Denmark

[SeekerDK]

I mean DFK will always perform better than the norse axemen, or the obmbudsier. I don't like it, but it's a fact, unless you mode your game. Just test them on hard difficulty on custom battle. The dismounted huskarls are good, cheap and easy to get, but are weaker. So the only reason to use norse axemen and obmbudsier is to feal more unique game and pure fun, or make the game harder. In both cases you have my respect .

I'm sorry Iavorios, but I think you a missing a vital point.

First of all, it seems you hugely overestimate the power of the DFK. I agree that they have and incredible talent for staying alive thanks to they wooping 21 defence, but their attack is a measly 13 with no bonuses (AC / AP) and going against anything more armored then a low-end swordsman would be bad tactics unless its defensively. Their a no-brain unit if there ever was one. Thou they are good tanks (disregarding their lack of killing power), perfect meat shields and their high morals let you charge them anything and anywhere without them running away.

So you tested them in a head-on collision with some axemen? It should have been a forgone conclusion. Axemens 17AP attack is fighting DFKs 21 defense (17,5 with AP reduction), while as DFKs meager 13 attack is sufficient to take out the axemens no-shield defense of 11.
Try another custom where you have 2 DFKs vs 1 axe + 1 DFK (or even norse swordsmen). Have the swordsmen charge into battle (preferably engaging both DFKs) and the axemen flank. Since the DFK cant kill anything with more armor then a garden snail, you'll have plenty of time to position you axemen for a full speed flank charge. Bare in mind that axemens charge bonus are second to non and rarely match and they will slaughter through the DFKs like nothing else can.

Its all about tactics.

I personally hoped for a very powerful axe to handed sword units, and some spears. Instead we got a typical catoliks whith powerful FK, DFK and CK. I expected infatry heavy armies, and i got cav heavy instead.

I'm sorry, are we playing the same game? Denmark has 9 different infantry units and only 2 light (Including Viking Raiders, which in my book, can hardly be called "light"). No other faction has more then 8 infantry units and their axemen are only bested by some of the late noble swordsmen. They almost total lack of middle age spearmen are annoying at best, thou combining high attack/AP axes and high defence swordsmen makes up for some of it.

The fact that they late cav's, are par with every other faction, is a general game flaw, in that it bases most late cavs on guildhouses and general building (thus standardizing all factions to FKs, CKs and small variety of noble/religious knights). Thou and interesting note, the Norse War Clerics's AP proficiency is quite unique and actually put them at par with any other highend cav, if fighting heavy armored units and not charging.

Still working on that "Norse Archer" post

[SeekerDK]

Norse Archer thread :)
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=93479

[Iavorios]

Ok. I dont understand why wold someone use heavy infantry for flanking when you have CK or norse war clerics, or even FK. It is possible, but not as effective. In fact in all my battles the cav does the killing. I use DFK to kill spearmen and to fight on the walls only. Using heavy cav is much more fun, more effective and way more easy. Only 4 or 6 units of heavy cav can rout and kill the enemy if it is pin down by the rest of your troops. I will love to use heavy infantry only when i am certain that they will kill the enemy easily and without constant micromanage. Like the JHI (except in 1.02 ver.) .O and for the last time- 2 handed units in this game are buged. Norse axemen should be unstoppable unit of man killing psihopats, but they are not.

[SeekerDK]

Ok. I dont understand why wold someone use heavy infantry for flanking when you have CK or norse war clerics, or even FK. It is possible, but not as effective. In fact in all my battles the cav does the killing. I use DFK to kill spearmen and to fight on the walls only. Using heavy cav is much more fun, more effective and way more easy. Only 4 or 6 units of heavy cav can rout and kill the enemy if it is pin down by the rest of your troops.

Using your cavs to hunt down archers makes more sens to me and cavs only really makes sens if the have enough room for a full lance charge, which is not always the case. From my perspective, Axemen and dismounted Huscarls are still very acceptable choices for flanking units.

I will love to use heavy infantry only when i am certain that they will kill the enemy easily and without constant micromanage. Like the JHI (except in 1.02 ver.)

One might dare to dream :) I agree, that it is less then optimal in multiplayer battles, where you can't pause for micromanagement and sure, it can be a hassle, but also well worth the effort.

O and for the last time- 2 handed units in this game are buged. Norse axemen should be unstoppable unit of man killing psihopats, but they are not.

