I usually lose to these uber warriors but usually manage to take out a couple on the way down.

I'm getting really frustrated at not being able to put a navy together. Any solutions?

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Originally Posted by Matty

What's the best way to actually attack the Vikings? I'm the boss of mainland Britain, just about (I have to deal with the Picts, a re-emerging Northumberland and a 2 province Welsh) but I can't get to either Ireland or the Vikings because every time I build a longboat is gets stamped on by a fat stack of Viking boats. Been trying to make peace with them for decades with no joy. Their raids are largely pathetic - a couple of Joms vikings with individual Harscules of high valour and plenty stars. I usually lose to these uber warriors but usually manage to take out a couple on the way down.

I'm getting really frustrated at not being able to put a navy together. Any solutions?

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Don't bother trying to invade the Viking homelands - getting there requires a deep-sea navy, which only the Vikings can build in VI. The victory conditions do not require conquering the Viking homeland provinces to win - it can be done on rare occasions using agents (assassins, bishops, spies, and emissaries), but isn't worth the bother.

Concentrate on controlling the Irish sea, and getting a foothold in Ireland. Try building your ships wherever the Vikings are weak, assembling a good stack, then attacking in the Irish sea, etc. Once you get on Ireland, finish off all the non-Viking factions, and you're done! The game is yours....

Once you get your long-boats up and running you'll be able to take Ireland, but the Vikings are the only ones with boats that can cross the North Sea, so you can't attack their homelands in the traditional manner.

If you do really want to take jutland and hordaland it's possible, but depends somewhat upon luck. You need to send hordes of Bishops, at least one good spy, an emissary, and whatever other agents you desire in order to cause a rebellion. You could also try bribing armies, but a lot of the time the king or a prince will be in charge. The Vikings often move armies in suddenly as they are forced out of raiding territories, so it may take awhile to work, but if you can cause one of their homelands to fall to rebels and then bribe them to join you, you can then build up an army and fleet there to invade the other. Watch out again right after taking the first province though, as your forces there will probably be much weaker than the Vikings and you can't reinforce them from the mainland.
:viking:

Ajax

long story short, build a navy and use the ol' archer lurers, spearmen pinners and cavalry flankers tactic to pwn every non-viking army on the british isles

[QUOTE=ajaxfetish
If you do really want to take jutland and hordaland it's possible, but depends somewhat upon luck. You need to send hordes of Bishops, at least one good spy, an emissary, and whatever other agents you desire in order to cause a rebellion. You could also try bribing armies, but a lot of the time the king or a prince will be in charge.

Ajax[/QUOTE]

Lots of agents, lots of cash and be sure to beat the crap out of the Vikings on the mainland, to promote rebellions. I managed it last time out after managing to kill off the Viking king and his heirs on the mainland. There was a re-emergence in Jutland but I managed to bribe the rebel army in Hordland - including a former prince (disinherited?) and his huscarles, plus a squad of Jomsvikings. ~D

As a Saxon faction I could only build little boats, but they were enough to ship my Viking turncoats (plus reinforcements - armoured spears, fyrdmen) to Jutland where I defeated the re-emerged Viking leader.

They popped up again on Man and later in Ulster. In Ulster, though, they emerged as a Christian faction and were much easier to deal with.

The Saxon Saga continues!

After reading and thinking about all the advice about loyality etc, I decided that the best thing to do was bash a few Brummies. So set about a few Mercian provinces and in a couple of turns I was attcked in Cantware - a bit of an oddity here, perhaps somebody could explain - the battle screen come up telling me that my 300 or so troops are facing 600 plus, but the enemy screen shows only 2 viking units, (mind you it was beserkers and housecarls!) so I decide to try and duke it out. I deploy nice and high and wait - and out pops some Mercian horse! My archer/Fyrd combo deals with them and then the Viking Housecarls come and... well, no need to paint the picture. Obviously the force was a mix of Vikings and Mercians, but I could only see Vikings as potential enemy in the battle prescreen, so what happened there then? - did I miss a button?~:confused:
Any way, I lost the province, but my other forces had been mopping up the Mercians and, a couple of years later, I have just stuffed the forces in Cantware with my King's army. What's more their king is trapped in the fortified village in Cantware, so I sense a big pay day coming. I have come to the conclusion that when you are stuck for a way forward with MTW, you can't beat hunt the opposing king - it always leads to a payday or the faction falling to pieces.
My current cunning plan is to mop up the mercians and the sheep lovers - sorry the Welsh, - have a little turtle to build things up, including some boats then sort out the north and ireland - but I bet that doesn't work out either!!~:cheers:

When you face multiple opponents, in the "pre-battle" screen (where you can set up your re-inforcements) there is a way (but I forget exactly how) that you can switch between your opponents and see their armies. You click on their shield or something like that. IIRC

DE

Yes, under your general's portrait is the shield of your faction, and beneath that are the units you have for the battle. Same for the opposition. If there are more than one opposing force, there will be two shields under the general's portrait but only one army shown below. Clicking on each shield will show you each of their armies in turn.

