is the varangian guard beatable

playing the turks in mtw early and expert and every time i come up against high valour units of the varangian guard it doesnt matter what i do they seem to chew through every thing i throw at them with ease.

Even if you attack èm with archers & fall into their back with (heavy) cav? I`d try that.....Good luck against 'em Viking mercenaries!!!!

OK, here's my experience, gained (often very painfully) over numerous Turkish campaigns.
Firstly, avoid them if you can, they're pretty slow and most of your starting troops are quite quick. The Byz can't build many of them, so concentrate on walloping their Kataphractoi and Trebizond archers instead.
If you have to tangle with them, use horse archer (or better yet, Turcoman horse) units (preferably working together as a pair, see the MTW Unit Guide in the Guides section) to wear them down until they're exhausted and then finish them off in combat.
If they're charging your line, front them with spears and hit them from behind with ghazis, whose armour piercing bonus and high morale will see them through.
Expect heavy casualties, but remember that your troops are cheap and replaceable, Varangian guards are expensive and are only really going to get recruited in Constantinople due to their high tech requirements.
If you can hire any crossbows or javelins at all as mercenaries, do so and keep them exclusively for use against Kataphracts and Varangians.
If you want to make the Turks work long enough to get the amazing Janissaries into action (at which point everyone else is basically doomed), practice skirmishing with horse archers. Practice a lot.
Good luck!

One the topic of wearing them out, I find the Ai generally really likes chasing my general around. And generals have good stamina too. Just don't get caught. I often run those big dangerous unit types (that have less stamina than my general) in loops through my spread out horse archers. This both wears them out and maximizes the flank and rear shots from the archers.

Do have to micromanage the whole time though.

Originally Posted by kaloioannis

playing the turks in mtw early and expert and every time i come up against high valour units of the varangian guard it doesnt matter what i do they seem to chew through every thing i throw at them with ease.

Isolate and soften with arrows, then pin with Spears (charge!) then lastly charge at back with Cavalry (on wedge formation). It doesn't matter what unit, they will break (so long as you use relatively comparable units).

Against Kats for example, you need to use an Armenian Heavy cav to flank. Either that an another spear.

yep the varangian guard are beatable. i've done it several times (playing mostly as the turks). the problem with the varangian guard as pointed out earlier is that there aren't that many of them. once you've wiped out their comrades, you can basically throw everything you've got at them.

they're not immortal so eventually, you'll beat them through attrition. if you want to keep your casualties to a minimum however, follow the suggestions above. use skirmishers to wear them out and then attack them with heavy units.

its true, janissaries rule!!! janissay infantry will chew through practically anything the enemy can thow against you.

Originally Posted by greywolf

yep the varangian guard are beatable. i've done it several times (playing mostly as the turks). the problem with the varangian guard as pointed out earlier is that there aren't that many of them. once you've wiped out their comrades, you can basically throw everything you've got at them.

they're not immortal so eventually, you'll beat them through attrition. if you want to keep your casualties to a minimum however, follow the suggestions above. use skirmishers to wear them out and then attack them with heavy units.

its true, janissaries rule!!! janissay infantry will chew through practically anything the enemy can thow against you.

the byzantnes A1 seem to have hordes of them with high valour units and high ranking generals.i have managed to survive after whipping out the egyptians and almohads while i received some respite when the byzantines had to deal with the golden horde.this gave me the chance to build up my provinces and i have only started producing jannisary heavy infantry but these are low valour units and the varangian guard are chewing through these guys as well.have just lost syria and are being pushed into egypt need help as my empire is crumbling.the byzantines have also whipped out my fleet and control the entire medditeranean basin and have turned into a roman lake.

In my current campaign as the Turks, I blitzed Egypt right at the beginning of the game, then re-grouped my forces at the northern border of my kingdom (sultanate?) and attacked the Byzantines. I took Constantinople within three or four years, thereby removing the Byazntine's possibilty to build Varangians for a loooong time. :D

Practice, practice, practice.

Somebody found out the power of my kids...

pin them down with heavy infantry (with good defence, janissaries if you have them, or european mercs) attack from the rear with either heavy cav or heavy infantry with bonus against armor.

Anything, including varangian guard units, are beatable if you exhaust them by running your cavalry all over the place, fill them with arrows, and them hit them in the flanks and rear with cavalry.

Originally Posted by kaloioannis

the byzantnes A1 seem to have hordes of them with high valour units and high ranking generals.i have managed to survive after whipping out the egyptians and almohads while i received some respite when the byzantines had to deal with the golden horde.this gave me the chance to build up my provinces and i have only started producing jannisary heavy infantry but these are low valour units and the varangian guard are chewing through these guys as well.have just lost syria and are being pushed into egypt need help as my empire is crumbling.the byzantines have also whipped out my fleet and control the entire medditeranean basin and have turned into a roman lake.

Kaloioannis,

can you post a screenie of your strat map showing the byz - love seeing campaings where an AI faction is doing well esp against a human opponent.