Best raiding germanic/scandinavia strategy?

[makaramus]

I want to form scandinavia and raid europe so much I dont want to see green remaining coastal province (or land next to river if remaining germanic?) and use its riches to make scandinavia a heaven
what should be best strategy?
by strategy I mean:
1)Blood-line(I dont care so much about artifacts by the way)
2)religion/germanic reformation
3)goverment(feudal/merchant republic)
4)Capital location... (do "empire capital" matter? or should I make skane or sealand my capital?)

I planning to not expand so much. IN BEST CASE(not even planning to go that much) I will conquer britain too since its an island and I got so much navy.

 

[AaronPaulRaider]

I am new so cant offer much advice, but I played EU4 and this Arumba Lets play inspired me to buy CK2 and only play as Østerbøtten.

You can see if any strategies he used would help you.

I would like to know some good strategies too since it seems I am always smashed, regardless of how well I am doing after the HRE decides to call a Holy War on me.

One thing I noticed last night, if I voluntarily convert from Pagan religion to Catholic, I can still raid. I didnt know that until I converted to attackers religion and discovered I could still click the army's "raiding" button.

 

[Serenity84]

Don't worry so much about best or optimal strategies. Some things are better than others, but this game in no way requires optimal play. There are plenty of options

Either Uppland or somewhere in Denmark make good capitals in Scandinavia.

One thing I noticed last night, if I voluntarily convert from Pagan religion to Catholic, I can still raid

Raiding requires either culture, religion or government. Norse can always raid (unless you have a Catholic liege for example). But if you become Catholic and also lose Norse you can't

 

[AaronPaulRaider]

Don't worry so much about best or optimal strategies. Some things are better than others, but this game in no way requires optimal play. There are plenty of options

Either Uppland or somewhere in Denmark make good capitals in Scandinavia.

Ye, I had a game this past weekend where I lost my home counties of Østerbøtten/Kemi/Lappland and was left with only Skjalland (capital of Denmark that I sniped while Denmark was in a huge war with Sweden or Norway I forget). I lost them after my Chief dying and the wacky inheritance Pagans are stuck with and my family took all my counties.

So I was sitting there in Denmark actually making monthly money (which was a really new experience since the counties up north made almost nothing) when the HRE's Eye of Sauron set its sites on me and my religion.

Long story short, I'm starting a new game tonight.

 

[Blinckx]

I want to form scandinavia and raid europe so much I dont want to see green remaining coastal province (or land next to river if remaining germanic?) and use its riches to make scandinavia a heaven
what should be best strategy?
by strategy I mean:
1)Blood-line(I dont care so much about artifacts by the way)
2)religion/germanic reformation
3)goverment(feudal/merchant republic)
4)Capital location... (do "empire capital" matter? or should I make skane or sealand my capital?)

I planning to not expand so much. IN BEST CASE(not even planning to go that much) I will conquer britain too since its an island and I got so much navy.

1) Ragnar Bloodline is made for raiding and you don't have to do anything special to acquire that bloodline, just have to play as Ragnar ( son of Sigur in 769 start )
2) Sons of Ragnarok is designed for raiding but, IMHO, there's a lot better than that. Agnatic clan + Stability is so powerful for pagan tribal, it solve all your succession issue ( bye bye gravel-kind )
3) Don't rush into adopt feudal, stick on tribal as much as possible, build eveything you have with prestinge in your demense and then adopt feudalism
4) Uppland just be sure to hold several coastal holding

Aim for Venice - Rome for easy money, Kent if you want to raise your moral authority
Always join the warrior lodge ( less injury in battles + special loot mission ) and lead your troops to archive the Viking ( ravager or sea king ) trait

 

[Saphire]

1) Ragnar Bloodline is made for raiding and you don't have to do anything special to acquire that bloodline, just have to play as Ragnar ( son of Sigur in 769 start )
2) Sons of Ragnarok is designed for raiding but, IMHO, there's a lot better than that. Agnatic clan + Stability is so powerful for pagan tribal, it solve all your succession issue ( bye bye gravel-kind )
3) Don't rush into adopt feudal, stick on tribal as much as possible, build eveything you have with prestinge in your demense and then adopt feudalism
4) Uppland just be sure to hold several coastal holding