Also, if you have an ally in battle it works the same way. Their shield will be shown next to yours and you can see their army by clicking on their shield.

Ajax

should've built a navy, then you would experience no viking units at all during your campaign

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Originally Posted by Patron

should've built a navy, then you would experience no viking units at all during your campaign

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I'm trying to build a navy in Cantware - but the Vikings and the Brummies keep invading it!!
Thanks for the tips re 2 armies facing etc - next time I will look for the shields - I thought I must have missed a button - this is my first VI game, so I am picking up the differences from MTW as I go along.~:cheers:

Well - it is all over in England - My Saxons captured the king of the Mercians and 12,000+ florins and then captured the Welsh king about 4 or 5 years later - another bumper pay day. With those injections of cash none could stand against me, especially with such a rich homeland. No more Viking problems and over about 10 years I wiped out the Mercians, Welsh and Northumbrians. I was offered the 60%, so i took it, as I couldn't see anybody to challenge me. Next game will be on Hard I think - I did this 1 on normal as it was my first VI. Thanks to everybody who gave advice - it worked most of the time!!~:cheers:

Bleh.. Go straight for expert. If you think it might be too hard, play as the Irish, conquer Ireland by simply building loads of kerns and overwhelming everything in your path. Start building a dock -> boat builder -> ship builder in your most developped province as quickly as possible and fill up the seas borderring Ireland.

You can then play viking yourself and raid Britain and do what you want with no real threats to your Ireland production centres. If the Vikings get a foothold on Britain, gather 6 longboats together with your best captain and sink all the viking ships, also build a lvl 3 brothel in one of your cities and send a 3 star spy to Norway and Denmark along with some emissaries. If you are lucky the provinces will revolt and defeat the Vikings, you can then bribe the rebels. This will annoy them greatly.

Hey Patron

I like the sound of that - I had been thinking of looking for more of a challenge with the england VI campaign and that looks like it might be interesting. I do like the Irish troop types - Kern and gallowglasses - and the idea of a horde of pseudo Vikings all shouting top of the morning is really appealing~:cheers:

i'm feeling rather cheated now...been playing as Welsh for 100 years and i've barely even seen a Viking (except the ones i hired as mercs to duff up the Saxons, heheh). i even have an Abbey and some ships running around, in direct opposition to Budwise's advice. ah well, i often learn the hard way.
i've got the biggest income in the game though, even more than Mercia, by maxing out all my mines (loads of mines, i guess the Welsh are proverbial for 'em). i'm largely on the defensive now, the Saxons and Northumbrians are riddled with rebellions and Viking raids and i'm tooling up quietly in the valleys to go and deal with the Mercian scum who think that just cos they've got four stacks in each province i'm scared of them or something.

i did encounted loyalty problems with many generals throughout, and my current and only heir has loyalty 1, suffice to say he's kept very close to the king...

generals do seem to pick up V&Vs very quickly, or perhaps i just notice them more cos they get 'named and shamed' at the end of every turn, usually cumulative themed ones (ie, alcoholic leads to drunkard leads to total drunkard) and i've had to remove quite a few. i can sympathise, the Welsh valleys on a Sunday afternoon in the rain could easily drive a man to drink and unnatural pratices with the livestock.

As the Welsh, especially if you're just sitting back and teching up, you want to go for Welsh Bandits. Those guys are awesome. Build them in a province with iron ore (I prefer Gwent, since I focus it on archers anyways), and you can get them with silver swords and shields. One on one there aren't many Viking units that can beat them. Throw in a couple armoured spearmen to fend off horses and some horsemen to chase down routers and you've got a killer Welsh army.

Ajax

Managed to bribe the Vikings in Norway and then next turn destroyed everything and disbanded. The king sits in Jutland with his 6 princes (obviously refocussed from invading me to invading his wife) with just the navy to worry about.

And I've just realised that you can build a royal palace in more than one province - I've spent the last 100 years building harscules in only one.... Now those pesky Picts are gonna get it.

Kicked off a new campaign - Irish, Viking, Hard - as suggested by Patron. Conquered all of Ireland, only moment of concern, a tricky battle against the rebels in the south where they had about 5 units of spears + supports vs my 2 gallowglasses, 3 kern, 2 dart and king's RC. I was defending - these were rebels after I had conquered the province, so as they approached, I poped a unit of darts out of a wood to harass the flank of the attack. They routed, but were chased by 2 or 3 units. This enabled me to crush the rest of the army with a combined Gallowglass/ Kern attack which lead to the whole army routing off.
With Ireland subdued, most of England made alliances, I built up navies either end of the Irish sea to keep out Vikings and any other unwelcome guests. With the seas secured, I built up my forces - sadly my 5 star king died and his hier was only 1, so he is staying at home, but his 2 of his hiers are 3 star, so the oldest is at home and the other leads the invasion - and invaded Wales. After about 5 or 6 years Wales is subdued - they only survive in Cornwall - and I captured and ransomed the Welsh king, so I have over 20,000 florins in the bank. The Saxons and Mercians look strong, but seem to be fighting each other, so a time of build up and tech up in Wales looks next. There seems to be a lot of Vikings about in scotland and the Borders, as well as the Scots looking strong, so the next steps look interesting.~:cheers:

