Tips for Viking playthrough

[Jules Casey]

So, after finishing my Charlemagne game (and, as nearly always, forming Rome and conquering the whole world), I wanted to try something new. But after trying as both Fairhair (Gotland) and Whiteshirt in Jorvik for half an hour or so, I think I suck at playing vikings, so I'm looking for a couple of hints.

Jorvik went a bit better, I finished the invasion at game start, the ruler died before the end of the war (what was nice, because you know, gavelkind) but then I was kind of stuck. Since I have only 1 province with norse culture (and there are only very few coastal norse provinces in britain, what I planned to comquer), I have next to none ships so raiding is no option, what kind of defeats the point of playing a viking (i.e. plundering Europe). I tried to do another invasion on Wessex with the new ruler but got no event troops and was crushed. Is it just tough luck, am I an incompetent military leader (I fear so...), or should I wait a bit before the next invasion / do some other expansions before (where)?

As Gotland, I had more ships (though still only 2 coastal provinces at start, but scandinavia is norse so more ships are within reach) and went a bit looting. But I'm kind of stuck concerning expansion options... I tried to press my de jure claim but the other guy was just stronger and seemed to have a hell of alliances (tribal vassals, I guess?). Should I take the get king ambition and take on some of the 1 county rulers in Norway before going for bigger prey? Or should I go straight to England with a called invasion, or something completely different? Are there some other easy characters for absolute viking noobs (though I think the two are among the easiest... Whiteshirt starts feudal and Fairhair has just godly stats and is quite large)?

Also, do you have some tips on looting in general? I'm not sure if raiding with levies is worth it, due to the upkeep. And since my vassals in scandinavia are tribals, I can't use their levies (which would be free of relation penalties, since we are unreformed pagans?) to do the raiding. How do you guys do the raiding, levies, vassal levies, retinues or only the raiding event troops?

 

[MaP_Prime]

Depends on how you want to play. I always prefer to play my viking games with the goal of forming the kingdom I start in and reforming the Germanic faith and eventually try and form the Empire of Scandinavia. I would recommend trying two different starts. Right now I'm playing through a game where I started as the petty king of Uppland (forget the name of it before you go Swedish culture) which I feel is a good solid start for something beginning their first viking game. The ruler is Bjorn Ironside. I feel like Sweden is a good starting area for vikings, far enough away from Christians that holy wars aren't a real concern early on, and if you play one of the big powers your neighbors aren't much of a threat, unless they're are Bjorn Other than that try a chief in Norway, try and be far enough away from the Danish counties in Norway to avoid getting conquered early on. Always try and expand against your neighbors is my feeling on that. Gain allies, or try and get the gold of mercenaries, once you have two or three counties under your control you should be ok for expanding unless you're being threatened by a larger power.

Another thing to keep in mind is focus on building up your prestige as much as possible. Being able to raise tribal armies when you really need an extra 2,500 troops is real handy so try and have a spare 500 prestige on hand if you feel like you might need a sizable force quick. Also build up your tribes when you can so having prestige to build buildings is also useful, this will give you more troops to raise.

Now as for raiding that can be a bit trickier to handle. I've figured out a way that works for me not sure if it will work for every one. As i said, typically these days when I play vikings I'm starting as Bjorn Ironside so I already have a nice big realm to control. But I used to play a lot as Norwegian chiefs. In both cases when I start raiding my favorite hunting grounds is south-west England and Wales. Specifically Cornwall area. I try to avoid Wessex until I get stronger but more on that later. I find the Welsh are better targets for raiding then the bigger Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Also when first starting out I would be less concerned with sieging down holdings all the way and I would be more concerned with taking as much as you get from the treasure limit. I'm sure you know that every country has a treasure bar, I would find counties with a 40-75 treasure limit preferably with that white line as far to the left as possible, loot down to the limit and then leave. Also don't worry about filling up your own loot limit all the way, you can do that later when you have the manpower to go on bigger raids and siege down holdings.

Now when you get bigger and can muster a good sized army to go raiding with you have two options, one is you can loot and plunder northern Europe, hitting France and other such areas, or head down to the Mediterranean. I like the latter option more than the former, but make sure if you are going farther away from home to raid that you have the time to do it. My favorite targets in the Med is first Venice and second Rome. In most games I've played they are both isolated, but very rich single counties without much protection for their loot. Here I would try and siege down holdings since the rewards can be very beneficial. There are other wealthy counties in the Med I would consider to be secondary targets after Rome and Venice, but they are usually better defended. I would go for them if you feel bold enough but just keep an eye out for a defending army marching your way. That's another thing, avoid fights if you can. I find when I go to raid Venice they might have retinues there (you might not see the numbers just a small soldier graphic with a flag next to it, if you hover your mouse over the flag you can get an idea how many men are there, if you can beat them go for it, if not hit Rome and come back later if you want.) When you are out raiding keep an eye out for defending armies coming to get you. Even if victory is assured for you i would try and avoid fighting battles since they will cost you troops and take time away from looting. Remember, you're out there to loot and plunder not fight battles!

