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Thread: A Guide to the Welsh

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    Default A Guide to the Welsh

    A Guide to the Welsh

    M/M difficulty, standard unit sizes, yadda yadda …

    Despite having no evidence of Welsh ancestry myself (more’s the pity), I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the Welsh. Apart from the fascinating literature and history preserved from the early medieval period, they were a pretty hardcore faction in MTW:VI, probably my favorite faction of that campaign. The constant twin threats of annihilation and bankruptcy made every battle (at least for the first half of the game) feel like an epic, last-ditch attempt to hold off the inevitable.

    In VI2, things are a bit more comfortable for the Welsh in the early years. But don’t be deceived; your enemies are unlikely to allow you the luxury of getting your economic house in order before they come calling. You may find you conquered Wales just in time for an invasion.

    The Welsh, like the Irish factions, are all about options. They have the best archers in the game, perhaps the best cavalry in the Isles, and infantry units for all occasions. This means it’s possible for a Welsh leader to create armies tailor-fit to specific objectives: the infantry-heavy siege army; the cav-heavy field army; loads of Longbowmen and Archers for bridge duty, etc. You won’t find this variety in the foot-heavy armies of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings you’re likely to face through the campaign, but it comes at a price: after facing hordes of Fyrdmen and Spearmen who just reduced your Welsh medley to mush, you may be reminded of the proverb “The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.”

    With variety comes choices, and with choices comes the possibility of choosing poorly. When you’re playing an Anglo-Saxon faction, it’s pretty hard to mess things up at the level of troop production, because your options are: train Spears. Eventually, train Fyrds. Problem solved. But as the Welsh, if you lean too heavily on one troop type for the wrong occasion (I’m looking at you, Longspearmen), disaster can result.

    The Welsh have many options at the strategic level as well – more feasible options, in fact, than many factions in VI2. Because of the many possibilities available to a Welsh king, this guide will lay out some options, with special focus on the early years that are so critical to any faction, and then follow through with a more general discussion of obstacles and opportunities in the later game.

    First, the troops.

    Irishmen who Can’t Swim: a glance at the Welsh unit roster

    An obvious strength of the Welsh is their cavalry: in addition to recruiting Mercenary Horsemen, a Welsh leader can train Light Horsemen and, eventually, Horsemen to complement the Teulu retainers. None of these units are exactly melee grinders, but they’re all fast, they all carry throwing spears, and make no mistake: they make you dangerous on the battlefield. Without your cav arm, you’d be sunk.

    Teulu are your bodyguard, and they are excellent. They are the most heavily-armored of your troops, and they pack a mean punch. Teulu are also the only Welsh unit that is effective against armor. Mobile, hard-hitting, well-defended, and they frighten enemy infantry… what’s not to like?
    Well, numbers, for one. When one of your boys comes of age, he brings a whopping 5 of his best friends to the battlefield with him. (Apparently Celtic princes aren’t as fun to be around as their AS or Viking counterparts, who can reliably call upon around 15 bodyguard members.) As they gain experience, you may see a couple horsemen join the ranks, but never as many as you can get in the retinues of your King or Heir.
    Which brings us to Point #1 about Teulu: Use your King and Heir in battle. Welsh kings should be warlike kings, to take full advantage of the large bodyguard sizes. If the game has selected a weakling pansy as your faction heir, manually choose someone else – preferably a younger man (so he has plenty of time to develop good traits) with at least one or two command stars, or failing that, some traits that are useful in combat. Have your King and Heir each lead a stack of troops; in the early to midgame, two field armies is all you should need.
    Eventually, though, you’ll need another prince to lead an army of his own. When that happens, remember Point #2: Teulu can be effective just by being nearby. There’s no need to endanger your general by throwing him into the fray. Keep him just behind the frontline troops, somewhere near the center. If your other cav can outflank & charge the enemy, you may not even need to use your Teulu, thanks to the fear factor. If the enemy is still slugging away against your frontline troops, bring your general out and around the flanks to attack the enemy’s rear. Take the time necessary to line up an effective charge here: Frequently, a charge into the back by Teulu will break low-level enemy troops.
    If you’re really paranoid about your general’s survival rate, you can use this trick: just before your Teulu slam into the enemy, have your general blow his horn to “Rally” the troops. The general himself will stop charging, but his retinue will continue with the charge.
    Fortunately, Teulu aren’t exactly fragile, and they can have an effect on the enemy that is disproportionate to their low numbers. Because of their AP, they are great against the Royal Hirth and Hirdmenn bodyguards you’ll face in the midgame. And when you work up your King or Heir over the course of 20-odd years of fighting, you’ll see enemies crumble before you – and be able to stab them in the back when they run away.