Aim for Venice - Rome for easy money, Kent if you want to raise your moral authority
Always join the warrior lodge ( less injury in battles + special loot mission ) and lead your troops to archive the Viking ( ravager or sea king ) trait

You should probably hold off Rome, and only attack Venice if you are in early game. The pope will always hire about 5k mercenaries, so unless you are using doomstacks, avoid him. Venice has a similar problem - all of the patricians and all of their retinues stack massively if you let them regen, and since you are attacking from boats onto an island, you have half morale and terrain maluses. Instead, run your troops around super big nations like France - pillage a bit, don't touch the holdings, just the avaliable loot, switch to england so france lowers their levies, and then switch back. This way, you can make a good bit of money with only a couple hundred troops.

 

[makaramus]

1) Ragnar Bloodline is made for raiding and you don't have to do anything special to acquire that bloodline, just have to play as Ragnar ( son of Sigur in 769 start )
2) Sons of Ragnarok is designed for raiding but, IMHO, there's a lot better than that. Agnatic clan + Stability is so powerful for pagan tribal, it solve all your succession issue ( bye bye gravel-kind )
3) Don't rush into adopt feudal, stick on tribal as much as possible, build eveything you have with prestinge in your demense and then adopt feudalism
4) Uppland just be sure to hold several coastal holding

Aim for Venice - Rome for easy money, Kent if you want to raise your moral authority
Always join the warrior lodge ( less injury in battles + special loot mission ) and lead your troops to archive the Viking ( ravager or sea king ) trait

since I asked this for too long ago
1)yes I agree but I didnt ask historical one but found one. I decided to take city building bloodline because I built A LOT OF cities in denmark wich my capital. gave uppland and its coast to religious head (excominication is very strong since it allows you to imprison your rivals easly). When my realm split since I am holding empire rank I just ask my brothers to be my vassal and revoke their kingdom titles back.
2)I did pick sons of ragnar and meritocracy. sons of ragnar because I want my vassals to conquer and spread religion also raiding temples incrase morale authority
3)I did rush into feudal because I had thrall modifier maxed out at my capital and maxed everything.
4)Capital is denmark now since region holding SO MUCH coastal land. Entire denmark is directly under my command with lots of cities in it.

I know where to raid. Venice and rome is simply easy target I agree

Currently denmark is all green Got 16 k levies since I made tribes assist me with men more so I didnt lose my military at all. its year 850 and crusades didnt start naturally

 

[Woifee]

Don’t play the Af Munsö Dynasty. You can create your own Raider Bloodline by raiding 300 Holdings. That’s easy. Then you can still get Ragnarrs Bloodline trough breeding. Sadly he often dies before successfully reproduce.

You can crish the HRE with a prepared Invasion. Cripple it and you won’t have any problems.

 

[makaramus]

Don’t play the Af Munsö Dynasty. You can create your own Raider Bloodline by raiding 300 Holdings. That’s easy. Then you can still get Ragnarrs Bloodline trough breeding. Sadly he often dies before successfully reproduce.

You can crish the HRE with a prepared Invasion. Cripple it and you won’t have any problems.

well... AI did it for me while adventuring I landed him

 

[Rags17]

Click on the Wealth map view and look for the greenest (ie richest) realms to attack. Focus on small but rich isolated islands (eg Venice, Crete, Sardinia etc) and rich petty realms (ie most of England, then Ireland). Start as soon as you can by raiding with whatever you have on hand, spend all your loot on shipyard upgrades. As soon as possible start overwintering in the field, ie siege holdings down completely. This yields much more loot but more importantly yields dozens of hostages you can ransom, educate or takes as concubines. Eventually start taking out entire petty kingdoms via invasion, as previously noted never reform to feudal until you have upgraded whatever you can via prestige.

Another point. Every Norse Germanic coastal province automatically gets Shipbuilding Tech 1 and Shipyard 1 when the Start of the Viking Era event fires in 796, but with a bit of luck and focused effort you could get both about 5-10 years earlier. This allows you to start raiding before the rest of the hoi-poloi and hit the fattest targets before they get looted to the ground.