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Thread: [TW Guide] MTW: The Vikings

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    Default [TW Guide] MTW: The Vikings



    Author: Morble
    Original Thread: Not Available

    MTW: The VikingsWelcome to the topsy-turvy world of the Vikings. It's a bizzarro kind of world, and pretty much everything you normally do in MTW is reversed.

    This is reasonable if you first consider that Viking culture was so completely different from the typical European cultures based on agriculture. Viking males spent most of their time lounging around the fire, telling tales, singing songs, drinking, gambling, and boasting of their prowess in battle. When supplies ran low, they all piled into the SUV and drove to another part of town, where they then proceeded to rob a 7-11 or two. This is considerably different from the average European male of that time, who was mostly concerned whether or not he could grow enough turnips during the summer so that his family could eat during the winter.

    In the game, this is reflected in the almost non-existent agricultural income from your Viking provinces. It is typical for a Viking province, even with a 4 acumen governor, to have an annual income of less than 100 gold--even on the mainland. You will not be able to sustain your kingdom on agriculture. In fact, for most of the game, your economy will operate at a loss.

    So, you will have to get funding to maintain your troops by either conquest or trade. At the beginning of the game, you have 8 ships, which allows you to set up contact with almost all of the eastern coast of England. But there are very few ports at this time, and it will take you time to build traders even if there were, so you must invade or die.

    The gameplay balance for Vikings is that they get double the gold value of any improvements they destroy during an invasion. I still haven't quite worked out the process, but apparently there is little destroyed if the opponents shelters in the provincial fort. Also, there does not appear to be any income derived from physically destroying structures during an actual battle (these seem to be counted after the battle finishes, but you would have automatically gotten them anyway, so it's not worth the effort to destroy structures during a battle). Most of your income will be given to you when you conquer the enemy fort. Typically, the province is stripped down to only forest clearing, and you end up with 1000's of gold for your effort.

    Another glaring difference when playing the Vikings is that you will not be using combined arms throughout much of the game. Instead, your armies will consist solely of foot troops. Playing any other faction, you must field a mixture of foot, missile, and cav troops to have a chance of success. But Viking warriors are such badasses that a simple foot army is not a problem. Your carls and landsmenn will handily whip any other army up to the point where your foes can field armored spearmen. And Viking morale will keep them on the field for a very long time, so you can win a battle even if you've miscalculated and have a significantly smaller army. Landsmenn are much better than carls, so build the drinking halls to get your best troops.

    At the start, your men will have very little loyalty. Usually your thralls will have 5 shields, so put them in Jutland, and gather your fighting men to your king in Hordaland. On the first turn, spread your ships out (I place them from the Engle Sea to Muir Norc.) Start building towards armorers and metalsmiths in both your provinces. Build a landsmenn in Hordaland. (Beserkers can come later when you have more funds. Right now you need bodies more than expertise.) Don't invade England blindly, hit the turn button and see what the eastern coast looks like.

    When playing Mercians or Saxons, you are very much interested in the disposition of the southern rebel provinces. Typically the Vikings will attack there and weaken the rebels, allowing you to move in claim the lands for your faction. Playing the Northumbrians, you have to be worried about bearing the brunt of the first Viking assaults. But playing the Vikings, I suggest you ignore the AI's choices and aim for the Picts.

    You will want to expand your land holdings immediately in order to build ships and troops. It's true you could attack the southern rebels without going to war with any of the organized factions, but the rebels actually have reasonable protection in East Engle, and you must be careful of your men until you can build lots of replacements. Also, weakening the rebels will likely lead to strengthening the Saxons and Mercians, already the strongest factions. Similarly, Northumbria is a viable target, but attacking them will likely allow Mercia to strengthen her position, by attacking Northumbria from the inland side. Attacking Mercia immediately will likely deplete your troops too much, and you will have a hard time recovering. Another option would be to have strung your ships along the Southern coast of England so that you can attack the Saxons, but this would likely again lead to strengthening the Mercians.

    The Pict lands give you everything you need to get started. They are lightly defended and reasonably developed, which will give you the funds you need to develop your lands, and the extra provinces to build ships and more men. I typically invade Fib and Monoth. Moray and Monoth is another possibility, since the Pict king is in Monoth. This would allow you to trap the king in Athfotla and Fib, hoping for a ransom. However, by the time you take these other two provinces, the Picts will likely be out of money and won't be able to pay a ransom. It's more important to get the money from trashing Fib, the most highly developed province.

    So, I send 2 landsmenn, 1 carl, and 2 thralls to Fib, the rest I send with my king to Monoth. You are unlikely to have to fight in either province, and the Picts will completely abandon Monoth rather than risk their king. The next turn you can assault the fort in Fib.

    Now you come up against a fact of life for the Vikings. Viking warriors are about as welcome in England as American troops are welcome in Iraq. Leaving aside any arguments about the differences in motives and deportment, in the game you have to be prepared to have extremely low loyalties in each and every conquered province. Even with taxes set very low, you will get rebellions with less than about 800 men to hold the province. Luckily, Christianity's hold on these people is tenuous, so always make a pagan shrine your first build in any province you wish to hold.