Lastly when it comes to expansion beyond Scandinavia I tend to look west to Britain. My preferred target is Scotland. Whenever I finish uniting whatever kingdom I start in I will typically start to prepare an invasion of Scotland. I find Scotland a good target for early expansion, it is tribal and isolated from England and Ireland, and once you control it it can be easy to defend in case of holy wars from Christian neighbours. But just be careful, attacking anyone with a prepared invasion will likely draw in their neighbors, allies or not. So I would be careful, keep an eye on the political situation and try and time your invasions with civil wars or other wars being fought to minimize the risk dealing with too many enemies at once. Also remember to have enough prestige saved up to call in tribal armies if you need them, I often find I might need to call up two or three of them in addition to the troops gathered for the invasion plus my own army.

That's all i can think of. Not sure if it is helpful or not, I know I wrote alot. But this is how I like to play vikings and it works for me. Oh and before I forget, don't let elective gavelkind bother you too much. I used to hate it when I first started playing vikings, but I got used to it once I played the game more as an RPG then a conquest simulator. It can make for some interesting stories about your dynasty.

 

[Kumicho]

How to play as a Viking? Raid, loot, pillage for fun and glory, and conquer all before you....

 

[Kumicho]

A few helpful tips on raiding, though:

1) The number of troops needed for maximum raiding is ~600 or so (550?), so keep that in mind when you send your troops out.
2) You don't have to bring all of your troops, so make 2-3 raiding parties of ~600 troops, and leave everyone else at home to save money.
3) Start by focusing on single-county realms that aren't at war. The AI won't raise troops if you're occupying their land, so even if they outnumber you 3-1, if you land first and they don't have any troops raised, they'll just sit back and let you take all of their money.
4) When you have multiple raiding parties, you can hit multiple-county realms simultaneously, preventing them from raising any troops. Put multiple armies in your fleet (separately), move your fleet, click on the armies tab next to the fleet, and then right click into one of the counties. Then select the army groups, and you'll have the option of sending one of them somewhere else. Do that as many times as you have armies, and you can land 3, 4 or even 5 armies on different areas. It's great for places like Cornwall, where you're able to land troops on both counties and prevent any troops from being raised to defend their land. Same with the other petty kingdoms in Wales, or even places like Wessex. Remember, rulers get the VAST majority of troops from their capital, and then from the other counties in their demense. Occupy all of their personal holdings, and they won't have anywhere near enough troops to chase you off.

Once you get the hang of raiding, you'll be making HUGE sums of money/prestige, allowing you to upgrade your capital and then easily conquer anyone around you.

 

[VoiceGS]

Hey

Whenever i play as the Vikings I prefer starting in Uppland at 769 start. You have a good ruler and his son is Ragnarr Lodbrok. My goal before the year 793 is to conquer Sweden and Finland before the Finnish and then once I'm king I use my subjugation CB on the largest ruler in Norway. At game start I always send my chancellor to fabricate a claim on Neumdal (sp?) the county in Norway that is a holy site and once I've done that. I then fabricate a claim in Denmark who also has a holy site and then once I have those I try to reform on my first ruler or second, but it all depends on if your lucky with fabricating the two claims.

Just be a ware though that the Finnish, Suomenusko or Slavs will try and get the counties needed to form Scandinavia so I would get those ASAP. Probably before the ship event starts in 793. (I neglected to do so on my last playthrough and trying to get them back screwed me up big time.)

A note on fighting Pagans after you reform.. Don't worry about sending troops over the supply limit on those pagan counties to siege, just build a fort as soon as you arrive and 95% of the time the fort will have completed before you suffer attrition. The only problem I had was the fact that the Rus Kingdom was created by a large and stable Suomenusko King and he was able to bring in loads of dude to help.

If you managed to reform on your first ruler then great. It all depends on if he survives long to raid but saying that you should have a lot of piety from county conquests and of course if your lucky to get those fabrications done in time.

When the ship event fires. Start raiding. I prefer the south coast of England and Italy. Genoa and Rome are really good. If the ERE fighting in a Holy War elsewhere, go for Amalfi as well. Venice is also a good spot to raid. I would stay away from central Europe as France can usually get his army to you fast since France is always in a war with Rebels he can muster his troops quickly, so it usually isn't worth it.

I prefer to upgrade my tax buildings first as it will allow you to keep your ships and troops out raiding for longer. (If I'm either waiting for enough prestige or I have already build my prestige buildings to max.)

When it comes to converting to Feudal. I would suggest that you full upgrade your primary duchies holding to max. (I leave ship building to whatever I can get it since trying to get the tech for it is a pain.) Depending on if my de jure vassal's in my primary duchy have bad stats I usually revoke their counties for myself or if they have a great stat that I need. I usually wait till they die and then take it for myself. This is because usually when you upgrade to Feudal you will want to change inheritance and so you will loose a good amount of Demesne limit.

