Gah VIKINGS!

[Derfasciti]

So the vikings can convert? How exactly does that work?

[drone]

So the vikings can convert? How exactly does that work?

I think it just happens when the majority of their provinces turn christian. If I'm not mistaken, when it happens they lose their pagan buildings and they no longer get the full value of buildings they destroy-loot from a battle. It can hurt their economy if they are still reliant on raiding, and might decrease their aggressiveness. Sending priests to the Viking-held lands is one way to get this going, but the coversion rate can be slow.

[satchef1]

I find the vikings quite easy to defeat. The secret with VI is learning the way each faction does things, each one has its own area of specialty and its own weak points.
The Vikings always use infantry-heavy armies making them vulnerable to Skirmishes so use missle troops to harrass them as they approach your main force. They also chase anything, so if your worried about a particular unit just put a some light inf/horse infront of it and slowly lure the unit away then pelt with missles/charge with heavy cav from all directions (if it heads back to the army, charge at it, halt and run away again).

For the main fight, draw out 4 or 5 units of Armoured Spearmen to about 6 ranks deep. Place your general and archers (if you have any) behind and your Celtic Warriors, horse and missles (kerns, irish darts or, preferably, Bonachts) to the flanks. When the enemy are commited to fighting your spears send your celtic warriors into their flanks and your missle troops and horse behind their lines. Let off a few volleys of javalins/darts then send your cavalry charging into their rear. Count to 10, then chase the routers and celebrate victory (although you wont have many spearmen or celtic warriors left).

[macsen rufus]

Vikings turn Xtian when 80% of their population is Xtian -- keep building pagan shrines and take out any missionaries with assassins, and this need never happen to you. You REALLY don't want to lose that pagan raiding bonus...

[Derfasciti]

How much exactly is the pagan bonus for raiding? Anyone know?


Also, I've always been confused about forming troops into ranks and all and I think that's a good bit of why sometimes my troop deaths are like 700 vs their 100

[Geezer57]

How much exactly is the pagan bonus for raiding? Anyone know?

It's not a numerical bonus, like they get +2 attack or something. It's their ability to leave any coastal province (even without a port), and their ability to pillage buildings before winning a siege - all they have to do is capture the province, not the fortification. This lets them hit a province, win the initial battle, destroy the high-value buildings, grab the gold, and move away before the defender can mobilize enough troops to overwhelm them. They get to bounce around the map, staying one province ahead of you, while you play "whack-a-mole" with a very elusive target.

Also, I've always been confused about forming troops into ranks and all and I think that's a good bit of why sometimes my troop deaths are like 700 vs their 100

Rank bonuses only apply to spearmen and pike troops - other troops can be set as low as one-man deep, and function fine. The one area where every troop type benefits from more ranks is when receiving a charge (especially a cav charge against infantry) - they'll hold better when set deeper. But spear and pike troop types get both defense and attack bonuses when in deeper ranks (and "ordered"). You can tell when they're obtaining the bonus by the unit animations - if the men in the back are performing the "attack animation", they're doing fine.