Well, it was actually the first time I've read it, but I must say i suspected it and totally agree. But even thou the don't live up to their stats, it doesn't make them useless and when used correctly, they're still a darn good unit.
FollowUp: Found a fix for the 2H unit animation bug: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=74094 thou looks like it's made for 1.0 and 1.1, so not sure if it works on 1.3 (will try to find time to test).

[rvg]

A word about Viking Raiders: they RULE! They are cheap to recruit, they come in large numbers (112 men on large unit size) and they get 3(!) armor upgrades.
Raiders with 3 armor upgrades beat fully upgraded Dismounted Feudal Knights into bloody pulp. Raiders are great for taking and defending walls, chopping up *any* melee infantry, they are very easy to retrain and being a low level unit they gain experience like crazy? Dismounted Huscarls? Norse Axemen? Nah, Raiders get a much better bang for the buck. By the time I dismiss my raiders, I am ready to replace them with Obudshaers, Arquebusiers and Serpentines. Pre-gunpowder though, it is all about the raiders. My typical army would have 12 Raiders, 4 Norse Archers, 2 Catapults, and a couple of Generals (or a general + feudal knight/war cleric).

[Sebastian Seth]

I started with these:

1. Marry princess to english heir.

2. Peace with HRE and Poland as long as possible.

General 1: Hamburg -> Maddeburg -> Settin -> Brugges -> Flanders -> Caernavon -> Dublin -> Castle in north of Scottland
General 2: Oslo -> Stockholm -> Riga -> Helsinki -> Castle below Riga -> Kiev

At this point I had strong alliance with the english and option to attack russia whit out excommunication. The economics where good and I used dismounted huscarls and norse archers as core units. Im a firm believer in mercenery forces and usually at some point the original viking army has been switched to all mercenery force.

General 2: Cordoba

I had new family members at the time. One assembling force to attack novogrod in helsinki and few in Aarhus assempling force for reinforcing new russian front. And the general 2 from dumbling/caernavon was in crusading army that just took Cordoba. (Aim of the crusade was antioch but I usually take out quite a few settlements on the way.)

This is point where computer ai did some stupid moves.
- Polish sieged Riga with few units and took the castle below riga.
- French attacked Brugges and took it.
- Scottish Sieged castle in north of edinburgh.
- French attacked the english castle of Caen.

- I retaliated Riga from helsinki and attacked setting from Aarhus.
- English landed near the scottish and I used them as reinforcements to repel the scottish (happened twice).
- I turned my army in Kiev around and attacked polish castle near Krakow and after that the polish kapital Krakow.
- I send another of the new family members to attack Bruges and got it back. After that I took paris and Rhein as well. (France where going strong on english and there was very weak militia defence).
- I send the other family member from Aarhus to attack rest of the polish settlements.

By this time I was exomunicated and in war with France, Poland, Scottland and Portugal. And also had very bad relations with HRE, Spain, Milan and Venice.

I tried to reconciliate with the pope and cease fire with the natios I was in war with but me efforts was not met from the opposite site.

I had quite a few family members at that point (or actually quite little but I tend to build one stack army to every one so they where quite good military power). So I tought I eliminate the catholic factions that cause me trouble and then retry to reconciliate.

- I took out the portugese, french and polish. This lead to war with milan, HRE and spain. I avoided the conflict against spain and stayed on defence there. Against milan I attacked straight away because their army is largely based on italian militia and genoese crossbowmen. Dismounted huscarls, huscarls, norse swordsmen and norse archers are really nice force against them. This maybe because the faction leader was over 10 star general with 8 dread and the huscarles where silver/gold veterans.

I had so much family members that I could actually start war agaisnt ordodox nations. Russians where quite hard since I had to run around eastern europe conquering these small castles but I got them destroyed finaly. I attacked constantinopole from the sea right after that too.

After english king died I had control of edinburg as well. The english back attacked me right after in france and I took everything in brittain as revenge. English got caen but I got it back later on with the forces from london. Killed english in bretagne for good.

Destroyed Factions: France, Portugal, HRE, Poland, Russia, Scottland, England, Milan and Papacy(?).
In war with: Constantinopole, Spain, Hungary, Sicily, Moors, Egypt.

Theres definedly something wrong with the AI and its diplomatics. I only wanted to war against the Islamic and ordodox factions but the AI decided otherwice. Pope is stubbarn as well, when it comes to amount of christians I control and the amount of popes I killed. I should be able to choose next pupet pope.

I didnt want to go to this but they forced me by stupid attacks. None of them got excommunicated.

