The welsh On expert

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Try the guides dude. One thing i always try to do is ally myself to the vikings quickly as possible and wheni fighting a war I try to ally with the saxons vs the more powerful and dangerous mercians and using those Welsh bandits firepower with some good mercenary infantry with my Inns ( as the Welsh lack heavy infantry).

[CountMRVHS]

Ah the Welsh, one of my favorite factions.

No, really. Their starting position is so poor and awkward, the Vikings have instant access to every single one of your provinces, you have NO trade goods, and you'll have to save, save, and wait to make your best unit. I always play on Hard, so I'm not sure how the game would play out in Expert, but I have been able to do fairly well as the Welsh. I've never won a 2/3 victory with them, but I've come very close, getting to the point where I just got bored with it.

Allying with the Vikings certainly helps -- sadly, you'll need to wait awhile before your princess matures though. For some reason the Vikings are very trustworthy in the game, so as long as you regularly check the diplomacy and never give them the opportunity to drop an alliance with you (ie by declaring war on another one of their allies), you should be fine. In VI, the Vikings either come out swinging and fall flat within 20 years, or they become a major power and start cranking out the Jomsvikings. So depending on your game, you may need to fight them eventually anyway. In one of my games, I was able to survive as the Welsh *without* allying to the Vikings, and turtling for quite a while -- but I think I just got lucky there.

The next problem is the Saxons/Mercians. There are 2 schools of thought on this one. Well, there are probably more but here are the big 2: Either one of these guys can just steamroll you if they choose -- there's really no way around that. Until you can make Welsh Bandits and upgraded Celtic Warriors and Armored Spearmen, you simply can't stop them -- and even then it'll be close. So the first thing you could do is deal directly with this threat, and stamp them out before they can make their deadly Huscarles. Celtic Warriors would be your unit of choice here, plus archers from Guent or whatever province it is that gives them a plus 1 valor bonus. Most people choose to go after the Saxons first -- apparently you can wipe them out within the first 10 years -- and then you'll have all the rich lands and money you'll need to take on the Mercians.

The second strategy, if you don't favor a mad rush, is to ally with both the Saxons and Mercians and wait for the inevitable Saxon/Mercian war. Drop your alliance with one of them and attack the other -- just make sure you can capture enough provinces from this guy so that the other guy won't reap all the rewards himself. If you can't hold enough lands, you're toast, because the other guy will be able to outproduce you even faster.

The guides sections has a crazy amount of advice on the Welsh, so I won't get into all the subtleties here, but hopefully this will give you a start. Let us know how your campaign goes!

CountMRVHS

[Shambles]

Try the guides dude. One thing i always try to do is ally myself to the vikings quickly as possible and wheni fighting a war I try to ally with the saxons vs the more powerful and dangerous mercians and using those Welsh bandits firepower with some good mercenary infantry with my Inns ( as the Welsh lack heavy infantry).

Ahh but i use the old

GET OF MY LAND!!! YOU VIKING & SAXON BAS***DS
Style of game play,

I really dont want to agree to a aliance with the saxons or vikings,
The scots and irish i usualy say ok to,
And the blue guys (mercians) Usualy get the thumbs up as well,

Then we help eachother out when the saxons attack a province
(although it costs a fortune with destroyed facilaties.)

I spose i should just pretend to be freindly with the saxons.
But I really dont want to lol.

and the vikings end up Becoming neutral after i repell about 10 of their attacks.

But i still end up loosing,
Its all down to the money And i can never expand my lands much futher than The real size of wales,
Well unless i have a death wish.
Becous when i take lands.
Every 1 hates me. and i get messages telling me about how they prefer to stay freinds with the saxons,

Even the scots and the irish "fellow celts" turn against me.
I find the welsh Extreemly difficult to get any where with.

But i guess il just keep trying.

P.s
Ive decided.

I will continue to Yell GET OFF MY LAND!!!! to any non celtic faction.
Untill i get lucky or something lol.
I wont accept an aliance from the saxons!


EDIT

I think my best bet is to attack ierland,
Be ally with mercians
And hope they block off the saxons rout to wales.

Il probably end up abandoning cornwall. (exquse me for not knowing what the game calles them)

As i live in gwynedd my self,
I always try to take that from the rebbels, But The men of gwynedd keep Making dumb uprizings against me.
Dont they know im welsh?
And every time thins start going right...
You guessed it
Its a rebellion.
And i haft to chose which people to side with, and loose 1/2 my provinces.

I really must admit That MTW VI has a much tougher campaign in the viking period Than Shogun TW has in any period,

Oh yeah.
I refuse to let the compuer do ANYTHING for me.
No taxes no buildings, no units,
No nothing,
So i guess I have no one to balem but my self.

But I cant continue to play right now
as my leader died of an ilness 1 year befor my son came of age.
So i Start again.
(Im not a start from a save geme if things go wrong person)

[ichi]

I think my best bet is to attack ierland,
Be ally with mercians
And hope they block off the saxons rout to wales.

exactly, and get a great navy

ichi

[ShadowMagnet]

Perhaps it's down to my own playing style but I see no other option than conquering Saxon lands first and then drawing a quick breath and teching up before eventually attacking the Mercians.
I've tried to cover pretty much every strategy available (including invading Ireland initially) and, maybe it's my poor luck, every time I got creamed. Saxons own very rich provinces and for the first few years throw at you mainly fyrdmen and peasants. Celtic warriors with more than 1 valour shred any Saxon spearmen in seconds and there are 166 warriors per unit (Large size).
After a few battles and succesful expansion into southern England your income will rocket.
Of course alliance with Vikings is a must.

[Shambles]

Well i have a bit of work to do as usual,
But im shure i can make a few spair hours
To try the old attack the saxons Idea,

Il let you know what happens,
Il just need to try and get them befor they ally with every 1 els.

[Patron]

That's it. For starters start building a boat builder in your capital, the vikings don't seem to bother attacking your navy at the beginning, so you will not suffer their wrath early on if you do this, the expense is worth it. Attack the Saxons as quickly as possible, then the mercians once the saxon army is pushed east. Go straight to building drinking halls and churn out celtic warriors. Then in the provinces where you have iron, build a bowyer on one province and build stables on the rest and churn out archers and horsemen.

Don't bother engaging the enemy, just swarm into poorly protected lands and pillage depending on your chances of keeping it. Once you get your horsemen, do a King Arthur.

[bretwalda]

Nice. Do yo have a larger pic that you could link? Btw, what is that King Arthur move?

[Tristrem]

i've been playing mtw for a long time and the welsh are my favorite faction for the viking campain. the easiest way to get a good start is to blitz the saxons that way they don't block access to your southern lands and then work up to get the bandits they are a lifesaver later on

[Satyr]

The Welsh are my second favorite (after the Northumbrians) and I also blitz the Saxon dogs. I build as many troops as possible for the first 6 or 8 turns and then attack hard. I always attack more than one province at a time so they can't gang up on me. I eliminate the Saxons in about 6 more years. Then I work on taking the eastern rebel held provinces before the Vikings create too large of stacks there and then eventually work my way north. I can usually finish by about 860. I think the speed with which you need to attack actually helps your game over all because you get quite large quite fast and get in the habit of being aggressive.