Denmark

[Krackin]

Sorry about the grammer in above post. Also i'm on H/H.

One last note, sense crusader units tend not to like killing other catholics i autocal battle with them. This seems to nullifie that.

By the way, has anyone noticed that holding toulious (sp?) andthe castle just north of it gives you free reign to kill off the Moors, Spain and Portigal(i know i spelled that wrong) whenever you want because they will be to weak to do anything from fighting eachother?

[eire1130]

The following is a black sea expansion plan / story:

In TW:M1 Denmark was my faction of choice, though I'm not sure why. I beat the game on England and then moved on to Denmark in this newest edition and here is how I did it.

My initial strategy revolved around good relations with the pope and a solid sea based trading empire. I also wanted a more historical expansion, so I chose to expand towards the black sea. After the Danes were removed from the Dane law, they expanded towards Siberia, indeed up until recently there were sizable portions of The Ukraine that spoke an old form of Swedish. I did the standard mercany hiring and made way towards Bruges with one Army and secured the north country with the other. I also grabbed Stettin. I then progressed into a short build period before being attacked by the poles. Once they were ex-com'd I I expanded towards their countries, keeping the Venetians and Hungarians as Allies. The Russians attacked as always and I took this opportunity to take Riga and later, finland and novogrod. I finished up the poles by taking Iasi. Expanding in this direction can be dangerous if the Mongols decide to go north, and they entered Sarkel, declared war on Russia and I knew they would be on me.

Since I didn't think the Russians could hold the northern fortress, I decided to take Vilnius. This gave me a line of three Fortresses all the way to the black sea, which held off the Mongols... although barely. I started to run into money problems.

In the mean time, I was financing my endeveurs through the taking of and sacking of german cities. This worked fine until I ran out of german cities to take.

Around this time I held Tunis, due to a crusade, which was helpful in instigating the Sicilians. They were perma exiled the entire game, after this point, giving me more financing options and expansion opportunities, which I didn't take many of.

When the plague hit I started to lose 20K / turn. Though, I only went red for two turns, I believe. Towards the end of the plague a crusade was called on Constantinople, around this time the Timurads invaded as well. The Hungarians held this space. I Expanded back west from Iasi and took out the Hungarians in three consecutive moves. They went from ally and five provinces to eliminated.

Fending off the Timurids proved to be the most difficult thing of all. I was playing a bugfixer mod (med2 lite) and as such, once my tower canons were upgraded, they too weren't so bad.

A crusade was called on Jereuselem (sp). I took this opportunity to take three provinces in the holy lands (the two just north of the Jer). The Venetians backstabbed me, the last three provinces I didn't own in central Europe and I finished the game with four or so turns remaining.

I ignored the new world.

This could have probably been done faster or more efficiently, though the big problem for me was fighting the stack after stack after stack of Mongols and then timurids. It turned out to be a giant garrisoning money sink, which I would have rather spent on the better money making provinces to the west, but such is life.

I play Hard/Hard

[oz_wwjd]

The Denmark Infantry good but not that good.In my recent campaign as the english,massed retinue longbowmen mowed most of them down before they got a chance to be a threat,and my armoured swordsmen and General's bodyguard units finished what was left of them.

[RoadKill]

I need a little help with Denamrk, which I have just started today we are in year 1119 and i have 8regions of Vilnius, Riga, Oslo, Hamburg, Stettin, Stockholm, Magdeburg, and Arhus. Big problem is all nearby rebel settelments have been taking and I'm basiclly compltly bourdered by russia, poland, HRE, and France. So I am compltly stuck no gaps to go through, no where to go, no where to expand, and I dont think starting a war with any of these factions are good ideas, please help me Thank you

[Moah]

I need a little help with Denamrk, which I have just started today we are in year 1119 and i have 8regions of Vilnius, Riga, Oslo, Hamburg, Stettin, Stockholm, Magdeburg, and Arhus. Big problem is all nearby rebel settelments have been taking and I'm basiclly compltly bourdered by russia, poland, HRE, and France. So I am compltly stuck no gaps to go through, no where to go, no where to expand, and I dont think starting a war with any of these factions are good ideas, please help me Thank you

8 Regions is a not bad starting point...Build up your economy and your military and then...


1) Do nothing. One of them will declare war on you soon enough.

2) Do nothing. One of them will declare war on one of the others. Then ally with one side and both of you attack the unlucky blighter in the middle.

3) Try and ally with 1 (or more) of them. Then either attack or provoke the other(s) into war. Careful of the Pope though - if he prefers the other side you may get warnings of excommunication.