[Paladin1965]

Just finished a Dane short campaign. Money was a little tight at first, but was not a concern in later turns. Turned the northern factions (Oslo and the like) into my viking factories. Waited for the HRE to turn on me; unfortunately, the Russians and the Poles chose to do so at the same time, but was able to handle it.

[locked_thread]

edit

[kitbogha]

I was a bit bored the other day and looking through my old saves to see if anything struck me I could finish. I saw a Danes game I had forgetten all about. I can't even remember starting it. However, I loaded it and found I was on turn 102 with 15 provinces spaced between Scandinavia, Britain, Northern Europe (Caen, Antwerp, Bruges, Hamburg etc) and Jerusalem. It was one of the first campaigns I played and I have obviously picked up a few tricks (often through fellow generals on this site).
After a couple of sessions I am now at turn 123 and have 26 settlements. My expansion has been largely at the expense of Sicily and Milan, who had the bad luck to be excommunicated. Also I have taken the opportunity to take almost all the Egyptian provinces, except the one at the bottom of the map (name eludes me) and Jedda which I have an army marching on as I type. An Alliance with the Moors has strengthened my Western flank. My standing with the Pope has shot right up-it was poor at the recommencement of the campaign-due to dealing with the rogue Catholic factions and the Infidels. Due to my perfect relationship with the Holy Father I can now pick my targets. Someone is always getting themselves excommunicated and if not I can pick off Muslim factions from my Middle East bases. Jerusalem is always unruly and costly to pacify so I simply removed my garrison-after stripping it off any buildings of value and left it to rebel. I hold Gaza and Alleppo so can easily and quickly build an army to retake it if required to by the Pope.
The only fly in the ointment is my extended borders in Northern Europe and their vulnerability to attack from France and HRE, who I am allied to but knowing those sneaky continentals I can not rest easy! An excuse for war with France would be welcomed-currently as well as being my allies they have a high standing with the Pope-as it would enable me to convert a few of my castles to cities in Britain, Caen etc and reduce my garrisons along those borders in Northern Europe. Next moves? Consolidate in the Levant, prepare for war with the Moors-I must remember to spam out some priests from Egypt to smooth the way-, advance down the Italian peninsula while the Sicilians and Milan are still on bad terms with The Pope, take Ajaccio and Cagliari in preparation for war with Moors and as launching pad for attacks into Spain. Build up settlement on eastern Scandinavian coast-?Gothenburg-for forays into Russian held lands, maintain good relations with Poland and HRE for the time being.
My impressions of the faction:
1) The faction starts in a decent strategic position with expansion possible on all sides. Alliances with France and HRE can enable expansion across the English channel to North of Scotland, down to Hamburg and across to Bruges and Antwerp taking only rebel strongholds. Then the choice is yours:there's money to be made in Britain and the opportunity I missed to take on a still weak France leaving opportunities to the South and East. I also did not take advantage of the Danes seafaring reputation and launch assaults into the vastnesses of Russia-there are lots of rebel settlements in the Baltic states, which would be an excellent bridgehead both for trade and a war against the Russians.
2) The heavy infantry is the strongest side of the army. Viking raiders (as has been stated here) are a very good, cheap backbone for your army. They have high stats for attack and reasonable stats for defense. I have found much of the roster to be fairly bog standard and unadventurous. I like cavalry and artillery and enjoyed a fine win against the Sicilians just now grinding down their infantry with bombardment from a trebuchet, three bombards and four sets of ribaults then piling into them from both sides with six units of feudal knights and my Generals bodyguard-the routing sicilians were truly a beautiful sight to behold! I am using sword staff militia and norse archers as garrison troops.The troops are reliable but unadventurous.
3) For some reason other factions tend to hold their alliances with you longer than in other games I have played-when I play as England I am forever being stabbed in the back by my "allies".
4) Once you are in the Popes good books, it is easy to move forward and stay popular.

I am enjoying this campaign, even though I can't remember starting it (serious lack of sleep due to new baby the likely cause!)

[TKaz84]

The Danes are very good at storming castle walls-Norse Swordsmen are perfect for this role with their high attack value, large unit size and one-handed weapon. Two-handed weapons cannot be wielded effectively on castle walls. Alternatively, try using Norse Archers for this role. They are basically heavy infantry that can shoot bows too.

Cavalry will be hard to fight using the base Danish units, as they don't get any kind of spear weapon aside from Spear militia until Obudshauers/Swordstaff Militia later in the game. Mercenary Spearmen are your best bet here. Your own heavy cavalry selection is rather limited, but Norse War Clerics (trained in cities with an Abbey) and Huscarls have armor-piercing weapons, making them good choices to use against enemy heavy cavalry.

