How to win in Viking Campaign

[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?

[Geezer57]

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?

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....

[ajaxfetish]

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.


Ajax

[Patron]

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

[Bregil the Bowman]

[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.

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.

[King Kurt]

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?
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!!

[Deus Ex]

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

[ajaxfetish]

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

[Patron]

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

[King Kurt]

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

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.

[King Kurt]

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!!

[Patron]

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.

[King Kurt]

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

[matteus the inbred]

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.

[ajaxfetish]

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

[Matty]

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.

[King Kurt]

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.

[matteus the inbred]

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.

[King Kurt]

Ah - the Welsh. 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.

[matteus the inbred]

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?

[King Kurt]

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.
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

[matteus the inbred]

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!
i find bribing is terrifically expensive compared to vanilla MTW, fl23,000 for a few hundred Mercian fyrd under a crap general eg.

[King Kurt]

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.

[antisocialmunky]

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