4) Ally with the pope. Send a diplomat. Give him 200fl tribute for 100 turns or something. Your rating will go higher, then ally. Now...wait for someone to get excommunicated. Then declare a crusade on them or just attack. You won't lose any standing with the pope because they're heretics and the others may just help you even if not allied.

5) Just attack Poland. They're going to come for Vilnius anyway.

6) Just attack HRE. They're going to come for Hamburg anyway.

etc....

[RoadKill]

Thank you for your advice Moah, I think I'm gonna go with number 2, sounds the best for me

[Moah]

Good luck but just remember...

As a Catholic faction it's always worth allying with the pope anyway.

Trust me on this...

[sapi]

Agreed.

As a catholic, you have two choices with regards to teh papacy.

1) Ally with and bribe it - the pope will love you

2) Ignore it - the pope will hate you, will wave papers in your face, and will be dead in a few turns (*insert comment about the UN here*)

I usually go for no1, but no2 is the only way to advance with some factions, such as the HRE

[PuppetMaster]

OKAY so I have played as Denmark on H/H and I love those crazy Norse scoundrels. Awesome troops, awesomely spelled names; pretty solid all around.

Not much to really say, but all you have to do is establish trade rights with all the northern kingdoms, take the Black Sea territories, and get ready to kill some Germans (and lots of them at that). Pump out norse swordsmen and feudal knights from hamburg, frankfurt, and magdeberg (which you should have taken the initiative on and taken already) and reign death onto the German territories to the south. From there, the choice is yours on whether to trounce the Polish (if you're not fighting them already) or abolish the Frenchies. I say Poles, but that likens an encounter with the Mongols, but whatever Danish armies can take Mongol armies to town assuming you use a good amount of norse war clerics/knights, you upgrade your troops, and you take out the 10 star general............lol

[Abokasee]

Taking york in england when it's still a rebel city, can really change the campain for the better, also I find that getting exocuminacated as denmark, isn't so bad, apart from the Holy roman empire which you will have to fight off (They tend to build mass armys of peseant soldeirs which are easy work for your brave viking boys) Viking warriors are very good, along with norse archers, huscarls and norse swordsmen, these are good all round (In fact sometimes building large armys of norse archers, can be very affective because they are good in melee and ranged combat)

[King of Finland]

take the Black Sea territories

Do you mean the Baltic Sea? Black Sea is near Turkey

[rebel8303]

I played Denmark this way:

I rushed started by sending an army to the north taking Olso and Stocholm and another army for Hamburg and Stettin. I managed to take them all and also reach Riga and Helnsiki before the Russians did and capturing Antwerp first. So far so good. I had all the good intentions to obey the Pope as noone wants to have -20% public order in all of his cities. I was stuck between Catholics waiting for an excommunication...

But then Portugal (!) attacked me. That made no sense as Portugal was miles away but there was an army landed outside of Antwerp... I defeated that army but i had not built a fleet large enough to get the war in foreign territory. After a few turns the war was over anyway so I did not care.

I then got allied with French and Milan. Milan got excommunicated and I realised that I was sitting ducks doing nothing for many turns... And then Scotland declared war on me. It did not take long till I waged war upon the English as well and after a well I was the commander of the Baltic. And I could not use that at my advantage because I had not built enough port upgrades in my settlements and I was bankrupt... So I started building naval structure to increase trade income and to be able to support the current and even more armies.

When my fleets crossed the channel I realised that Portugal had expanded towards The western coasts of France and Ireland (So it made some sense why they attacked me earlier in the game). So as they were excommunicated I attacked them and got Dublin, Rennes, Pamblona and Anjers.

And then all hell broke loose. Poland attacked me and after a while their allies HRE attacked me as well. Here I have to mention that a cold war was waging between me and Russians on the Riga region. A great war went on till I conquered all of HRE and some Polish regions founding myself excommunicated. So one by one all the catholic nations declared war on me as Pope had called a crusade on Riga... Only France remained loyal to me but it had just 2 territories and no army at all...

I lost all the western France cities to Milan (my so called allies) and Spain but I managed to repel the invaders in Central Europe and in Riga. In Riga arrived 3 crusades, One from the Papal States, one from Spain and one from Hungary. I had fortified the city quite well so I repelled all the attacks. A fourth crusade arrived by Poland by I had allready defeated it once so it had not soldiers at all. All was nice until Russians declared war on me too... I had war with all the neighbouring nations...

