How not to Invade England as Denmark

[Viking Prince]

How not to Invade England as Denmark


A Viking Prince Parable

I was recently playing a somewhat chivalrous campaign as Denmark. At a leisurely pace (30 turns) the Baltic settlements except Novgorod and Helsinki plus Magdeburg and Oslo have been acquired for the unification into the greater Viking Empire based in Arhus.

Now the decision was what to do? Three options seemed right at the time: turtle, England, and Russia. Each choice has advantages and disadvantages. The royal household determined that bringing England into the greater Danish empire was the best alternative available.

Dismounted Huscarls and Norse Archers formed the base of the invasion force plus some catapults to give a quick strike capability to the invasion. The heir was appointed to head the mission. The plan was to set sail with the force and to follow with another noble and a similar force in two turns. The heir lands east of Nottingham with the intention of besieging the great castle.

The plan is flawed. The force is too weak to take on the might assembled by King Rufus on the road to Nottingham. A decision was made to sweep south into the London area and seize the great city and deny its wealth to the English. A quick war has now become a long campaign that may show no profit in the end and great peril to the heir to the Danish throne.

The siege and occupation of London is successful, but there were some loses to the invading force. London is not a suitable location to refit and retrain the Danish army. The best that can be had are arranging some spear militia for garrison duty. The English army is still just as strong as before, but the Danes are weaker.

The English use this opportunity to attack with a balanced force of Longbows, Billmen, Hoblers, and Mailed Knights. Over 1800 of the English are arrayed against a Danish army of 800. The resulting battle is a Danish victory, but the English cavalry have destroyed the Norse Archers and little remains of the Dismounted Huscarls.

The reinforcement arrives from Hamburg. The Danes are unable to exploit the victory outside of London. The reinforcement lands at York to take on another great English town. Again the Danes are successful with some losses. The English counter attack and are successful in retaking York. The Danes are threatened with the loss of London and choose to withdraw. The invasion is a failure.

What happened and how to prevent such a terrible military disaster? The Danes were able to return in greater numbers and the conquest of England is now complete, but 40 turns elapsed for the date of the first invasion.

It is clear that the Danes should have brought more resources initially or held off until the Danish economy could support a larger force.

The mix of forces was not correct either. Some cavalry other than the heir’s personal heavy bodyguard was needed to protect the archers from flanking English cavalry. Some spear militia would have been better than all Dismounted Huscarls to also blunt the cavalry charges.

The decision to head south and take London meant the army could not refit and rebuild in England. This was another fatal error.

The lesson is clear. If the invading army will need to be rebuilt it is imperative that the army seize the correct type of a settlement. The Danes rely on castle troops and thus should attack Nottingham. If the military was a city based force such as the type of armies that Milan can raise, the better choice would be London.

The need to refit and rebuild is greater than the damage done to an economy by seizing the money making resources. Blockade the enemy ports to cut out the enemy’s income, but plan your campaigns to support your own armies away from home.

This message has been brought to you with great humility by Viking Prince. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Regards until next time,

Viking Prince

[Manoflooks]

Not a huge mistake. Just a badly planned army. But congratz on your big win!

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Ah, well, it was a sound idea to start with. Going for Nottingham would be advisable, but chances are the garrison was too large to handle at the moment. I'd have drawn the garrison out into the field with a smaller, weaker force, then taken the castle with the main army. Also, including some Huscarls to protect the archers and spear militia for defense would have helped, I'm sure.

[Dewy]

I attack the danes when i was england like that. i set sil with longbowmen and billmen. I then attacked by land from france. It seems like you can't take england or the danes, without a long war. My took 20 but danes had bad money and my army was weaken greatly and got attack by poland and HRE becuase they were allies.

[Glory]

How not to Invade England as Denmark


A Viking Prince Parable

I was recently playing a somewhat chivalrous campaign as Denmark. At a leisurely pace (30 turns) the Baltic settlements except Novgorod and Helsinki plus Magdeburg and Oslo have been acquired for the unification into the greater Viking Empire based in Arhus.