    Light Horsemen are the most readily-available cav unit for the Welsh. They are more fragile than the Mercenary Horsemen you can recruit, but their charge and javelins are a welcome addition to your playbook. Use them like you would any light missile cav: send them out to harass the flanks of approaching (or waiting) enemies, then, when battle is joined, charge them into the rear of engaged enemies. Don’t let them stick around in the fight too long; charge & repeat as necessary.

    The first place you’ll be able to train Horsemen will probably be Miniu, on the SW peninsula of Wales, or perhaps Dinas Emrys, your capital. Don’t expect to be able to train them anywhere else for a very long time. Fortunately, you’ll be getting them just about when you’ll need them the most, when you’re facing advanced AI troops. Horsemen are more robust than Light Horsemen, but are functionally the same: skirmishing cav with a good charge.
    Since Horsemen take 2 turns to train, and will probably take years to march to your front lines, you may want to be extra-cautious with them. I use them in tandem with Light Horsemen or Mercenary Horsemen to harass the enemy flanks before the main battle is joined: When an uppity enemy Spearmen unit tries to charge, I pull them away to either side and take turns charging the rear of the Spearmen. They’re also effective fighting the AI cav. The best use for Horsemen, though, is in a well-formed charge, preferably once they’ve tossed all their spears, into the rear of the battle line – or into a foot-bound AI general.

    To supplement your cavalry arm, you’ll want to make use of the abundant Mercenary Horsemen. Their defense is actually better than your Light Horsemen, which makes them a bit more likely to survive prolonged melee. Of course, they’re also more expensive. But as your Stables will probably be some distance away from where they’re needed, Merc. Horsemen are a good immediate solution.

    I find that I’m able to do pretty well with between 4 and 6 cav units in an army, in addition to the Teulu general. If I have an abundance of military-oriented family members and not enough stacks for everyone to lead, another unit or two of Teulu makes a fine addition.

    The game distributes your cav pretty equally on either flank at the start of battle, but that’s not always the best formation. Putting all your cav on one flank may allow you to quickly overcome enemy flankers/cav on that side, which may lead to a quicker rout. When I notice the enemy seems to be massing its cav or trying to outflank me on one side, I’ll tend to move all my cav over there. On the other hand, when you’re on the defensive, having some cav on each flank allows you to toy with the enemy longer, leading them around in range of your archers.

    Perhaps the primary feature of a Celtic-style army is that it is mobile, as opposed to the static battle lines and shieldwalls of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. The primary function of your cavalry is to use their mobility to create and exploit openings in those static lines, by tempting enemy infantry out of formation and slamming into the flank or rear of unprepared or exhausted troops.

    As stated above, the infantry arm of a Welsh army has a lot of potential variety. However, your infantry are not your killers. Use them like AS or Viking troops and you’ll be lucky to walk away with a pyrrhic victory.

    Your basic infantry unit is Spearmen, a 55-man-strong cadre of spear-throwers who are decent in a melee. Keep in mind, though, that their stats are not that superior to the Mercenary Rabble. Their advantage versus their AS counterparts is in numbers and missile capability – which is not enough to win without other factors (i.e., your cavalry). At 86 shillings per turn, they are quite cheap and therefore good garrison troops, but their primary function in your armies is as a backstop for your cav. To that end, you’ll want to avoid the kind of long, drawn-out slugfests common in battles between two AS factions: once the main battle is joined, you want to end things fast with flankers and cav charges.
    Spearmen have a tendency to rout, so it should go without saying that they should be led by a family member – never a mere captain.

    Another option in the early years is Mercenary Rabble, which you should make good use of, especially as your fledgling economy begins to recover. A couple per army ought to be enough; use them on the flanks as your “wrap-around” guys and make use of their throwing spears before battle is joined. Their cost and numbers make them good garrison troops – so does the fact that you’re recruiting them from the countryside rather than from the population of a town you might be trying to increase.