[Gbone]

Hey -

I'm a long time lurker.

In one campaign (the basic) I went on a destroy-Germany campaign and went south. The only problems that I had was to keep the empire together, and the choice on whether or not I wanted to kill off Milan or Venice. That choice was a bit difficult due to the Papacy frowning on me, which was ironic.

The second I focused on the coastline, namely the cities west of me, with the difficulty being Germany (since I went to Hamburg, that city SW, and the city W of Denmark) and France. I was one step away from crushing England (actually put a large army north of London) when a crusade was called for Tolouse. I got Tolouse and then Milan backstabbed me.

[cambovenzi]

Hey -

I'm a long time lurker.

In one campaign (the basic) I went on a destroy-Germany campaign and went south. The only problems that I had was to keep the empire together, and the choice on whether or not I wanted to kill off Milan or Venice. That choice was a bit difficult due to the Papacy frowning on me, which was ironic.

The second I focused on the coastline, namely the cities west of me, with the difficulty being Germany (since I went to Hamburg, that city SW, and the city W of Denmark) and France. I was one step away from crushing England (actually put a large army north of London) when a crusade was called for Tolouse. I got Tolouse and then Milan backstabbed me.

moral of the story is never trust milan (or any other faction for that matter, if unmodded)
:)

welcome to the forums, btw.

[IceWolf]

I started my 2nd campaign, 1st with the Danes. Right away I took Hamburg. I intend to keep it garrisoned as my southern basiton of defense against the HRE. I tryed to marry my princess to a HRE noble but was turned down. I did secure an alliance though. Next I took Oslo, converted it to a city and toook Stockholm as well. I then turned south to Antwerp. I sent one noble and a 3/4 stack on a crusade to Jerusalem. I stopped at the isle of Nicosia to establish a base of operations there. Many of my men had deserted by now. I hired some mercs who also deserted by the time I was able to get a seige in place on the holy city.
I'm going to try to wait out the seige and hope they don't sally as I have only 6 units and no funds to hire mercs. Meanwhile I took my main army and took Inverness from the rebels then sailed south and took London. I plan to move on the rest of the Brtitish Isle settlements to better establish an economy and eliminate England and Scotland from the game. The early army I'm fighting with isn't as good as what I had with the English, I hope it gets better soon.

Lab

[IceWolf]

Some turns later. It's all falling apart around me. I took Jerusalem, Bruges and London but got my northern army wiped out at Nottingham. Lost 3 generals including the king. Then the HRE stabbed me in the back and took Antwerp and Bruges. Its good that I put a half stack garrison in Hamburg, it's now beaten back 3 assaults by the HRE. Meanwhile the arab savages that populate Jerusalem (10% catholic) kicked me out. To add insult to injury the scots took Inverness. My empire now consists of Oslo, Stockholm, Arturs, Hamburg, Stettin and Nicosia. I packed up a general and a 3/4 stack from Jerusalem and am transporting them back north, hopefully they wont get attacked on the way. Napoleon said that if you're faced with multiple opponents you should strike the strongest first, but even if I succeed against the HRE I'll just be going straight south into Europe and be sopurrrounded by new enemies. No I will hit the weakest-Scotland with the crusading army and a new army I'm trying to build in the homeland-money's tight though. I plan to hit Inverness and Edinburgh simultaneaously and pray I'm not outnumbered then consolidate and go south to fight the English.

Lab

[Maltz]

I removed the original content because I have found a much better way to start the Danish game on VH/VH. In the old version (sail straight for London, I own 3 cities at turn 18. In this version, I own 6 regions by turn 14.)

Turn 1: Sail 2 generals north with the spy and restart until the spy opens the gate. Buy a unit of crossbowmen merc just outside Oslo. Exploit the AI's dumbness to pick out the defending crossbowmen, and shoot down all the infantry. Very satisfying.

Reason: Oslo can be converted to a large town (3000 pop to start), giving 1500+ income right away.

Turn 3-5: March your 2 generals, spy, and the crossbow merc east to occupy Stockholm. This town is very small and needs a lot of turns to even grow to pop 2000 (I am currenty turn 30 and it still has a pop. of 1500, despite my low-tax benefit!).

In the meantime, build up the Brothel - Inn line in the capital and ship the assassins and spies west to the British Isles. Send another assassin to Caen.

