Making Money As The Vikings

[CybrGamr]

I started an easy campaign playing as the Vikings. I quickly moved across the sea and captured the two territories at the top of the map. As I continued to improve, my florins disappeared (expected as I spent money). Before too long I had captured 4 territories but was int he hole over 900 florins. What should I be trying to do - as Vikings - to raise money besides raiding?

[Sensei Warrior]

Well, most players raid to prop up their economy until they find a suitable (aka rich) place to settle down. Remember your goal is the same as any English faction Total Domination.

Most players look for provences that have rich farmlands and they at least have farms. So that means you are probably going to aim for settling in the Saxon, Mercian, or Irish regions. Buff up your economy with the conquered provence. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

As for raiding make sure to hit up all the abbey provences for 'donations'.

[Peasant Phill]

As the Vikings you have one major problem: you can't feed your armie let alone develope your provinces. Solution: raid. Unlike all the other factions you can leave a province without a port by sea, my suggestion make the most of this feature. Take all your men except the two thrall units and attack the northern most island. Raize it to the ground and leave it the following year for another province with a monastary. Make your way south and add units to your raiding party. When you reach Ireland, you should have enough men and resources to make your second homebase there (nice farm ncome in Ireland). After that you shouldn't have any problems with money. Remember to trade to!

[CybrGamr]

Should I then slow down on building any new buildings until I can establish a constant source of income? Are their buildings that I should build in the territories I conquer?

[Vladimir]

Keep raiding until you have 50k, then take over the Danelaw.

[Martok]

Should I then slow down on building any new buildings until I can establish a constant source of income? Are their buildings that I should build in the territories I conquer?

Essentially, yes. Follow Vladimir's advice, and raid first until you have a sizable treasury. You don't necessarily have to save up until you reach 50k florins, but you should probably have at least 30-40,000 or so.

Once you do, try and settle down in provinces that already have some sort of farmland, as they're expensive to build on your own (not to mention take a while to construct). As Sensei Warrior and Peasant Phill have already pointed out, Ireland and the lands of southern & central England are the best places to actually put down roots and begin building.

[Adrian II]

There is of course some real history behind all this. Due to the (relative) overpopulation and lack of means of development of your Viking lands you can only expand by using your superior shipping and Infantry to feed off Saxon lands. Don't forget to bring Raider Cavalry so you can ransom as many of the fleeing landlubbers as possible.

[caravel]

The vikings are easy. You don't need to raze a province to the ground, just invade and siege any province with an abbey then withdraw. Start in the north and work southwards. Circle Great Britian and then move onto Ireland. By the time you've finished you'll have 30,000 - 50,000 florins easily. You should then withdraw all of your ships to gain a ceasefire and then invade south east England and Establish a foothold, to begin trading. You can raid with your original ships and units, there's usualy no need to train anything until you're ready to settle. Developing your own provinces for trade should be a priority.

[Deus ret.]

Yep, the Scandinavian homelands are definitely decent trade provinces. basically do what others posted and raid as much as you can, but temporarily spare one or two factions which have a couple of ports (the AI likes to build them for some reason, and even if they get some boats they'll perish in the face of your uber-fleet). you even don't need armies to raid (so disband them if you like), just use your king and/or heirs and make sure you fight most battles yourself. that way, you're in for some really unrealistic victories (60 huscarles against 400+men) which may be boring but will boost your king's stats nicely (and subsequently his heirs'), making them even better at raiding.

be sure to tech up to huscarles ASAP in order to retrain the non-king huscarles. attack the saxons/mercians once one of them starts to churn out huscarles at a certain rate, apart from pict x-bows and propably berserkers, they're the only units which pose somewhat of a threat to you.

easy. almost cheesy. but a lot of fun! I might start another campaign with them with the rule to only recruit Viking thralls as garrisons and fight all battles with my royals only. might be getting nice vs enemy huscarles

[drone]

Also, think of raiding as strategic bombing. With the Vikings it's pretty easy to cripple the other factions by razing provinces. You can take their money, and keep their tech low until you are ready to settle down. Ireland is a good place to start settling, and getting rid of the Irish early is a good idea with the Vikings, their plethora of armor-piercing troops can be a pain.

[Martok]

Ireland is a good place to start settling, and getting rid of the Irish early is a good idea with the Vikings, their plethora of armor-piercing troops can be a pain.

[Martok grumbles on about stupid Kerns and stupid Bonnachts.... ]

Uh, yes yes! By all means, you should really settle down in Ireland....just because it's pretty.

[Martok strolls off, whistling to himself]

[caravel]

I usually invade southern England first and concentrate on the Saxons and Mercians. Allying with the Mercians while clobbering the Saxons can be a good idea if the opportunity arises. If you concentrate too much on Ireland you may arrive in Great Britain years later and find a fully established Mercian Hegemony, complete with a huge Fyrd of fully upgraded Huscarles. This means years of Huscarle vs Huscarle battles, except that the English factions also have better Cavalry.

[Deus ret.]

This means years of Huscarle vs Huscarle battles, except that the English factions also have better Cavalry.

If you did everything right up to that point, not even they can pose a threat. I played a Viking camp yesterday and stopped after having more or less crushed the Mercians (who had swallowed the Saxons prior to that, so were a real superpower with tons of good units i.e. huscarles). I only used my royals/ex-prince generals for all kinds of battles and by the time I invaded Mercia they had become so uber from winning unnumbered battles against hordes of spears/peasants etc. that almost every one of them had 10+ valour. It was a veritable carnage. 6 huscarles (=360 soldiers) defeated over 3.000 invaders, among them at least 12 huscarles while losing less than 150 men. okay I waited for them in the woods in order to neutralize their archers (against upgraded huscarle armour...yawn) and the wimpy cav they had deployed but I hadn't thought of such an easy victory. Seems as if it's almost impossible to lose with the Vikings even if not recruiting any combat units at all.

[caravel]

You're right of course, they can hack their way through practically everything. I just find it dull going through province after province of large Mercian stacks.