Denmark

[TeutonicKnight]

Iavorios, I'm not quite sure where to begin. You are confusing me. On one hand you say the Dane specialty units are useless, but then you say they are god. I think I understand what you mean, but I'm not sure you are giving them proper application. Maybe you are facing things differently than I am.

Tactically, you approach the job the same way I do. Work your way along the coasts with only a little movement inland. The Danes major strength is in it's sea power. If you can seize the port provinces, you can really get the sea trade going. That cash flow will keep you alive when you are fighting the very tough HRE or the even harder Poles. In fact, keeping those two Empires from getting to the port provinces will severely weaken them financially.

The Danish axe units are very nice because they are armor-piercing infantry, not because they can replace footknights (which are actually tanking units - high defense, and only moderate attack). They also tend to be a little faster, so they can get to the enemy line easier and with less fatigue. A charge of Huscarls will decimate the enemy spearwall. They can go toe to toe against enemy heavy infantry as well. I love the way Huscarls look when they climb a wall and slaughter the defenders. It's even better when they charge in a mob out of a tower. :)

Norse swordsmen are pretty weak. They are really only good against unarmored units, so I don't bother with them much. While they have a higher defense than dismounted Huscarls, they have the same attack, and it's not armor piercing. If I use them, I try and put them against a spear unit or something fairly lightly armored so the swords can get through. Otherwise, I'm all about the axes.

Norse Archers are great because they are decent second-line infantry as well as archers. Though I hardly ever use them as infantry on offense, I have no qualms about using them as wall defenders. They serve admirably with the inherent defense bonus.

For militia, the Danes get the same units as most Northern Europeans, but instead of pikes, they get Swordstaff Militia. Excellent defenders, and I'd say they are on par with the best pikes. Naturally armored, and decent morale, with a spearwall. These will hold a breach rather well, even against heavy infantry (though they will need some support for that).

The Armored Clergy are an amazing cavalry. These are not the charging cavalry, these are your "get in your face and smash you down" cavalry. No major charge bonus, but a high, armor-piercing, melee attack. These are major general killers, and will have no problem cracking apart heavy infantry.

Obudshaer are the top end infantryman in Europe, in my opinion. They completely replace spearmen as your spearwall. They can kill cavalry and infantry with equal ease, and won't break if supported. They get a bonus against cavalry, are armor piercing, and can form a wall. I've never had anything get past a solid line of these units.

The main weakness I see in the Danish line is the lack of end-game units. They get decent artillery choices, and the basic Arqubusier, but that's it. No high era units. So they might be a little outclassed when fighting a heavy gunpowder army. I guess you'll just have to rely on Danish ferocity to see you through. It's worked for me so far.

I may be a little biased about the Danes, but I think if you bypass their native units you are really selling yourself short.

[mbrasher1]

I agree with TK, Danish units are quite good. They have decent units all around. Great swordsmen, great pike/wall units, good cav from cities and norse archers are excellent for defending cities.

Besides weak gunpowder, the only disadvantage is in fighting Mongols or eastern armies with alot of HAs. No Danish infantry unit gets long range fire, and no pavise xbow. So your guys usually get whipped trudging towards the enemy HAs.

But the Danes are alot of fun. Some of their early units are good enough to last long into the game, getting lots of gold chevrons, extending their useful life.

[Iavorios]

The only typical Denmark unit that is usefully is dismounted huskarl, norse war clerics and the sword staff militia. All the rest are useless. Norse archers are a little better than crossbowmen (as almost everything else). Denmark is fun and easy to play, but i there is nothing unique about them. 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. Anoing.

[TeutonicKnight]

I agree, they are lacking in spears. You have to use city Spear Militia for a long, long time. Those are weak in the mid game, and tend to die fast. Armor upgrades only helps them so much.

There is a two-handed axeman. That is the Norse Axeman. 17 attack, armor-piercing of course. These guys are wicked evil in a flank attack.

Later on, you are correct in that many ways you are relegated to using stock Catholic faction units. But I still prefer keeping Axemen and Huscarls around. There are more opportunities for their axes to do a lot of damage as the level of armor goes up, and it's just awesome to watch seige towers dropping a horde of screaming viking axe-wielding maniacs on a wall.

[rebel8303]

I found Obudshaer quite useful for killing General units and defending my self in castles. They are something better than swordstuff militia which I think is one of the best units you can have to defend a city. You can't say they are useless. Obudshaers also hold the line against DFK long enough until my cavalry surrounded them after killing 2 generals some siege engines and many archer units

[Mangudai]

I'm curious that only Ivaros mentioned Russia. Most of Russia is poor, but Novogrod and Riga generate really good cash. I would rank Riga as a higher priority than Oslo. Oslo will wait, nobody else is going for it. Hamburg, Stolkholm, Antwerp, Stettin, then Riga.

I would ally with the Poles first. The Poles are interested in Riga, but if they already have a marriage alliance with you they leave you alone.

Taking Novogrod early will cripple Russia and it will not hurt your relations with the Pope. Novogrod generates lots of trade income. I would not expand into Russia beyond Novogrod because its too poor and you have the wrong kind of units for that environment. Just hold Novogrod.

Eventually it is worthwhile to take Helsinki. It trades with all the other baltic provinces and makes some money. The key to owning Helsinki turn it into a small town with very high taxes, build basic port/trade buildings and nothing else ever! If bandits show up, leave them be. Be a cheapskate landlord.

I will concede that blitzing the British Isles is a stronger strategy with greater economic returns. But... if you've already played an English campaign, maybe a Scottish campaign, maybe a French campaign where you grabbed the British Isles... do you really want to play another British campaign this time with Danish units??? Poverty isn't fun, but neither is a campaign that is so easy it's not even a challenge.

[Iavorios]

First of all sorry for the spelling in the last posts. I have no idea what happened, i use spell check every time.
Enyway, i thing that fighting Russia early on is not a god idea. This means fighting not only them, but Poland and Hungary as well, as soon as you take western and southern part of the country. Both are HA heavy, so it is really painful. And as i said it- it's not whorth it.
There is something i don't get. Many people use two handed units, despite the fact they are weaker and harder to get than the DFK. 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 .