    Build the 2nd-tier barracks and you can train both Swordsmen and Longspearmen. Contrary to what you might think, Swordsmen are actually more of a defensive unit, and Longspearmen more of an attack unit. Both are considerably more expensive than Spearmen, and therefore both are likely to see little use until the mid-late game.
    Swordsmen seem like obvious flankers, and indeed they can be effective in this position in the early years, when you can’t afford more than one or two per stack alongside your Spearmen. But if you want a reliable center, put them there when you can afford 4 or so, and put your (increasingly phased-out) Spearmen on the flanks or in the second rank, to get a chance to throw their javelins. The stout Swordsmen will hold the line while your Teulu are off smiting Saxons.
    I confess that I haven’t got entirely comfortable with Longspearmen yet. When grouped with other infantry units, they quickly get out of formation as you march into position, making them (and your battle line) vulnerable. They seem to die even faster than Spearmen, despite the reach of their longspears, and they are quite vulnerable to slingers and archers. They can make a “Hedgehog” formation (schiltrom), but even on defense I never see a clear situation when I’d want to use it, as I prefer to keep my soldiers mobile. Their anti-cav bonus is a nice feature, but of arguably limited utility for most of the game, as you’re fighting infantry-heavy factions. When you do face cav on the field, it’s rare that they’ll obligingly charge into your Longspearmen, meaning you have to chase them and potentially break formation.
    Things got better when I began to use Longspearmen a bit more aggressively, noting their slightly higher attack stats. A couple units on either flank is a good way to ward off any flanking cav. Ultimately, though, to me they’re just an infantry unit whose goal is to entangle the enemy so your cav can move in for the kill. If anyone has found a trick to using them more effectively, please share!

    Note that Mercenary Longspearmen are available at the first level of Inn buildings. Their stats are similar, but are more expensive & unit sizes are smaller. The chief advantage is that you can train up to 9 units per turn (assuming you can afford it), making Alehouses a good build in Tintagel and Llangurig, which are particularly exposed to attack and may be in need of lots of troops, fast.

    Armoured Spearmen are available at your highest barracks, and are well worth the wait. These are men who can go toe-to-toe with the toughest AS or Viking warriors. They are shield-wall capable, but give a good account of themselves even outside of it. Given that you’re likely to face enemy Armoured Spears at around the time you can train these guys, you’ll want a good amount in your main armies – 4 to 6 per stack, if you can afford it. (Usually I’m too impatient to train more than 4 at a time.)

    In Dinas Emrys only, you can train Armoured Swordsmen at the same time Armoured Spears become available. (You also begin play with a single unit.) I actually never trained them in my most recent campaign, as things wrapped up too quickly and I preferred the Armoured Spears for their numbers. Armoured Swords have small unit sizes, but are solid and defensively oriented, making them a good backstop for the enemy Hirdmenn or Thegns you might face in the late game.

    Note that you can tailor your infantry arm to situations you think you’ll face. If the Saxons are training lots of Horsemen, throwing in some Longspearmen wouldn’t be a bad idea; if you’re seeing lots of missile troops, though, you’ll want something more durable. Swordsmen make good assault troops (and you’ll want a preponderance of infantry during assaults anyway), while Spearmen are sufficient in a strongly-defended position, such as a river crossing or hillside, where their throwing spears can be used to most effect.

    Primarily, though, your infantry is there to run blocking for your cav; you need enough footmen so they can get in the way of the enemy, and you need them to hold until your cav can do the killing.

    All this is made much easier by the strength of the third arm of a Welsh army: the archers.

    At any Celtic Butts you’ll find Archers to recruit. They aren’t spectacular, but come in larger unit sizes than the AS Archers. Statwise, they are practically identical to the Mercenary Archers you can (and should) recruit in the countryside. In the early game, these two types of bowmen are all you can train. Because of the slow growth of Welsh towns, I found myself using more Merc. Archers than trainable ones, but at 87 shillings per turn, your own Archers make good garrison troops and they’re another way to get more arrows flying in your battles.
    I like to have 3 or 4 archers/mercs in a stack, usually behind the front line, with Skirmish turned off. If you have a long, open path to your enemy, and there are few enemy Horsemen, you can get away with having your archers out front. One or two can fire flaming arrows, to further work away at enemy morale. Archers also make decent flankers in a pinch, so if your cav get bogged down and they’ve stopped shooting because of the scrum, don’t hesitate to send them into melee.
    To make best use of your bowmen on defense, make sure they have a relatively clear shot (either by being in front or on the flanks of your battle line, by being on a hillside behind them, or by just being back far enough to shoot over their heads), make sure you’re set up in such a way that the enemy must march over plenty of open ground to reach you, and use your cav to entice the enemy infantry to chase it around, preferably leading it back and forth in range of your archers. A tired soldier is a slow soldier, and that means more chances to shoot him down.

