How do you play Denmark?

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

Sorry for my "how do you play...." topics, I just wonder on how you play as Denmark, its really a hard faction to start with coz you only have one city but I know thats a lot of potential to be a military power, used it once when I was only beggining to realy play MTW2 and I drove too deep into HRE territory and thats where it all ends. Any tips bout Denmark guys?

[SonOfThunder]

Denmark's pretty fun to play as, I have to say...I'm playing a campaign with them right now. I did an early blitz strategy, with my prince running around and grabbing all the rebel cities to the south and east as soon as I could. I grabbed Magdelburg and Hamburg almost right away, then grabbed Antwerp and Bruges and then went east and grabbed the city near Poland(forget the name). My king, meanwhile, went up north and got Stockholm and Oslo before sailing over to the British Isles to wreak havoc. The Reich is always a pain, but if you don't let them get any of the rebel cities before you do, you'll almost always have an advantage...after I took the Scots and the Brits out, the HRE was the next to go. I had the economy and they didn't...

Anyways, I think with Denmark you almost have to be aggressive or you're not going to make it. Are you playing a campaign with them now? If so, let us know how it's going...

[The One King]

Denmark's pretty fun to play as, I have to say...I'm playing a campaign with them right now. I did an early blitz strategy, with my prince running around and grabbing all the rebel cities to the south and east as soon as I could. I grabbed Magdelburg and Hamburg almost right away, then grabbed Antwerp and Bruges and then went east and grabbed the city near Poland(forget the name). My king, meanwhile, went up north and got Stockholm and Oslo before sailing over to the British Isles to wreak havoc. The Reich is always a pain, but if you don't let them get any of the rebel cities before you do, you'll almost always have an advantage...after I took the Scots and the Brits out, the HRE was the next to go. I had the economy and they didn't...

Anyways, I think with Denmark you almost have to be aggressive or you're not going to make it. Are you playing a campaign with them now? If so, let us know how it's going...

Stettin. The city near Poland is Stettin.

[Theseus1234]

its all about a full on charge for the danish vikings, in both the campaign map and the battlefield
its imperative to take the european provinces between caen and hamburg. hmaburg is a MUST.
you can take the scandinavian countries later, and if the russians get them, then you can fight them without fear of excom

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

I'm just gonna start to play the Danes once I reached 25+ settlements on my Spanish campaign and I'm almost there, but thanks for the tips, I'm gonna try the blitz thingy and I'm not gonna let the HRE ruin my plans AGAIN!. I'll just remember to be aggressive while using the Danes

[townie33]

Getting the three settlements to the south is very important not only to make a buffer between the HRE but Magdeburg is a great early money maker and Hamburg is the only castle I usually have for the first 15-20ish turns. So i get those provences within the first 7 turns then i recruit a couple Huscarls and go conqure Riga, Helsinki, Stockholm, and then Oslo. Oslo should be converted to a city but keep Helsinki a castle just because its super close to russia and it can give support to Riga if the need arises. Once these are conqured you should have got an alliance with the pope and use that increase in papal favor to call a crusade on Vilnius. It will probably be the closest crusade target you will ever get besides excommunications. You can keep Vilnius but i like giving it to Poland for Thorn so I dominate the Baltic for the most part. This whole blitz should take around 30 turns but you need to be fast so Poland and Russia dont grab some of the provences. Beware of Antwerp and Bruges, even though these are good money makers they will really upset the HRE and France and you might end up sucking money from your economy defending them. Good Luck

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

Thanks guys I'll try all that now that I reached 25+ settlements in the spanish campaign. Ok townie I'm gonna update my campaign with the Danes, I'll be as aggressive as you all said. But isn't the Huscarls expensive? They're expensive right? Can I really build them immediately? But as you said Magdeburg is a great moneymaker, I'm just gonna try making it a city maybe I can afford them Huscarls and I'm also planning to dismantle my navy first to cut upkeep costs, again, thanks.