That's all I can think of at the moment so good luck!

Voice

 

[sumo0]

Wow, such luck.
When you king die early as Jorvik it means you can prepare invasion on another english kingdom and take it all like you did with the first war.
Mercia is a good pick.

And as Jorvik there is absolutely no reason to raid, ever.
You will be going to war for single counties all the time. And that alone will make you rich enough.

 

[Bernard95]

Haesteinn of Nantes in 867 is probably the easiest Viking start, but also one of the most versatile. You get free event spawn troops, 40 boats, 500 gold, and 500 prestige to work with. You're also feudal just like Halfdan, so there's no elective gavelkind or feudalizing to deal with. With the 500 prestige and a little luck you can literally set yourself up pretty much anywhere in the world if you do a little island hopping.

As a Viking in general though, remember that the money lies in the Mediterranean. The Eastern Coast of Spain and parts of Italy are particularly rich. You can quite easily bring back several hundred in gold once you identify all of the provinces that are rich but lightly defended. Single county counts and other isolated targets such as islands are also prime for raiding, since they will not fight back (the AI will never raise its levy if you're sieging that province).

 

[Secret Master]

I agree with others who talk about small raiding parties hitting multiple targets at one time. You can earn some good cash that way.

But consider this:

If you are Viking, and you intend to reform Germanic Paganism, you will also need moral authority. You get moral authority from looting temple holdings.

Now imagine a place with weakly defended temple holdings. A place where defenders live in tribal settlements with vassal bishops, and who can not withstand your full levy. A place not far away.

That place is Ireland.

Grab your fattest levies and sail for the Emerald Isle. Loot all the holdings. The tribal ones are not worth that much, but the vassal bishops are. They generate nice cash, but more importantly, sacking them completely generates moral authority. Rinse and repeat until you reform, decide to hit bigger targets, or you destroy all the temple holdings and there is nothing left to loot.

The Irish will find it hard to save civilization with their monasteries burned to the ground and all their precious books sitting in Scandinavia.

 

[Jules Casey]

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback and hints!

Yeah, I totally botched the Jorvik run. But I don't quite get why I did not receive any invasion troops - is there a comprehensive guide to this somewhere?

In my new run I chose Ironside and quickly subjugated all of sweden. Quite amazing, I had 3 wars at the same time (granted, against single counts and a 2 county duke, but still...) and did not even break a sweat - I kinda should have known that massive aggression from the start is the way to go for Vikings. After a quick loot run to get the necessary funds, I formed the kingdom and diplo-vassalized all counts within reach, so in Norway there's only Gotland left. And rading is just amazing, made 1k gold in a year or so. Meanwhile, a revolt with 130% levy was easily crushed (I guess it was so easy because the 130% is based on only my own levy, as my vassals' levy isn't calculated in this number?), so I could get rid of the Sumonesko rulers.

Now I'm considering my future ventures: Should I concentrate on forming Scandinavia, or should I go for a prepared invasion? The invasion would get me strong provinces, but I'm unsure what to do with them - when I take them for myself, I need to hand out the counties in Scandinavia, and be stuck with non-Norse regions without ships (I really like raiding!). Also, since I would be a feudal ruler then, can I still call my tribal vassals into war? Could I circumvent the ship problem by settling tribes to get the culture to Norse - and would these then new Norse regions get the ship bonus as soon the have the correct culture?

I think handing the counties to vassals leads to desaster, when I still stay tribal as they had way more levies, and the opinion modifier. Speaking of which, I find it quite hard to maintain stability. I get it that it is harder for tribals (or is it unreformed pagans?) because of the additional short reign penalty, but also this is my first game on the 2.5.x patch, in contrast to my last game (on 2.3.6) the devs cut down positive modifiers, I think?

 

[Thorkel the Tall]

I have played a couple of Viking runs at the 867 start, starting as Sjaelland (Sigurd) and Hæstein, as well as Balsec of Jutland. The latter was the most difficult, but I did manage to form Scandinavia (this was before conclave).

The Danish start offers difficulties (close to East Frankia), and benefits (a single subjugation away from the kingdom). As Sjaelland I started by expanding into Sweden with a subjogation, leaving Jutland between me and eastern Frankia. The I took Jutland and formed Denmark - now I controlled Denmark except the sourther parts, as well as territory in Norway and swden, but My realm wouldnt be split up as I did not have enough land to form another Kingdom. Then I focussed on raiding. I kept my Chancellor permantntly in the court of East Frankia to make sure he liked me at that worked well enough.

 

[commanderx]

Try to reform your norse faith. Declare Great holy wars every other century ---> Norse Europe and Middle East is guaranteed. Also conquer Rome and other Catholic holy places to create strife and herecy thus dividing the christians.