Irish show off with your big bank account! ~;)
the Vikings finally turned up in my Welsh campaign, the King himself leading two units of huscarles in a raid on Cantware...it cost me 400 men, but by the end of the day the Beardy One's head was upon a spear and the Raven Banner lay trampled beneath the victorious hooves of my war-sheep (like war-dogs, only woollier).
would have preferred a ransom, but them's your breaks.
many hard years of fighting (including one epic scrap where 6,500 Mercians attacked Powys and my 960 men saw them off with 2,300 dead and 1,700 captured including the king and his heir), bribing, assassinating and sheep-shagging followed, but the Mercians, Saxons and Northumbrians now lie crushed and broken with one 'turtled' province each, none dare roam the seas for fear of my roving warfleets (if skin boats with one mast and three blokes can justify being called a warfleet...) and my king regularly used bundles of fifty-florin notes to light the fire with.
the reason i've even got warfleets is cos i've had thre provinces spamming longboats and curraghs since i could tech up to them. the Irish and Vikings only intermittently roam the Irish sea, and no one else began sailing until it was too late.
all thanks to mining and sheep-based agriculture and archery. how culturally satisfying.
and yes, Welsh Bandits do rock, even if they have silly hair...! next up, i may go Scottish or Pictish...it's the skirts.

Ah - the Welsh.~:rolleyes: In my campaign, they sit in Cornwall only, no doubt doing a bit of surfing and looking at illustrated manuscripts of glamorous sheep.

I intend to build up for a few years before adding to the united states of Ireland. The Vikings appear to have a foothold on mainland England and the Saxons, Scots and Mercians look strong - so interesting times ahead.~:cheers:

look forward to hearing of it! particularly which Irish troops work well for you...know thine probable enemy and all that.
any mines in Ireland?

The irish are fairly easy to use. The gallowglasses are good fighting infantry - a bit short on armour, so a bit of supplement via an armour helps. Just stand them on a hill and charge them down. You support them with the Kerns. These stand behind the gallowglasses to shower the enemy with javs - nicely armour piercing as a bonus - and when they run out they swarm round the flanks to help the Gallowglasses. The only problem with the Irish is no bows - the dart men are a poor alternative. Secret is to build plenty of inns and constantly check every year for mercanary archers - buy when you see them. The alternative is bribing, but I have had no opportunities yet.

The irish have no super troops a la Huscarls, but they have a nice mix, they are cheap and very mobile for an Infantry based army giving you the opportunity to make best use of the Terrain.~:cheers:
P.S. - yes - there are mines in Ireland, help with the income nicely thank you. No nutty slack or best Welsh Steam though just gold and silver

lots of 'em and cheap, sounds fun, i'm in the mood for cannon fodder after playing the Turks recently...the vastly smaller number of troop types and lack of decent armour in VI make for nice simple tactics and lots of gore, always good fun.
i've made use of mercs too, mainly Viking stuff, but the Welsh get Celtic Warriors, so it's not often worth it. it's given me a real taste for hordes of screaming nutters! :charge:
i find bribing is terrifically expensive compared to vanilla MTW, fl23,000 for a few hundred Mercian fyrd under a crap general eg.

Quick update on the Irish progress.

We watched the saxon/ mercian war for a couple of years then jumped in to help raise the seige of the saxon capital. We waited ready to give the mercians a welcome in the hillsides, but they wouldn't come to play. So, as we didn't want to miss the fun, we invaded Wrocensaetan. That kicked off a massive battle about 2,000 Irish, 500 saxon allies vs 4,000 Brummies. My army was based on Gallowglasses and armoured spears backed with some kern and cavalry. Saxons had a few huscarls plus supports. The Mercians were mainly Fyrd, spear and armoured spear. They deployed along a hill ridge on the edge of map. The Irish faced the centre of the line and the Mercian left while the Saxons faced the Mercian right. I loaded the right wing of my army with loads of Gallowglasses and a unit of Celtic warriors. These managed to get round the mercians line and drove the whole battle line in - I was even able to assist the saxons. The Mercian general was routed as well. From then it was just a case of defeating the sucessive waves of mercians. this gave a few tense moments as my reserves had a distance to come, but my morale and valour was now sky high, so I was able to be victorious. The Mercians were last seen running in the direction of the Bullring, looking for a good balti house.:san_smiley:

Keep them at bay until they run out of cash in 10 years.