[townie33]

well I usually get huscarls in the first 10 turns only because hamburg is already a castle and just having the castle " building " makes them reqruitable, also they are worth the money because they are far better than unit for a while. Also keep your navy at around 4 ships because pirates are better than the ships you currently have and they help move your army around the Baltic quickly.

[JerseyDevil917]

Hm, I kind of play the the Danes almost opposite of the way you do. In the first 2 turns I attack Hamburg, and at the same time I send the other starting group toward Stockholm. It's a very good city once it's upgraded, so I figure the earlier I invade it, the better. I then just take Stettin and use those two bases as a kind of barricade from the HRE. I just kind of take all my campaign games slow, and wait till someone attacks me before I just start invading their cities. Main reason is that I don't want to get excommunicated. I still haven't been in MII, but I remember on more than one occasion in the original MTW where a crusade was called on me the turn right after whenever I was excommunicated. And I also very rarely advance past Stettin in case the Mongolians happen to invade Russia.

I guess that the only advice i can really offer is that you should try to recruit the dismounted huscarls more than other castle-infantry. Even though some other Danish infantry, like the ax men, have some better stats, the huscarls have better characteristics, like the morale boost. In my opinion, from what I have seen, they we're a little more effective in general than the ax men.

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

What exactly is the "ax men" units? the Viking Raiders?

Now I'll try to create more huscarls now and maybe took it as my primary infantry unit for the early games until I found an alternative. And good thing the HRE has low papal rating(crosses)so I'll not get excommunicated that easily if I manage to take out 1 of their lands.

*EDIT*: Now I finall have 5 settlements; Arhus(city), Hamburg(castle), Magdeburg(city), Stettin(city) and Antwerp(city). I'm doing great now at making money to create more of those castle borne troops like the Huscarls and Viking Raiders, but how when exactly to use the Norse Swordsmen? Is it used just like the Huscarls and Viking Raiders or is it like the sword and bucler men of spain? help pls. thnks.

[Lord Raneus]

Norse Axemen, being 2H Axemen, suffer from the plague of "slow attack animations that cause them to get crushed by units with 1H weapons that attack and interrupt their animations". They're alright, but if you charge them into, say, dismounted huscarls, they may very well lose.

Danes are fun, I love their colors. I try and get Scandinavia first, and make peace with the HRE and Poland so I can keep them off my backs while I snatch up as many rebel settlements as possible. Beating the Poles to Stettin is also a good idea, as the Pope will give you easily-fufilled missions to raise Catholicism there, boosting your standing with His Hatness.

Personally, I think Norse Swordsmen are a little weaker than Huscarls. Use them in about the same role. Norse Axemen are meant to be a shock unit (armor-piercing axes) but as I said, use them carefully or tweak their attack speed in descr_unit, as they have problems. Above all, make sure you are fully patched or they cannot attack cavalry!

[townie33]

Norse swordsmen are a scaled down knight. Use them as meat shield or flanking the enemy. Also if you use the Norse axemen use them to attack the rear or sides of the enemy because of the two handed bug . Lord Raneus, if you could post the link for the two handed bug fix that would be great.

[SaintOfTheSword]

Denmark is the easiest faction to play in the game. And that is mainly for one reason: instead of knights, the castles give dismounted huscarls... The strategy is simple: you immediately capture hamburg before the germans take it, you use your princess/diplomat for trade rights with everyone around you and you ally with Germany. You quickly take all of Scandinavia and you turn the castle in Oslo into a city. The amount of money you can make from 3 cities (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) is simply immense, and can finance you well enough to conquer the world. You constantly guard Hamburg with a good number of troops in the castle, you fill HAmburg and Scandinavia with watchtowers not to miss anything, and you then expand, but not in central Europe. For expansion the best options are two, and of course if you are good enough and not in wars and other troubles, you can try them simultaneously. One is a crusade. Take Jerusalem/Antioch, and start conquering the whole place with your crusader armies, they're much stronger than the early Egyptian armies anyway. The other option is: go to the north of Scotland or to Ireland, pick up a rebel province and build an army. Later, use this army to conquer the whole of the British isles which is the best defended little empire you can make in the game, due to the sea protection. Build up and up, and when you feel ready and have armies (with siege equipment so that you don't wait one turn to take a city and get excommunicated in the way) start your expansion.