    Longbowmen are perhaps the signature Welsh unit. They’re not armor-piercing, but they have incredible range. It will take you a long time before you can train your first Longbows (probably in Miniu), but fortunately you start the game with three. So take care of them!
    Longbowmen are also something of a hybrid unit, in that they perform very well in melee, particularly as flankers. (Their attack value is actually higher than that of many of your infantrymen.) Obviously you’ll want to keep them away from cav and head-on fights, but you may be surprised at their performance, considering they lack a shield and discernible armor.
    In addition to the uses discussed above, Longbowmen are great in assaults – as long as it’s a settlement that doesn’t have a Stockade (the *big* wooden walls). If assaulting an unwalled settlement, make sure your Longbows are positioned as far forward as possible, to immediately begin shooting the clustered enemy. When assaulting a settlement with a regular wooden wall, move them up (be wary of towers) to shoot over the wall at the defenders.
    If you’re desperate for some Longbowmen and can’t wait to grow a city to the highest level, you can train Mercenary Longbowmen at your 2nd-level alehouse. Like Merc. Longspears, you can train up to 9 per turn, and they’re expensive. I never trained any in my recent campaign, but it’s nice to have the option, just in case. The best bet for the necessary building (which also allows you to train Spies – another valuable tool) is Llangurig.

    While on the march or in newly-conquered settlements, you’ll come across other mercs. Butescarles help you even the odds against the armored AS and Viking units, if you can afford it; other units, like Lithsmen, are an OK addition to your battle line. Mercenary Gaill-Gaidheall (sp?) seem too expensive, but you’ll find some along your western coasts.

    Of course, it’ll be awhile before you have the luxury of worrying about things like Butescarles and how best to crack open Hirdmenn. First things first:

    King of Wales

    The Welsh begin play in 851 with a smattering of settlements, a small army, and a money problem.

    Dinas Emrys is your capital, and the seat of the strongest arm of your military. There are some very good (and expensive) troops here: Longbowmen, Armoured Swords, Horsemen. Dinas Emrys is Archer-capable from the outset, but for your immediate purposes an Emissary is more important, to secure ceasefires with Norway and Denmark, sell alliances with whoever you can, and get trade rights with everybody.

    Llandrillo is a tiny settlement, horribly exposed to the east. You won’t be able to make walls here for a long time, sadly, and there’s no infrastructure to speak of.

    SE of rebel-held Llangurig, you’ll find you are in possession of a Fort, containing some cav and Longbowmen.

    And, scrolling down to Cornwall, don’t forget that you also possess the settlement of Tintagel, where resides your heir to the throne.

    Clustered near Tintagel and Dinas Emrys are several expensive ships. Don’t disband all of these, as you’ll need some to send your Emissary to Ireland & back. If you can’t disband them (because you have no Ports), but want to get rid of them without starting a war, just send them around the sea to spy on coastal settlements; eventually they’ll run into some pirates.

    You also begin play with a single Spy near Llandrillo. This is a very good thing, as your first few years will likely consist of figuring out a safe-ish place to attack, and the Spy will help you do that. There won’t be a threat from Mercia for awhile, so for the first couple turns he can help you plot your conquest of Wales; just don’t forget to send him over to the east every now and again to see when Mercia gets around to taking Scrobbesburh.

    A look at your finances will show you that you’ll likely be broke within 2 or 3 turns. So take this time to build a few Traders, train an Archer, recruit some Mercs, and get your Fort units on the march west and then north, to meet up with your King and his army. I like to keep the Fort – it provides a nice distraction for Mercia; better than them besieging a city, and it’s free – so you’ll need to determine which unit you can leave there. Grab the Spears and Longbows; leave the Light Horsemen, as they can always dash out & meet up with your army if you’re really desperate, and you start with cav in Dinas Emrys anyway.

