The Northumbrians

[macsen rufus]

I realised recently that the Northumbrians were the only faction I'd not played in VI, despite having played most of the rest at least twice.....

So playing on expert, my strategy was pretty much as follows:

1. Make friends with the Vikings ASAP, throw bishops and princesses at them until they say yes!

2. Develop Elmete as a troop producer ASAP - go for those v2 woodsmen with armour and weapon upgrades. It's not a rich province so forget farms...

3a. Do NOT defend initial borders heavily - it makes the neighbours nervous
3b. Bring all your troops into Elmete, except sufficient garrisons in the rest to prevent rebellion. Why? If invaded, the invasion will be small (just enough to beat your garrison) and next year you can counter attack WHAM!! from Elmete - all of your starting provinces are accessible from Elmete, so it is viable to keep one BIG army to counter-attack. Also being totally surrounded by your own lands, watchtowers cannot see the size of your main army, assassins and spies can keep other agents out....

4. Develop east coast provinces for economic uses - Beornice first for trade, then ships. Dere I developed for farming first to enable v2 horsemen asap, then trade. Cumbri developed for mines and fyrd + weapon upgrade, Pec Saetan for farms and inn, later archers.

5. Train fyrdmen not spearmen (better stats, lower upkeep).

6. Try to ally with Mercians and Welsh to keep southern border quiet (for a while). Ally with Scots, they may help you take Rheged (they did for me )

7. After a few years you'll have a strong army of good troops, a few mines, growing trade and reasonable number of allies. I stayed neutral to the picts as
they and the Vikings were at war. I took Rheged only once my Elmete army was big enough to split to keep a second big garrison in Rheged (Scots may have been allies but I trust them less than the Vikings who usually behave honourably to allies).

8. I spread northwards as the Picts attacked me. Taking Fib cripples them, then I pressed on to Monoth which they'd spent quite a lot on .... 3rd big garrison here. (Fib was covered by both Monoth and Rheged).

9. By now I had enough agents to really stir up things in Scottish lands, and with some good luck, they plunged into civil war, and I caned the rebels taking most of their provinces, whilst still staying allied to the Scots loyalists.

10. It's about this time the Mercians attacked, and all our mutual allies came over to my side Then my big high valour, teched up army of fyrd, woodsmen, horsemen, archers and royals (and first few huscarles) really surprised the Mercians as they flew out of Elmete on the counterattack....

I'm now chewing through the Mercians to the south, picts and rebels to the north, and reckon the game is about won, all major threats either neutralised or severely weakened.

[Vladimir]

Nice summary! I've always been apprehensive about playing them but now I think I'll give them a shot.

[macsen rufus]

I'm at the end-game now. Scots and picts are gone (the Scots' last province was Munster in southern Ireland!) The Mercians collapsed in civil war, as did the Saxons after attacking me a couple of times, then the last Saxon king died, so mopping up the south from rebels was a walkover.

I'd spent about thirty turns without battles just to allow my mounted nobles to come on line (now have them with silver weapons and armour from Elmete ), but they're not that much better than v2 horsemen, really.

The Welsh suddenly erupted into civil war for no discernible reason, and I now control all of the mainland (bar two Welsh provinces), Isle of Man, Scottish islands, and Jutland (spy to cause rebellion, then emissaries to bribe the rebels).

Ireland is shared between Irish and Welsh, and the Vikings are holed up in Hordaland waiting my invasion from Jutland, once I get enough boats out of Jutland.

My typical army now is 3-4 archers (v2), 4-5 fyrd, 2 huscarles, 2-3 woodsmen (v2), 4-5 cavalry (nobles, Royals or horsemen) with most of the melee types teched up to silver weapons and armour. Pretty unstoppable.

Oh, and the Vikings are still my allies after all this time so I may have to attack an ally after all....

[Agent Miles]

The Northumbrians are listed as very hard, but are actually quite easy. The first turn, build an inn in Dere and start moving everything you have there. By the third turn you should be ready to invade Mierce (don’t forget to buy mercenaries). The Mercians run from the only province where they can build anything. While you chase their King down he will continue to run, as you pick up his provinces one by one. Let one province rebel back to Mercia. That way you can ransom their king after he runs out of places to retreat to. Now, do the same thing to the Saxons by invading West Saexe. I had crushed the Mercians by 804 and the Saxons joined them in 819. Vikings and rebels will raid your territory, so you must stay alert. By the time you have spies in Jutland and Hordaland, the Vikings are going to stop raiding in strength and the rebels are not too aggressive. A temporary alliance with the Welsh helps too. Soon after, you'll be able to produce, valour 1 Saxon Huscarles, v3 Horsemen, v3 archers and v2 Fyrdmen. 2EZ.