The Huscarls (dismounted) is a vital benefit, because one unit of them can easily slaughter 5 units or more of any militia or spearmen, especially early in the game. Send them into cities against anything that is not on horse, they will mangle it and they will do so fast. You really don't need any other infantry than that with Danes, and you should have lots of huscarls in battles. You can also use mounted huscarls and the war clerics, just to counter the cavalry charges of enemy knights which can annihilate dismounted huscarls easily. Plus the Danish cavalry will probably win the fights with enemy cavalry due to the armour piercing. Keep the Pope at your side, don't create a treacherous reputation, play in a chivalric (not dreadful) way, and expand little at a time until the Pope threatens you, when you stop. This way victory is certain.

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

Yeah I'll agree with you guys, Denmark is a fun faction to play and I'm very used to using infantry tactics on my armies and it really suits me.

I have all the territories of the HRE together with Prague, Breslau, Sttetin and Antwerp, also Hamburg and Magdeburg and some Italian citites in the north my next step is through sicily,thats it just updatin'

The thing bothering me now is the Norse Axmen being, well, not that good but I read your posts that its caused by a bug, so can someone put a link to where i can download the fix? Thanks

[RantingHeretic]

I started a few campaigns as Denmark but got tired of my campaigns turning into a war of attrition vs the HRE, so my new one I pushed them outta europe by like turn 20 or thirty. I almost got excommunicated, but it was worth it.

I'm not sure how many turns its been (the mongols just arrived, for reference) but I own about 30 territories and such, as like you, I pretty much pushed straight down. I own the entire center of the map, save for Rome, most of western Europe.
Do you get constantly attacked by Scotland? They come over on their little boats and attack that city right above the Danish starting city like every 20 turns. Usually they seige it for a turn, then offer me a ceasefire. Then they do it again. Its kinda annoying, I think they might be next...

[townie33]

I've had their king and a small army land near Antwerp but they never do anything. Your best bet would be to invade scotland which should't be too much of a problem.

[Cmdr_Sdxo]

´I started a vh/vh campaing as Denmark too. I'm playing by "honor rules", and that means I'm not taking any settlements besides Scandinavia and Helsinki& the occasional crusade targets. But good luck to the OP, Denmark is really a fun faction to play and gotta love their dismounted huscarls... .

[RantingHeretic]

What exactly are honor rules? I'm guessing some sort of self-limitation to make the game more interesting?

[Cmdr_Sdxo]

What exactly are honor rules? I'm guessing some sort of self-limitation to make the game more interesting?

Yeah, severe self-limitation .


To me, there are at least these rules:

1. No attacking unless other faction declares war
2. No taking settlements from other factions(rebels are fair game),unless it's a crusade/jihad target.
3. No more than 1 spy in enemy settlement
4. Giving large sums of money to neutral factions that are being pummeled.
5. Never voting my own pope.
6. Should I get a settlement from a jihad/crusade, I'll gift it to a neutral/ally faction.
7. No seizing other factions' merchants' assets.

[wupwup]

Yeah, severe self-limitation .


To me, there are at least these rules:

1. No attacking unless other faction declares war
2. No taking settlements from other factions(rebels are fair game),unless it's a crusade/jihad target.
3. No more than 1 spy in enemy settlement
4. Giving large sums of money to neutral factions that are being pummeled.
5. Never voting my own pope.
6. Should I get a settlement from a jihad/crusade, I'll gift it to a neutral/ally faction.
7. No seizing other factions' merchants' assets.

then how would you win? if you cant gain provinces or assainate people??? but i agree about crusade targets. they are often more harm than good as you get attacked by hte muslim factions and have to spend LOADS on preists and asssasins and thing. so i gift hm to the pope. destroy all of the biuldings. move all of your trrops out and give it away. to the pope. then he will like you.