The 2 generals and their army landed on British Isle at turn 10 or so. In my game the AI only had the England King in Nottingham - easy win and one less assassination to do. The next Turn I rushed for London, which was only defended by non-ranged units. My 3 spies there made sure the gate was open.

I declared war on England and attacked them twice. Luckily the Pope didn't give me the cease fire order.

Then I assassinated all Scotish generals. They were trying to "escape" from boat, but my longboat fleet took care of them.

Although I landed the British Isles about 4 turns later than my original game, the VH AI built up their towns significantly better for me to use (free port, mines, etc.)

With this setup I am now in turn 30 with 14 regions.
4 from Arhus - Oslo - Stockholm - Hamburg
7 from British Isles
3 from coastal France to link up with Hamburg.

Economy is great and I only have to worry about France and HRE. France has just been totally wiped out by assassins. Strangey HRE became a vassel of Vernice, but they were doing pretty well still (what the?).

[shankly]

I'm not at all heavily involved with any of these games, although once upon a time I spent hours with Shogun, MTW, and RTW, but at this point I'm pretty far removed from all of this and am not in touch with the new generation of Total War. However, I'm trying to put together simulations of the Battles of Maldon and Assandun (Ashingdon) as part of an overall presentation on the Danish conquest of England. To this end, I have a few questions for anybody who can help:

1. Are there existent simulations of these battles that I could download without having to go through the messy process of trying to precisely control the battlefield action myself so that it's historically accurate?
2. If not, is there a way to control both sides in a battle so that I can effectively produce these battles in a way that fits with the historical record?
3. Even though MTWII starts from 1080 on, is there a way that I could use it to recreate the battles, since the units (I'm guessing based on the improvements from RTW) look much better and would create a more interesting viewing experience for my audience?


Thanks for any help-this is for a senior-level history course on the Norse world and I'd like to be able to use this as a more interesting way of presenting my subject matter than drawing x's and o's on a chalkboard.

[O'Hea]

1. I can't say that I know about that.

2. If it's important to control both sides, I'd recommend setting it up as a multiplayer battle, with another person controlling the opposing army.

3. Aesthetically speaking, the early-period troops all have a very Dark Age aesthetic, and the Danes have access to suitably Viking-looking infantry, archers and cavalry. There is also a Saxon faction available in custom battles, and they'd be a good bit more accurate than the (Norman) English faction.

[jack95]

I had a really good campaign with the Danes. I took all of the rebel settlements around me using practically all of my starting armies and then made peace with my neighbours and built up several biggish armies with the money generated from trade and the cities i had. I then marched south and destroyed the HRE with them and carried on into Italy which practically bankrupted me becauise of all the mercanaries i had to hire but it left me with a massive strip right down the middle.
After this i made an alliance with Scotland and helped them destroy England, taking several of their settlements. Straight after this i betrayed the Scots who were quite weak from the war with the Brits. This left me in a good postion to attack France from two sides which took them out of the game pretty quickly.

I have found that the Danes have a really good economy and have some epic infantry and is probably my favourite faction.

[dzidek]

Denmark has the best troops for fast early expansion.
Viking Raiders are like Zerg (if someone played Starcraft :P). They destroy every infantry in early period, and fully upgraded fight better then DFK.
There is really no needfor Denmark to use any oher infantry in a field battle. I usually combine them with Norse archers for my foot soldiers regiment, supported by some cavalry i have at the moment available.
This allows to use troops in all the battles so they gain expeirence fast. And almost every castle can retrain them.
The trick with the vikings is they have AP attack and are in number of 75 compared to a normal 60 unit. So they defeat even the JHI or VHI cos they out number them greatly.
Sadly there is little use for other infantry. Huskarls are better then vikings but are only 60, Norse Swordsmen ar just like Norse archers so no need for them. I use swordstaff militia in towns, but thats it.
If i face a cav heavy opponent i take them to the woods where the vikings shine even more.
If i have to fight in the open i just use some Swordstaff militia or some Obudashers instead of some vikings and norse archers.

Normal army: 6-8 viking raiders, 4-6 norse archers, rest flanking troops (cav or 2h axe)
Open field cav battle: 4 viking raiders, 4 norse archers, 6 obudasher, rest flanking cav

[Myth]

VH/VH huge unit stacks (dzidek you are playing on small?)