Needless to say that each turn took half or full hour to play, I managed to systematically defeat all of them and arrive victoriously in Jerusalem and complete the campaign with nearly 65 regions under control

[Iavorios]

This is my experience from 3 campains on Vh/H whith Denmark. It will be long, so sorry if don like it. This is about the first 60- 70 turns on normal time scale.
First of all I must say that Denmark's unique army is pointless. The best way is to use armies of 5 (later on CK) FK, 5-6 DFK, 4-5 mercenary spearmen and 3-4 archers (norse, crossbowmen are merks). MTW 2 is a game whith very powerful cav. so spearmen are live savers. You can use your cav against the enemys cav. but is to expensive. It is like WW 2- tanks dont fight tanks- infantry, guns and airplanes did. The only problem of this army is than you can retrain the mercs only in Europe, but this not a big problem. Just take the 60 provinces there call crusade to Jerusalem, hire tons of crusader sergeants and win the game. As long as you stay in Europe you can fight even the mongols (whith mercs mostly). Afcourse some will ask themselves wat is the point of playing Denmark, when there is nothing unique in it? Well i dont know.
The typical denmark's units are worthless. Norse axemen lose from DFK on equal terms and Ombudsiers are even worst. The only thing that is usable is the norse swordsmen. It is slightly weaker than DFK but is cheaper, and upgrades to particial armor. It needs only drill square. O and the other god units is dismounted huskarls. They come from castle and very good early shock infantry. In fact in my game it looks like on auto resolve they are immortal. They take very small loses and kill a lot. Before turn 50 i had a stack whith 6 of them on max. exp. But using them is pointless when you have DFK.
As for the archers, I use them only to harass the horse archers and to put the enemy's siege towers on fire. So 3-4 of the norse archers are more than enough. O and the crossbows have problems whith heavy terrains, so I always tend to use things whith narrow trajectory. The militia is prity standard. The sword staff militia is god, and Norse clerics are simply perfect.
The campaign is a simply thing. I separate my forces on two parts. The king goes for Oslo and Stockholm, and the heir goes for Hamburg, Shtetin Magdeburg(if HRE doesn't beet you for it) Anverp and Bruges. Hamburg is essential. From it you can recruit huskarls and they are crucial. Anverp and Bruges have garnisons of pikemen and whiteout them it simply impossibly early on to take them. This takes less then 20 turns. After this you have few options. Going to Russia and Poland is very stupid thing to do. Eastern Europe is poor, and Poland and Russia have a lot of HA. So if go for them you will be poor, and will have to fight a lot of heavy battles. Battles are fun. Poverty is not. Not to mention than until fighting Poland you will be attacked by the HRE, and is possible to get excomed. Fighting France means fighting and HRE and excomication. So i decide to fight Scotland and England. By the time I attacked Scotland they where in war whith England. There is a big chance on of them to be chance. Even if they are not it is not a problem. By the turn 20- 25 the HRE and France may wait for you to attack them, and to crush you. But if you dont they will begin fighting whit someone else. HRE will have a lot of problems in Italy, And France will have problems EVERYWHEARE. O give them a chance to ruin themselves. By the time you have pope problems the AI's will be to busy fighting eachother. And after you sack Britain you will have enough money to fix the problem. 20 000 will do it.
When you conquer Britain you get very rich. All you have to do is build you economy and wait until France angers the pope. Pay him for crusade and create huge stacks of crusaders to crash anything. Then kill HRE. The important thing is to whatch for the pope, and to use spies. Every attack must take city whithout siege, making it impossibly for the pope to stop you.Bribe the Pope, wait the cease hostylitis misions (better force the enemy to attack you). and use every chance. When you dont expect fightings for the next couple of turns dismiss the crusader mercs. They are to expensive to maintain in peace times. After France and HRE's north go for the money in Italy. By the 40- 50 turn Milan ore Venice will be out of the catolic faith, so a crusade whith 3- 4 full stacks will do the job. When you finish the crusade, use spies and siege weapons to take take the rest out North Italy in 1-2 turns. The point is to make Venice your eastern border. Bi that time it will be a large city. Put the ballista towers, some sword staff militia, 3-4 norse clerics and a good general and this is it. After This you will be rich, whith easily defended borders and will have the chance to do whatever you want. To blitz the rest of the map, or (as I do) to develop and wait for the "World is round". And all this way before the Mongols arrive.

[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 .

[PuppetMaster]

I know what you're saying about Obudashers, it does seem like they are relatively weak in combat against say billmen, armored swordmen, etc., so I try to use maybe 2 or 3 battalions of them MAX in an army, just to mix things up a little and defend the flanks.

However, Norse Axemen have proven to be a menace against enemy troops of all types and have taken minimal losses in combat, so idk whatever. I'm playing on VH/H, so its not like its on easy or medium.

