My first campaign as the Danish, after two unsuccessful attempts at campaigning as the Germans (destroyed from rampant civil war) and as the Italians (ruined from too much peacetime trading, an inbred monarch with a 1 influence.) Set the game at Hard, started in the Early game...

Starting with one province is pretty rough. You simply can't support any decent sized army from the income of one province. And the Danes get Vikings from the get-go. So I started building my little army of Vikings and within a few turns stormed Sweden. Norway fell soon after.

I was soon faced with what is probably a typicial Danish problem... where do ya go after taking those available northern lands? A few options... I could hit England by sea if I built some boats... I could hit the HRE to the south... or perhaps try for some of that Eastern land by a naval invasion? My king started siring many children as I franticially began production of Vikings, Vikings, and more Vikings, and I soon had a respectable army of Vikings and Royal Knights.

Let me say one thing about Vikings-- they are pretty damn good. Especially in the early game, when you are mainly facing poltroons. They seem to gain morale pretty quickly and with just a couple of points of morale they hold thier ground pretty well against spearmen, peasents, militiamen, etc. They are also relatively cheap. Any Danish player would be silly to not take advantage of mass-building Vikings from the get-go.

I was worried about preserving my bloodline, so I decided that to secure brides for my princes, I would need to get a higher influence. So rather than take the time to build the navy, I stormed Saxony and declared war on the HRE.

With Saxony as a staging ground, I grew quickly in size. For some reason, the Pope did not excommunicate me for aggression against fellow Christians... France and Sicilly followed by lead, and we soon had the HRE assailed on all fronts. My king and his locked armies a few times, every time his king showed his true colors and fled. Ultimately, we caught and killed Conrad, and the HRE ceased to be a threat.

Poland had allied wiith the HRE towards the end of it's life, and I turned to Poland with a vengance. The two provinces it had taken fell back into my hands, and Poland itself soon fell. Hungary remained my faithful ally, and also declared war on the Poles. They joined the HRE in the grave.

My king died shortly thereafter, and his successor found himself with a low influnce. France and England where embroiled in a bitter conflict, and the entire French western border was fairly open. As soon as the politicial climate changed (encouraged by a hasty marriage to the English&#33 my hoardes of Vikings turned to the French. Four provinces fell in one mighty turn. The English took the rest. France fell.

The HRE reappeared in northern Italy. My king's influence grew throughout his lifetime, putting down a couple of religious uprisings once he got excommunited (for agressions against my fellow Christians) but he never had the glory of the origional king, who was maxed out in influence and had the best set of Virtues I've seen on one guy as of yet.

So now it's 1189, and the king just recently passed away. The new king is the grandson of the origional king, I believe, and I have the english to the west, Sicially to the south (with Italy having been destroyed between the new HRE and the Siciallians), my longtime ally Hungary to the east. I'm waiting for the Pope to die to get rid of this excomminication... I've had to keep rather large garrisons of Vikings to keep the locals calm. I have the largest income (although the majority of it is paying for troop maintainance, leaving me with about 200 florins left over a turn) and the largest army. And I'm trying to look at the big picture to figure out what to do next.

At some point, I will have to cross paths with the Muslims. So I'm leary of warring against all the other Catholics-- it's nice having allies, particualarly allies that hold ground between us and them. That theory of mine is about the only thing keeping Hungary alive. The HRE is consolidated to one province... think I'll keep them there so they don't reappear again. I have suprisingly high loyalty in all my generals (I check every 10 years or so).

The tacticial end of the game has seen so many variants of Royal Calv and Vikings. Lines of Vikings, flanks of Calv. They go hand in hand like Oreos and milk. Always wait for stormy weather before launching the attack...

Can't wait to get outta work to continue this campaign