Anyone played Norway on VH?

[Atli]

I had played an Irish campaign on H/H with DLV 4.0 and found it easier than I had expected... I united the island, never had serious money problems and nobody attacked me, so I got bored and invaded Scotland and then England... The Pope excommunicated me and I bought the reconciliation the same turn... The AI factions seemed too passive for the most time, and as I started to conquer Scandinavia I had that feeling that I could take all the northwestern part of the map without surprises... I was thinking "Should I start again on VH?"
Now I've got 5.3 (bought Kingdoms mainly for that), and decided to start with Norway on VH/H... And I'm having a totally different experience... I'm considering to start again on H or even on M... Or just play the Danes... Is it actually possible to survive with Norway on VH?

[Xtiaan72]

Norway and Ireland are easy factions.... Try Kingdom of Jerusalem or Teutonic order.... Russia should be hard in reality but it won't be until the barbarian hordes start acting like barbarians

[Harry Lime]

With Norway you have to expand aggressively at the start & build up your economic infrastructure but once you've taken Sweden & Visby you're in a much better position to dominate the Baltic.

I seconded Xtiaan72, man playing as the Teutons is hard. During my beta testing of 5.3 I was playing them & got my ass kicked before 1200 , due to losing one critical battle against the rebels at Stettin. It was all downhill from there.

[Atli]

I agree with Ireland being easy. Norway should be also, but I'm losing money every turn. I even tried disbanding units after taking Bergen, but even when the economical balance shows a positive income, it is actually negative next turn... Why is it so? I'll try loading just after I took Bergen, and send my army to take Kalmar or the other swedish city (Uppsala?), but I don't think I have enough military strength for that: I took Bergen as soon as I could and lost like 300 men...

[Aszrayel]

Have you read the handbook? There is additional expenses for the sizes of settlements, additional upkeep (field upkeep) for every army outside of a settlement, additional upkeep for priests, spies, assassins outside of your own regions, etc.

[Atli]

Thanks, Xtiaan, Harry, Aszrayel. Well, I hadn't read the handbook very carefully. I knew about field army costs, but forgot that agents also had field costs. But I think I was losing too much for only one spy and one merchant in enemy territory... I didn't find in the handbook if there's upkeep for ships... Anyway, after two or three almost suicidal sieges, things are going better now in my Norwegian campaign.

[Xtiaan72]

Just buck up and take the deficit until you've take most of Scandinavia then disband at least half of your army and sit for a while, get out of debt and build
your economy...At that point you will probably get bored because your position on the map is pretty unassailable and you can pretty much add territories to your empire at will.

[Odie the King]

dont knwo about normay, but Teutonic has been real fun... I am about 80 years into the campaign and only have 5 settements.. lithuania and poland are relentless.. cant go anywhere.. then my nobles wnat to have banquets and royal hunts twice a year... rich people.. ha awesome...