Norse swordsman are fun to use as a heavy infantry type fodder (I know that sounds sort of like an oxymoron, but hear me out). They are powerful enough to crush most other spearmen in the game, but are not as powerful as DFK. Plus, they are cheaper than most Danish infantry if I recall, so I use them to fight and takre a majority of the losses in battle while my DFK and Norse Axemen hang back or flank, where I only use them if the battle goes against my favor. Kind of like what the roman republic did w/ triarii in battles, but my troops have huge beards and axes, lol

[Mad Mac]

Obudashers have proven very effective for me. The thing is, you have to turn spearwall off for fighting infantry. I've tested this with various halberd units. I'm not sure what the difference is, but I've figured out that Halberds in spearwall=dying like flies, while Halberds running around with spearwall and guard wall off=ownage. Weird but true.

[Ramses II CP]

The trouble I have with Norse Swordsmen is they have no stamina. They're cheap, and relatively high durability, but if you need to fight two stacks or have them run some distance they get tired quickly, and then they break or get torn up in the fight.

Don't get me wrong, I still find them useful, I just hate to have any part of my army break just because they got tired.

[Aemilianus the Younger]

I was dealing with the mongols down in jerusalem and they finally got defeated. i ended up allying with the turks.dont ask me how and why, the mongols were going to wipe us both out.
but anyways, after the mongols were destroyed, the very next turn the timurids show up near baghdad and whatnot,
my question is: is it ever possible for the mongols and the timurids to be on the map at the same time?
it seems that every time the mongols are defeated, the timurids show up like the next turn or atleast within five or so.
is this a feature or a bug? or is it just a coincidence?

[Autumn]

The Danes, like Sicily, are a very replayable faction, mainly due to there “peninsula” starting locations offering protection as well as military launch pads, and a wealth of different opponents to take on (including non-Catholics).

Starting out I usually make the same opening moves; make the Faction Leader (Knud) and Heir (Charles) into roughly equal armies (leaving the peasants behind as a garrison in Arhus) and take Hamburg, Stettin and (controversially…) Madleburg. I know some question Madleburgs worth, having no access to a port, and there being an initial need for income, but I’ve found that keeping it, and Hamburg, as Castles provides a formidable barrier for your capital and northern provinces.

Taking Antwerp and Burges should be the next priority. Personally I find these two to be uncomfortably positioned; 2 turns march from Hamburg and pressed between England and France make them vulnerable to attack, but their money spinning abilities can’t be denied.

After that I take Stockholm and Oslo, having both as cities to make a good economy when they “come of age”.

Try and get alliances with both Poland and HRE. If you’re lucky you can get a marriage alliance with both, giving you a lot of room to breathe (at least for a while). Poland usually goes to war with Russia if you stay friendly with them, taking the attention away from their western borders.

Although it’s been said taking the British Isles is a boring strategy, it usually makes two things happen.

First, it makes France attack Caen and whatever regions they still own on the mainland (usually Rennes and Burges, if you weren’t quick enough to get it yourself). What follows is akin to the Hundred Years War; a grinding battle of attrition which drains them both of coffers. To make things a bit more interesting, try giving the underdog (usually the Brits) regular tribute, Military Access and large Single Payments when you’ve got some cash spare. This keeps the conflict going without dragging yourself into it physically or politically. The Pope may excommunicate one of the two, so make sure you’ve got a force in Burges ready to strike their Gold chevron peasants, maybe even crusading into the conflict. There’s something satisfying about the Pope patting you on the back for ending a war you started and kept going…

Secondly, whilst all this insanity is occurring in the west, you can be safely expanding east into Russia, or, if HRE gets excommunicated, spreading south towards the Alps, all without disturbing your allies or the Papacy.

The Danish roster is quite resfreshing; lots of anti-armour infantry with reasonable spear and archers. They are let down by a lack of top-end cavalry, which can be countered by getting some crusades under your belt and some Templar HQ's. As has already been noted, their tech tree tends to give out before the late period, meaning your star will be rising highest before the advent of gun powder. It's not a serious problem, and can even make for some exciting battles and interesting campaigns (Portugal storming out of Iberia with Muskets being a particularly suprising one).

Well, I hope you've all enjoyed my rambling first post!

Peter

[TKaz84]

Why expand eastward? Sure with Poland as allies your back is covered, but there are several major disadvantages:

1) Russian provinces are dirt-poor.

2) Russia's cavalry is excellent, and yours isn't.

3) The provinces themselves are huge, which will make traversing them with mainly-infantry armies a daunting task.

4) Mongols.

I would much rather wait for either the Poles or the HRE to be excommunicated, preferably the HRE, since again I want to avoid dealing with eastern cavalry. Sailing over to Inverness before the Scots take it is also a good idea.