    A conquest of Wales is likely your best option at this point, but it’s far from your only one. I tried a couple of different times to sail north and take Hwiterhe right off the bat, but the rebels there were a bit too strong and the debt was too insurmountable, so I had to restart. It could be possible to pull off, though, and it would be sweet – Hwiterhe begins play with a Stockade and some decent infrastructure; as a coastal town it would be a good moneymaker; and having a base in the North would allow you to prevent Northumbria or Alba from getting too big.

    Another option is the Isle of Man. You could take this settlement and quickly reconcile with the Norse, but the pagan religion is difficult to overcome and the settlement is small; you need most of your army there to keep the population in check, and meanwhile your debt is increasing.

    A third possibility is to sail west to Ireland. The Celtic culture and religion there would be more agreeable to your conquest, but I see too many problems with this approach: your cav can’t make the crossing (with the exception of family members), depriving you of valuable fighters; and why fight when you can trade? The Irish factions are good allies/trade partners for you; invading Ireland would mean opening up a second front, while Mercia makes inroads into Wales.

    In the end, the most obvious approach is probably the best: conquer the rebels of Wales, get your King loads of influence and experience for doing so, and then focus your attention east.

    To accomplish this, you can’t waste any time, or military strength. Even the Peasants in Llandrillo play a role: I move them to Dinas Emrys (leaving Spears in Llandrillo), so all of DE’s units can join the King.

    The rebels are strongest in Llangurig; stronger than you, in fact. So Dinefwr makes a good first target. Since you’ll be broke soon, and unable to retrain, you need all your starting troops to get you through these initial conquests – which means losses are your enemy. So don’t assault; wait out the siege (or wait until rebels attack you to relieve it) and play defensive.

    After Dinefwr, you may be able to move on Llangurig. Sometimes the rebels will move out of Llangurig and set up camp at your watchtower; if that’s the case (or even if it’s not) you can set up your siege on a nice slope SW of town. Again, wait it out: when they attack you, the battle may look unmatched, but with the hillside in your favor, your Longbows and cav can be used to best effect.

    When you’ve taken a couple settlements, you’ll often be offered an adoptee. Take him. This is the only way you’re able to get extra troops right now, and an extra Teulu can turn the odds in your favor against the rebels.

    Llangurig is a great settlement; when your economy is north of zero, it’ll make a good troop production center for you. Once you can afford it, you can build a wall here. Meanwhile, you’ll just need to grab Dinas Powys and Miniu before any other faction can. To that end, I go for DP first, then head back west.

    Since these are Welsh settlements, you’ll need only a minimal garrison – which is good, since that’s all you can afford. Use the most ragged, useless remnant of a unit as a garrison, just so you have a token presence in each settlement, especially those on the western side that are out of reach of your foes (but note that it’s possible the Irish could invade… walls in Miniu are a good idea).

    These settlements may love you, but that’s not saying much: they’re tiny. Llandrillo, Dinefwr, and Dinas Powys will never be production centers unless you lower the taxes. Miniu is a great grower, so you can get away with higher taxes; Dinas Emrys is slow, so you’ll want to keep taxes low in order to get to your high-tier units. In Llangurig, you can stand to raise taxes, as you may train a lot from here anyway and growth will be defeated by training.

    Once you’ve conquered Wales, since your Emissary has been wheeling and dealing, your economy should be leveling off. When you can afford it, it’s worth it to train a unit of Peasants in Llangurig to man the nearby Fort; the Spears come over to the town or go with your main army, to make best use of your resources.

    Also, keep an eye on Mercia. Just as you start to get comfortable with your new title as King of Wales, you’ll probably notice that the Mercians have been training ungodly numbers of troops. Hopefully they’ll be preoccupied with trying to capture Legacaestir (which has a decent rebel presence), but they’ll come knocking soon enough. You’ll have just enough time to take a breath (if you’re lucky), train some Spearmen, and take the fight to them.

    Heading East

    In the early phase of the Mercian war, you’ll fight large stacks of Spearmen. They’ll look quite intimidating, but with your battle-hardened troops and your experienced King, they can be defeated – especially if you catch them when they’re not led by a Mercian prince.