I like the Danes, just tried them out yesterday. I love difficult starts with one city. The main disadvantage of the HRE for me is that you get so many family members and cities that it feels more like early midgame than true early game. Anyway here are some things I did well and some I messed up on my first try:

1. Expansion - Get all your units in the heir, go take the castle to the south before the Germans can go there from their capital city. From there, proceed east and take all the cities that are rebel. USE THE SIEGE TRICK IF YOU LACK MOVEMENT SPEED. If you are only one square too short to start sieging, take your general and send him to declare siege and then merge your army with him. Now everyone is siegeing (not sitting there right next to the city but you can't click because you have no movement left). Two things I could have done better (and I will tonight)

- Continue expanding into the Russian rebel provinces. Take every port town that has trade routs in the Baltic sea. Because on VH/VH eventually your standing with the other nations will fall, it is imperative that you establish strong sea trade with your own cities.

- Take the town and castle in Scandianavia ASAP with your faction leader. I waited too long.

2. Establish diplomacy - this is a common trick use don VH/VH. I took my Princess and sailed her off to England. I married her off to Rufus, took the English princess for my own lad, alliance, trade and map info for 2000 florins if i remember correctly. Remember, each additional ally you get makes you more valuable to ally with, so the second alliance you can sell for 2600, the third for about 3000 and the fourth can go to 4500 or more, depending on which countries you have as allies already. My mistakes:

Did not make additional diplomats fast enough. As England the minute you ally with the HRE, France and some Italian faction the Pope already loves you. But as the Danes I could not get my papal rating past 4 stars using this. So the solution is to hire more diplomats, ally with EVERYONE you can and go to the pope ASAP. Get an alliance with him no matter what! You need high papal rating to manipulate the first Crusade!

3. As a Catholic nation you can boom your economy using crusades. As I mentioned before, I did not do this fast enoguh but sooner or later the Pope gets bored and declares one on Jerusalem. ALWAYS send your full stack there. If you can and have the necessary starting army, take your faction leader there as well. Along the way take every turkish settlement you can, loot it, tear every building down and give it to the Pope or let it rebel. Note: In my game the pope managed to hold Iconium, Acre, Antioch and Jerusalem even as I had burned them down. Not sure If the Papal States are hardcoded "immune" to rebellions a-la SPQR from RTW?

So with the crusade you get the benefit of no upkeep for a dozen turns or more + 5 or 6 major towns that are looted and plundered along the way + command stars and chiv for your army.

4. Don't go for racial purity in your family tree: Even though I married my boy on turn 2, my heir did not come of age until the HRE had started attacking me already due to the VH dropping of standing with other nations. As such, it was foolish of me to turn marriage proposals and adoptions. You can affoard to not take in filthy peasants in your royal bloodline as England, France or HRE, but the Danes will suffer greatly if you do this. I also had the unfortunate luck to have my first two children be girls (which sucked badly). Perhaps what you can do is wait until your heir has kids. If the first two are boys you can maybe not take in extras ,but if they are girls you pretty much have to.

5. Development: remember, the land clearance line of buildings give both income AND pop bonus. Build them everywhere ASAP. Denmark and it's surrounding provinces are well populated but have two huts and an outhouse for infrastructure! This puts you behind for the first part of the game, compared to the awesome tech of Byzantium, the Italian cities and their stupidly good buildings, England, France and the mighty mighty HRE. My priorities are:

Roads > Fields > Ports > Traders > City Halls . Later on when you get rich enough you can affoard to bump up the City Halls as they give pop bonus as well. Your cities are surprisintly good when it comes to military. Your militia spears are decent, better than the English, Russian, Polish etc. ones. You have militia crossbows who are always awesome to have for defense. Also, every town with an Abbey has Norse War Clerics and those guys are really good! For the castle line, go for Axemen. Before them, the Dism. Huskarls are great - AP, high attack, medium defense. They will plow trough most things (the truth is I took everything with autocalc, your early armies rarely take more than 50-100 casualties. I waste time leading armies when it matters).

6. Trade - you have the advantage of very rich resources in your territories. Scandinavia and Northern Europe are all littered with them. Make merchants and establish a monopoly! Also, block land access to Scandinavia with one longboat to prevent the greedy AI merchants from taking your stuff. For some reason last night I could not seize enemy assets even with a 30% chance of success!


edit: On units - make use of your dism. Huscarls and Huscarls. Especially your Huscarls. By the time others start showing up on the battlefield with Mailed Knights you have these bad boys. Cavalry with AP = dead enemy Cavalry and a disemboweled enemy general. Always seek the cav fight if you have 3-4 units of Huscarls. On the melee line, untill the enmy starts getting VHI or Dism. EKs your guys rule supreme, because all your infantry has AP. And AP=dead spear infantry and dead DFKs.