Now the decision was what to do? Three options seemed right at the time: turtle, England, and Russia. Each choice has advantages and disadvantages. The royal household determined that bringing England into the greater Danish empire was the best alternative available.

Dismounted Huscarls and Norse Archers formed the base of the invasion force plus some catapults to give a quick strike capability to the invasion. The heir was appointed to head the mission. The plan was to set sail with the force and to follow with another noble and a similar force in two turns. The heir lands east of Nottingham with the intention of besieging the great castle.

The plan is flawed. The force is too weak to take on the might assembled by King Rufus on the road to Nottingham. A decision was made to sweep south into the London area and seize the great city and deny its wealth to the English. A quick war has now become a long campaign that may show no profit in the end and great peril to the heir to the Danish throne.

The siege and occupation of London is successful, but there were some loses to the invading force. London is not a suitable location to refit and retrain the Danish army. The best that can be had are arranging some spear militia for garrison duty. The English army is still just as strong as before, but the Danes are weaker.

The English use this opportunity to attack with a balanced force of Longbows, Billmen, Hoblers, and Mailed Knights. Over 1800 of the English are arrayed against a Danish army of 800. The resulting battle is a Danish victory, but the English cavalry have destroyed the Norse Archers and little remains of the Dismounted Huscarls.

The reinforcement arrives from Hamburg. The Danes are unable to exploit the victory outside of London. The reinforcement lands at York to take on another great English town. Again the Danes are successful with some losses. The English counter attack and are successful in retaking York. The Danes are threatened with the loss of London and choose to withdraw. The invasion is a failure.

What happened and how to prevent such a terrible military disaster? The Danes were able to return in greater numbers and the conquest of England is now complete, but 40 turns elapsed for the date of the first invasion.

It is clear that the Danes should have brought more resources initially or held off until the Danish economy could support a larger force.

The mix of forces was not correct either. Some cavalry other than the heir’s personal heavy bodyguard was needed to protect the archers from flanking English cavalry. Some spear militia would have been better than all Dismounted Huscarls to also blunt the cavalry charges.

The decision to head south and take London meant the army could not refit and rebuild in England. This was another fatal error.

The lesson is clear. If the invading army will need to be rebuilt it is imperative that the army seize the correct type of a settlement. The Danes rely on castle troops and thus should attack Nottingham. If the military was a city based force such as the type of armies that Milan can raise, the better choice would be London.

The need to refit and rebuild is greater than the damage done to an economy by seizing the money making resources. Blockade the enemy ports to cut out the enemy’s income, but plan your campaigns to support your own armies away from home.

This message has been brought to you with great humility by Viking Prince. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Regards until next time,

Viking Prince

Attacking Dublin and Carnavon would have been much, much more advisable, that's how I took the English down. Going for Nottingham often results in a pitched battle against English forces with no hope of a place to retreat and reinforce if you lose. Granted, losing isn't likely if you play your cards right, but I'm a man of reduncies and safeguards.

Also, use of auxilary mercenaries is pretty good, Welsh Spearmen and the units recreuitable in Ireland are both wonderful additions, if you can afford them, Kerns perhaps less so...but they beat Peasants and Militia.

Taking London first isn't such a mistake, it gives Spear Militia at the least and is usually lightly guarded if the English are making good progress in mainland Europe...or if they're fighting the Scots. Also, if it has an Abbey it allows for the recreuitment of Norse War Clerics, which make the perfect counter to blunt a charge of knights while your axe-wielding infantry relieve them.

[Leonidas_I]

Attacking Dublin and Carnavon would have been much, much more advisable, that's how I took the English down. Going for Nottingham often results in a pitched battle against English forces with no hope of a place to retreat and reinforce if you lose. Granted, losing isn't likely if you play your cards right, but I'm a man of reduncies and safeguards.

Also, use of auxilary mercenaries is pretty good, Welsh Spearmen and the units recreuitable in Ireland are both wonderful additions, if you can afford them, Kerns perhaps less so...but they beat Peasants and Militia.