    You want to hold one of these two conquered provinces so that you can build ships, but you don't really have enough men to easily hold both. Fib would be nice to have, since it also has trade goods (Monoth has none), but Monoth is easier to defend. I put all my invasion force in Monoth and set taxes to very high in both, since I might as well get as much income as possible.

    Fib is stripped bare of both troops and buildings (if not, destroy everything down to forest clearing), so it will get both a loyalist and a peasant rebellion. With no Vikings there, the two will fight it out among themselves, and you can come back the next turn to recover the province. Monoth will likely get a big loyalist rebellion with lots of spears and Celtic warriors.

    Fear not. Your Vikings are more than equal to the task. Plus, Monoth is full of mountains, so you will be able to defend in formation from the heights of a wooded mountainside. In the battle, the AI will likely first send a peasants to scout your position. Kill them. Then resume your defensive line. The AI might send a second scout company. Kill them, too. Do not depend on your thralls--they are a weak reed, and will break if you lean too much on them. Instead, put your thralls on one flank, and plan to use them only for rear attacks, or better yet, to chase routers. Save your king's huscarles slightly uphill in the center for an emergency. Otherwise, when the main attack comes, charge each enemy unit front on, while sending a second company to hit them from the flank. The Picts will rout, and you can chase them off the field. (Interesting touch, the waves of the ocean actually lap upon the beach. )

    This is the basic battle strategy you will use until armored spearmen begin to be fielded against you. At that time you will start needing huscarles and combined arms with archers and cav. But until then, it's basically just line your guys up and march right at 'em.

    Viking combat is a lot like the front lines on a football team. As the attacker you will often get best results with what is called "stunting" in football. In stunting, some of your units do not hit the guys directly in front of them. Instead, to doubleteam a single enemy unit, prepare to meet that unit head on with the unit you have directly in front of it. But first, rush the next unit you have in line, directly to your left, straight forward to meet the unit directly ahead of it. This rush forward contacts the second enemy early, and creates a gap exposing the first enemy's flank. Now rush the 2nd unit on your left _behind_ your most forward company and into the exposed flank of the primary enemy target. If the AI turns to attack that 2nd unit that you "bull rushed" forward, he may well expose the right flank of every one of his units in line. In that case, rush the entire left side of your line at an angle to the right, and you will hit his entire line on their exposed flank and rear. They will run like scalded dogs.

    Couple the above stunting technique with the standard defilade attack at the ends of your battleline, curling your troops around the ends of the enemy line, and you will be amazed at how strong your Vikings are. Often though, you will be attacking with fewer numbers, so you won't have enough companies to be able to curl the ends. In that case, stunting will allow you to rout the enemy center, and you will still win handily.

    When attacking northern England, you will have lots of mountain battles. The AI is pretty good at positioning its defensive troops to gain height advantage. On the attack, always grab as much altitude as the map allows you before actually contacting the enemy and starting to fight. Vikings are tough enough that they can usually perform a head-on charge uphill successfully, but you will lose more guys than you will feel comfortable with. It's best to save the uphill charges for flank and rear attacks.

    On defense, where you are usually grossly outnumbered, look for high ground, preferably wooded. Try to find a hill, cliff, mountain, or edge of the battlefield where you can pull the ends of your battleline back a bit, leaving no flank exposed. Keep your general behind the front line, held in reserve for that little extra attacking force that will turn the tide.

    Usually, the AI will lead off his attack on your defensive hill position with archers. Don't just sit there and take it. Rush a single unit down the hill toward each archer unit. Do this with a waypoint, rushing close to the archers, followed by immediately rushing to the attack. Most of the time, the AI will pull its archers back. Sometimes, though, it's too slow, and you'll be able to catch the archers and slaughter that unit. (Berserkers charging downhill will usually catch AI archers, if you give the AI little advance notice.) In any event, don't chase the retreating archers, or allow your guys to contact the enemy foot troops. Just pull back up the hill and wait for them to attack again. Repeat as necessary, resting each of your charging companies in turn to keep them fresh.

    When the main attack finally comes, stunting works even better from a hilltop, because now you have the height advantage. Hit an enemy fyrdmen with a downhill charge at their flank, while holding them in place with a head-on attack, and it's near-instant bye-bye for the fyrdmen. Most important, don't go chasing the routers unless you're sure the entire enemy force is whipped. It's very tempting to chase routers, but you'll exhaust your men. Just return to your hilltop and take up your positions again. 500 Viking landsmenn on a hilltop can rather easily defeat a host of thousands of English combined arms until rather late in the game.

    So, in attacking the Picts, you will get a foothold on English soil. You want to capture Domon, Orcades, and Fib. The other four provinces are pretty much useless, but you still would like to capture 2 out of 3 of Moray, Monoth, and Cait, for the raiding monies if nothing else. Leave Abfothla and any undeveloped rebel province for the Scots. Start at least one of your conquered provinces, preferably two, on building boats. (Save your two homeland provinces for buffed out landsmenn and huscarles.) Storms typically sink two of my boats before I can bring boatbuilding in England online, so it's important to get replacements coming along immediately.