[Autumn]

Sure, Russian cavalry is better. Scottish spears are better. English bows are better. Does this mean you should never attack them?

Northern Russia is laden with forests, something that will put your heavy infantry on equal standing with their cavalry. "Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster".

Only Moscow and the western/southern provinces are widely dispersed. Russia’s capital and "core" provinces are all fairly bunched, meaning quick attacks will conquer that entire region. Whether you go ahead and take the rest of their lands or not hardly matters then; they will be so economically crippled that retaliation will take the form of "nuisance" raids.

[ixidor]

I agree with TKaz84, why take Russia? I prefer to ally with Poland and keep the frontier cities with a big garrison (to avoid stupid AI attacks that would break the alliance). Better, mary your princess with the polish heir. Why all this? Because this way you can target:

1) England and Scotland. By conquering the british islands and Scandinavia you will ensure a very profitable trade region
2) HRE. By going south you will soon reach the wealthy cities from Italy
3) Both of them

Then, after destroying HRE, England and Scotland you can take France and Italy too.

Autumn, the Danes' worst foe is arguably a strong cavalry nation. By going east you will have to face 2 of the most powerful cavalry nations of the game (Poland, Russia) AND the always terryfing mongols. And sure, after several, several turns your easth territories will turn to profitable settlements, but why to do that when you have more profitable ones closer to you? And as it was very well mentioned, infantry armies suck to travel in the large Russian territories.

[SeekerDK]

Hi Guys.

This is my first post, but when i started a M/H Danish campaign (pre: 2x M/M with England and HRE respectively, non completed) and found this thread, I thought I would make it here (and being a Dane my self, of cause helps on that aspect <- yeah, that a language warning). I'm still in the "beginning", but so far it has been a BLAST.

After my hugely unsatisfying english and HRE campaign (bored with being a godlike superpower) i decided to up the ante and go for the harder battles and hacked my way to an early start with Denmark (I hate fighting on my heels, but Medium battle setting was simply ridicules). Very good choice, TBS part also got a bit harder in terms of more units, bigger stacks and thus bigger need for units, upgrades and retrains. Much more satisfying :)

Went heavy on the German rebels and got most of the settlements before the AI and settled in and looking for the rest of Scandinavia. Maann, Stockholm and Oslo was disappointing, hard fights and little spoils, no building and low pop's. Converted Oslo to town as soon as I got it and my only castle was Hamburg (IMHO, unless waging wars on multiple fronts or having a huge and stretched empire, one castle producing 3 units EVERY turn is far enough to cover most needs). Ally with Poland (seems to hold), the princess move for some Italian trade and Tributes and 2 diplomats going east (south east) and West.

Ok, so far so good. No enemies yet and a fair income and territory. HRE attacks, suckers :) I take their capital, whats-its-name, in a few turns, having my main/only unit producer located almost on top of them and pumping out scouts, dis. huscarls and the hugely overpowered Norse Archers (more on them in a later post). And luck shines again, they get Ex-commed and their free game. I take some roaming units and another city (forget city names, sorry*) and HRE should be on their heels now, but nooo, they just keep coming, not that they prove a real problem thou (but makes the game more enjoyable).

After some pope pumping (and unit building) I finally get him to call a crusade on the new HRE capitol (right next to Venice) and I take my 2 best family members and a roughly 25 units and join (2 groups). I fill up with cheap crusade mercs spears and horses (now 2 generals + 34 units). I wreak havoc on my way :) taking 3 cities from HRE in 3 turns (including crusade target - think its Nuremburg, Innsbruck and Bologna). Even thou i leave the 2 non-targets defenseless for the first turn, they weren't reclaimed and as a result I got 36 unit experience "for free", 3 citys which looks like might hold (including Innsbruck castle), popes favor and a massive army waiting in northern Italy (was thinking Milanese next, but open for suggestions).

Meanwhile, back home, my king who lurkers around in what is now Belgium, had some issues with the English, and only with a little luck and a lot of mercs, held against their first attack. Thou I fear that they are just gathering strength for a new attack. After trapping a Scottish ships exit from a bay area, they decided it was time for war and the obvious choice is now to take the whole of Great Brittan and hope the pope doesn't interfere. The alliance with Poland seems to hold thou :) And i haven't heard much from anyone else (thou I do trade with most of them)

So to sum it up for the Danes.
Hard is good
Scandinavia is bad
HRE is a walk-over
Pope is useful
Polish are friendly
Norse Archers RULE!

[SeekerDK]

*oh yeah.
Anyone know of a highres map of the M2TW world? I could really use the oversight.