    Expanding from Wales may seem tricky. It may seem as though you’re leaving it abandoned, so the Mercians could just waltz in and take, say, Llandrillo or Dinas Powys. But one strong army under Rhodri Mawr is enough at this point, partly because the AI is quite reactive to what you do. If you threaten Mercian settlements, those Mercian stacks that are moving towards Wales will focus on your army instead. In other words, attacking will be your defense.

    And a good first target is Wigrancaestir, located east of Dinas Powys, across the Severn River. Scrobbesburh, which the Mercians take early, is too small to be of much use to you; you want to be able to move on almost immediately after taking a settlement, and to do that you need walls. It will be well built-up, and taking it will hurt the Mercians. On your way, try to entice them to attack by standing on some river crossings; the AI hates it when you do that.

    As an aside, bridge battles work a bit differently for the Welsh. With a heavy-infantry faction, it’s easy to plug the end of the bridge with a force of troops arranged in a “killing box” formation, surrounding the enemy and hacking them down. But the Welsh aren’t ideally suited for this, and even if you win you’ll lose too many men to attrition. Instead, form your infantry line back from the bridge, with your Longbowmen/archers and cav on the flanks. The goal is to give your cav room to maneuver, just like in an open field battle. If you try to plug the bridge, it’s likely the tougher enemy infantry will just tear through yours.

    Keep your Emissary busy as you move through Mercia, and keep your Spy (and other Spies) moving as well, to get a sense of the fortunes of other factions. Given your geographical position, you’ll potentially be able to influence events in Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. Eventually you’ll have enough money to be able to do so, with a second army. If any nearby faction seems to be getting powerful, you’ll want to step in and start a fight before it’s too late.

    In my latest campaign, I was pretty lucky. Northumbria moved north and became strong, wiping out Alba with the help of the Norse, but it hadn’t captured York yet (that belonged to East Anglia). East Anglia, in turn, was fighting with the Danes, who were also fighting with Wessex. All in all, the situation in the east was pretty evenly balanced, with settlements changing hands infrequently. But when London rebelled back to Wessex, I decided I needed to make a move and declare war on them.

    It wasn’t too long in the Mercian war before I felt like they were on their last legs. So, recognizing that Tintagel was fairly vulnerable, I began slowly building up its military to the point where I could move east to Ciridiantun, declaring war on Wessex, with the goal of reuniting the Welsh kingdom.

    I allied with East Anglia, and was able to remain allied with them throughout the entire game, even though we shared many borders. EA controlled the eastern seaboard from York down to their heartlands, and when I finally defeated Mercia I was afraid they’d attack. But a strong garrison in Mercia’s capital (which was pretty rebellious), combined with the Danish threat, must have deterred them. EA never advanced to the point where they were a real threat to me, so I let them be. It’s a refreshing change of pace when you can remain allied with an AI faction – especially when you’re sure they won’t destroy you if they should choose to attack.

    Of course, every campaign is different. With so many factions in the area, the important thing is to be flexible and ready to adjust strategy, while keeping up the offensive.

    I didn’t experience any setbacks in the southern regions until I had destroyed Wessex; the Danes (who were neutral trade partners) somehow got an army to Wigranceastir and took it while I was busy in the north. By then it was late in the game and I was able to reverse the loss. Still, my battles against the Danes were probably the most challenging of the game, even though their units (Hirdmenn, Spearmen, Vikingr, Leidangr, and Horsemen) weren’t particularly high-tech.

    Turning North

    After finishing off Mercia, you’ll find yourself exposed to attack from many regions, and in need of some additional forces. Heading east from Tintagel is nice in that it allows you to have a main army in the south. But you’ll probably need an army in the north, in addition to an army in the central Mercian regions to play defense if need be.

    Northumbria indeed proved a tenacious opponent, able to absorb many of the losses I inflicted in the first years after they attacked me. Legacaestir seems to be a target for Northumbria, but you’ll want to take it anyway so you can begin bringing the fight to them. Unfortunately, your northeastern border may feel rather weak; you’ll be in possession of towns like Llandrillo, Legacaestir, and Scrobbesburh which don’t offer much in the way of troop production and often don’t even have walls, forcing you to hunker down or risk losing the town. And the hilly regions in the north of Mercia make it hard to always monitor a Northumbrian army closing in on your defenseless towns. The best you can do is be ready to intercept & reconquer.