    At this time, you should probably be getting alliance offers. Don't automatically accept them, but wait for marriage proposals. Vikings don't have princesses, and anyway you need to marry your princes to outside princesses to strengthen the bloodlines.

    The Scots will be duly impressed with your armies and will offer alliance. I always accept their marriage proposal, because highland clansmen are one of the few units that can give your army trouble if you have to defend against their charge. Also, the Scots make good trade partners, and they stay allied with you for most of the game--except, of course, when you're about to win.

    Build up your provinces with the money you gained from raids. Expect your economy to work on an annual deficit. There just isn't enough trade and agriculture to let you show a profit. On expert, you will have a hard time finding 4 quill governors. Don't sweat it. Governorship is mostly a joke for Vikings anyway. One can imagine Viking warriors sitting around the lodge boasting to each other: "I am Thane of Cait!" says one. "Well, that is nothing," says a second, thumping his chest, "I am Thane of the Northern Islands!" Then they all have a good laugh. For a large number of Viking provinces, the difference between very low taxes and very high taxes is all of 10 gold per year. Big deal.

    Your main concern will be training your new thralls to accept your rule. To this end, build pagan altars in each province as soon as you can. Once the natives are pacified, your warriors are freed up to go raiding again.

    If you find you cannot hold one of the provinces you raided, be sure to sell everything down to forest clearing, then leave the province completely empty. You will get a small peasant rebellion and a small loyalist rebellion, who will fight it out the next turn. If you leave your troops in a low loyalty province, you will get a big loyalist rebellion, which will deplete your forces even if you win. So, just abandon whatever lands you can't hold. You can always invade it again later if you really want the land.

    In a very few years, you will spend all your spoils money from the Picts and will find yourself broke again. Time to tell your warriors to get off their duffs and go raiding.

    Whenever I've played the Vikings, I've always chosen Mercia as my next target. I want to establish trade routes with the Scots, Welsh and Irish, and my ships are usually shifted northward, so the Saxons are pretty much out of reach. The southern rebels are mostly conquered by now, holding only poorly developed remnants. Northumbria is a possibility, but Mercia, especially the province of Mercia itself, has the best development--and therefore, the most riches to raid.

    I invade first in Lindissi, then move inland to take Mercia. I want to hold on to Mercia itself, and usually have to let Lindissi revolt. But from the province of Mercia, I have direct access to all other Mercian lands, and the province has iron and pretty good income besides. You can have fun playing ring-around-the-rosy with the Mercian king, chasing him around the outer provinces and raiding as you go. Mercian soldiers are wimps at this point in the game, so you can attack at a disadvantage in numbers, and usually the king will still vacate the province. If he makes a stand, he gets ripped to pieces by my army of landsmenn.

    Be aware that, by following this strategy, your invasion army will be trapped inland when Lindissi revolts. So, you will need to provide an escape route by recapturing that province. By this time, you should be building buffed landsmenn in both Hordaland and Jutland, so you can throw a nice re-invasion party with these troops.

    Eventually you will either destroy the Mercians or reduce them to a rump state. This is the point when things get nasty, because you are getting close to claiming victory, and you are also running out of money again. Usually I look to the Northumbrians as my next target. They typically have huge numbers of troops, but a lot of them are peasants. A few attacks and defenses here will get some really nice V&Vs for your generals, like expert attacker, expert defender, or skilled last stand.

    However, since you're close to claiming 2/3 victory, the Saxons will now attack you, followed closely by the Scots and the Welsh. There's not much to tell here due to the complexity of events. But basically, raid and scorch a province or two when you need money, don't be afraid to attack or defend at numerical disadvantage, and grab what provinces you can to hold on to. Keep trading with neutrals or allies as long as you can. Try to avoid conflicts where your opponent has armored spearmen--a buffed armored spearmen can beat your landsmenn one-on-one. Build a royal palace (I suggest in Hordaland) to get an emissary and huscarles, and put at least one province each to building berserkers, archers, and cav. Also, keep at least two provinces building ships and upgrading to better ones.
    forgot to mention one other item where you do the opposite of other factions when you play the Vikings.

    For other factions, you generally look for good weather days on which to conduct your attacks. However, since your Viking army usually has no missile troops, it's better to start your attacks in heavy rain or snow to minimize the enemy's missiles' firepower and effectiveness.


    With everyone against you, it might seem like you will be swarmed under, but trust in your Viking landsmenn. Keep to the hilltops and woods for defenses, and keep the pressure on in your invasions, and you will soon have a Viking victory as your reward.
    Last edited by Sir Adrian; December 07, 2013 at 06:56 AM.

    Patron of Basileous Leandros I/Grimsta/rez/ Aemilianus/Publius/ Vizigothe/Ahiga /Zhuge_Liang Under Patronage of Lord Rahl
    MY TWC HISTORY

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