@%!*#!! Vikings!!!

[The Electric Celt]

Greetings all ,first post so go easy on me.Having relished my first game(English/early/hard/dom)after moving on from a 4 month stint on shogun,thought I'd go back to me roots and play Irish on VI(HARD)Having conquered 'the ol'country',sparing Ulster for the Scots,had an abortive crack at rebel Wales then opened a can of wup-ass on the Saxons via Cornwall.All good...however whilst enjoying my burgeoning gaelic empire the viking king sailed through my fledgling navy landed in Conaught with a magnificent 7 of approx.30 hard as nails huscalars,landsmen berserkers,all only 5-10 units strong but valour under an 8 star king of between 5 and 9.
They're now merrily bouncing from irish province to province eating my vanilla kerns, gallowglasses and royal knights whilst my king despairs over his mead in Dorset,any top tips before the national diet becomes smoked herring?

[CountMRVHS]

First, welcome to the forums!

Second, congratulations on having a VI game where the Vikings come out swinging -- you should consider yourself fortunate, as sometimes they simply wither away in Scandinavia, content to tend their crops and go ever deeper in debt. Which usually makes for an easier game, but not nearly as fun.

Third, you're screwed.

Well, ok, that's not entirely true. In fact, since you're the Irish, you may actually have the best hope of any other VI faction. But from here on in, it will probably be very difficult sailing for you. Let's look at the Bad Things:

-Viking navies trump all other navies
-Viking heirs are typically awesome, with crazy command and a unit that can eat your heaviest unit for breakfast
-Because of their special ability, the Vikings can move from province to province at will, even without a port, as long as they have boats in a nearby region; all the while raiding the countryside for cash without even taking your fort.
-The fact that they're moving from province to province like this will probably start to affect your Influence rating soon, which in turn affects the loyalty of all your generals, which ....

well let's look at the Good Things:

-They've apparently invaded with a typically small force. That means, even if they take the fort and conquer your province outright, the populace will be very unhappy with the tiny army of pagans, and you may likely get a loyalist rebellion in your favor.
-You're in command of some very rich land (or at least part of it), so financially you should be well-off. That means you should be able to quickly build Inns all over the place (if you haven't already) and hire a bunch of mercenaries.
-As the Irish, you have the ability to train some units that are perfect for killing armored Vikings: Gallowglasses are great shock troops, perfect for a flank attack while you use some Armored Spearmen to hold the enemy in place; your Bonnachts and Kerns (I think) are both armor-piercing, which again will be most useful when you can hold the enemy down with your spears.
-If you can survive this invasion, it's likely that the Vikings will run out of steam and try another poor faction, or just retire back to Scandinavia altogether.

So, in addition to the above, my tips are as follows:

Keep fighting! You'll lose the first several battles, but eventually there will be a point where you will wear them down. Also note that the Vikings are typically cav-poor; if you can recruit some merc Mounted Nobles, you can use them to draw away the slower heavy infantry and then pounce on them when they give up the chase and try to return to the rest of the battle. Just remember to disengage when the elite types start to melee with your cav; cav always loses in VI. Run away and wait for another opportunity.

Strategically, you should always try to fight them on the battle map, but make sure you'll have some men left to retreat into the fort if/when you lose. The other thing to consider is that the Vikings are going to move around, like you said, from province to province -- so obviously, don't empty one province to save another, because the Vikings might end up going for your now-empty province and taking it without a fight.

If you can afford it, keep building up your navy where there are no viking ships; but this will probably be rather futile.

Anyway, good luck! Let us know how everything turns out

CountMRVHS

[The Electric Celt]

Cheers fellow that's some wonderfully structured advice!Yes I'm currently gaining loyalist rebellions and have some decent' dogs of war'from my inns in Saxonland awaiting the chance to cross the Irish sea.Wearing down has so far been as painful as haemorroids but I'll keep plugging on.Work finishes in an hour then It's a four pack and an afternoons battling before the missus spoils my fun.(Strangly we are hosting a tour of the factory by a bunch of swedes,might give'um a slap in case everything goes really pear shaped ) Thanks again,I'll let you know

[antisocialmunky]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Kerns javelin throwers in VI? I've never played with the Irish so I'm just thinking about generic units more or less.

Vikings seem to have trouble with armored spearman, they can pin a unit of vikings pretty well for a little while. Now, you can slam some gallowglasses into the back of them or run some kerns around and javelin them. The key is to not confront them head on. The only unit that can really take out vikings head on is the Saxon Huscarle and even then it's not a good idea to take them head on.

One of the best ways to whittle an enemy down is with archers, defend, retreat etc. Attack, retreat. :)

[ichi]

The problem is the high valor of the Viking units, which is compounded by the Command rating of the King.

Since the Irish have no archers try using Kerns and Bonnachts and Dartmen behind spear troops; let the spears hold a position while the javelin troops hit them from all sides if possible.

For the King, look for some mercs. Try Pictish Mounted Xbows or Welsh Bandits (good luck finding them), or just get a vanilla archer and work on putting a bolt through his eye.

ichi

[Patron]

build a navy