Taking London first isn't such a mistake, it gives Spear Militia at the least and is usually lightly guarded if the English are making good progress in mainland Europe...or if they're fighting the Scots. Also, if it has an Abbey it allows for the recreuitment of Norse War Clerics, which make the perfect counter to blunt a charge of knights while your axe-wielding infantry relieve them.

Thats what i would have done,Smart boy.

[The Noble Lord]

What a lovely story Viking Prince, keep us posted on how is your invasion going.

[Glory]

Thats what i would have done,Smart boy.

Thank you.

[Elite Peasant]

From a purely strategic point of view it's probably a good idea to start the conquest of Britain from the top downwards: Inverness (castle, albeit underdeveloped), Edinburgh (Scots gone) and then the rest. Edinburgh is rich, which would reward you some extra income = extra troops.

[Silent Assassin]

Nice post my friend

[Muagan_ra]

I don't understand why you didn't just bring a larger force with you, and destroy their field army first. That would seem the more logical long term solution.

[Ascarona]

Never forget to take cavalry and spears with you, especially when your going against the English!
You might want to drop a few dismounted huscarls and replace them with spears, but at least take some cavalry with you.

I tend to kill off English army's surrounding York before sieging it. (York since thats what I attack first when im trying to take the Isles with a baltic Faction)

[Last of the Mohawks]

I did this before but made 3 saves before to work the best plan, heres my findings.

Save 1: Attack with a full stack consisting of the Prince and mostly Housecarls and Spear Militia. That was a reinforcement army, and mainly to weaken and kill the damn prince off (Yes I was playing a dread campaign and the Pope thought it be funny to ask him to go on a Crusade) Then a wave of Dismounted Housecarls, Norse war Clerics and my Adopted guy who had 7 Command Stars and 9 Dread (He took on the HRE so had Experiance) and I took out Nottingham and York and surrounded London with some Mercenaries and My Prince (Why did he Survive?!), Took London and Scotland wern't a push over, roughly 15 Turns.

Save 2: Took Scotland by Storm and pushed down from there with the same sort of force from save 1, took 20 odd turns, I don't reccomend.

Save 3: Took London with Castle Troops , and that got took over by the English because they were smart () and took it with Billmen and King Will, because I filled it was took over by half a force of Spearmen and HouseCarls. Didn't try England no more

Original Game: Crusade was called got the Adopted Geezer and his son with full stacks Each with a balanced force of War Clerics, Norse archers and Crusader Sargent with some Housecarls and abandoned Crusade as, high Chivalry Son and High Dread Dad, no one walked away . Anyway took Caen, and Garrisoned it with the 5 unit Town Militia behind my 2 Generals, hired Mercenary boats and got to England, took London and Nottingham at the same time, game over mixed both forces and Garrisoned London and Nottingham with the other Town Militia Behind them and took York. Alacazam they Died

Save 1 but maybe take Extra Stacks over (Take 3-5) or Original game but maybe not with Crusades just some Archers and Mercenaries on the way.

[O'Hea]

Grabbing Inverness first probably would've been a better idea. I personally would've tried to grab a toehold before going for the enemy's main military center.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Inverness is a nice target, especially if the Scots have yet to take it. As Russia, I ran over to Britain in the early game and took out the Scots with cheap horse archers(they've got nothing to counter them with at this point) before taking Dublin and Inverness and proceeding to roll south. Nottingham is always going to prove the most difficult to take, as it's one of the main troop production centers for England.

[Platomasso]

took out the Scots with cheap horse archers(they've got nothing to counter them with at this point)

Really? I've found border horse to be rather effective at this..

[Conquistatore]

Any light cavalry will deal with light/early horse archers really. Light cav fails against more heavily armoured HA's though, to beat them you need knights.

[Beeeno]

... it's funny because I'm playing with English faction and trying to face a Denmark invasion!!

[Leonidas_I]

... it's funny because I'm playing with English faction and trying to face a Denmark invasion!!

Keep us updated lol.

[Conquistatore]

Just build truckloads of longbowmen, plant some stakes and you'll be laughing at the slaughter.