    Fortunately, the Northumbrian roster isn’t any more fearsome than the Mercian. You’ll tend to see lots of Spearmen, fewer Fyrdmen, no cav to speak of, and a few exotic merc units, such as Merc Pictish infantry (if they’ve been fighting in Scotland). The almost total lack of cav will make your battles against them quite straightforward.

    Another advantage of turning north is that, once you advance beyond Hadrian’s Wall, you’ll start to enter lands that are predominantly Celtic again. From Edinburgh and Hwiterhe on up, settlement loyalty will be much easier to manage.

    Speaking of loyalty, you’ll have to play around with your options when conquering AS settlements. Often with small settlements you can get away with occupying; the bigger ones will almost always need to be exterminated. Even then, you’ll experience large unrest and culture penalties that may be difficult to overcome. Fortunately, by that point the strong Welsh economy will have kicked in and you should be able to afford a few cities with big garrisons if you make a mistake.

    Capital location is another tool you can use, but I ended up keeping mine at Dinas Emrys for the game. If the politics in your game play out differently to the point where you’re conquering all the way through East Anglia, you may need to find some middle ground.

    In my campaign, my final northern borders were at Dunbarton and Scoine. In England, I had taken everything but York, Lindissi, Elmham, Cirencester, and Canterbury. The requirement of 30 settlements gives you plenty of room to decide how to carve up your realm, but keep in mind that AS and Viking cultures hate you.

    I really enjoy the flexibility in tactics and strategy that the Welsh offer. It’s a difficult faction to play in some ways, but the wealth of options means that a Welsh victory can be more of a personal achievement, and the need to exploit every advantage makes the campaign depend upon the full extent of your abilities – and luck. There’s nothing like the feeling of just having united the rebel principalities under your banner, only to face down an invasion of expansionistic Saxons.

    And when you achieve your final Welsh victory, reclaiming the Lost Lands, you'll make Arthur proud.
    Last edited by CountMRVHS; August 22, 2010 at 05:31 PM.

  2. #2
    Keyser Soze's Avatar Domesticus
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    Default Re: A Guide to the Welsh

    great guide CountMRVHS

    and again, the title needs notice for players: do not read if you could have surprises of your mistakes
    sorry my english.

  3. #3

    Default Re: A Guide to the Welsh

    Another nice one, count.
    Maybe you'll do an Ui-Neil one next? That'll be awesome.

  4. #4

    Default Re: A Guide to the Welsh

    Thanks!

    I've actually never played an Irish faction for more than a dozen turns or so. The opening seemed quite challenging, and for some reason I never really got into either of them. I'll probably give them another look after a break; their unit roster seems pretty similar to the Welsh.

  5. #5

    Default Re: A Guide to the Welsh

    Another great guide, you really have a talent for those, and seem to enjoy writing them as much as I enjoy reading them.

    Wales is right in between Alba and the three Irish factions, IMHO. They get a bit of variety from the cav/missile/meatshield formula for running the AI into the ground, instead of being stuck with it for most of the game like Alba, but they don't get as many viable alternatives as the Irish factions, which can actually field infantry armies just as powerful as the AS and Vikings.

    Not that it really matters, because light cavalry and your basic spears and archers are all that you'll ever need, everything else is strictly optional, and adds flavour more than increased effectiveness. (Vs the AI, that is - taking on a human opponent could be quite tricky because all the harassment tactics simply don't make enough of a dent in the heavy AS/Viking infantry if they just stand and take it until you're out of missiles, at which point you'll also be out of luck with Wales and Alba if you didn't bring heavy mercenary infantry.)

    I really don't think the Irish factions need much of a guide. Use light cavalry to drive out the Norwegians (and destroy your rival Irish faction in DoB) as quickly as possible, after that, you'll have the strongest unit roster, a strong economy, and a very safe position on the map... and convenient footholds for easy invasion/expansion in Wales and Scotland later in the game, that'll let you (re)train your units the moment you conquer them.
    Wales and Alba at least can get into difficult situations due to their strategic position...
    Last edited by jackx; August 23, 2010 at 12:24 PM.


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