Strategies for playing with the Vikings

**ErikBloodAxe** · August 13, 2009, 12:04 AM

Hi! I wish to ask for help on M:TW VI. Can you tell me strategies for winning (without GLOOORIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS!?) Because once i reached the end of the campaign,i had only the Picts to destroy but they were TOO DAMN POWERFUL! I got crushed and pushed back to the starting islands. I'm new to the game, the only time I've won was in Shogun (using geishas,i suck i know) . So if you can help me post away!

**Misfratz** · August 13, 2009, 02:58 PM

I've never played as the Vikings in Viking Invasion, but I had a whale of a time with them in the early campaign.

I found that your standard Viking infantry unit is very strong. Make sure you make the most of them.

**ErikBloodAxe** · August 13, 2009, 10:30 PM

Ahaaa! I got it! You mean the Viking Thralls! You get them after you get the muster field (I think it's called recruitment field or something like that in the other nations?)

**unfortunate crow** · August 14, 2009, 08:51 PM

I did pretty well by capturing Ireland and the Isle of Man as soon as possible. Then working my way north from London.

**Axalon** · August 15, 2009, 10:44 AM

Hello ErikBloodAxe and welcome to the MTW-forum,

Perhaps it might be a good idea that you post up a screen or two so people get a chance to see the actual strategic circumstances of your game and thus your problems a bit more clearly? Then they might be able to help you out better? Just a suggestion for you.

- Cheers

**caravel** · August 25, 2009, 03:10 AM

Originally Posted by ErikBloodAxe

Hi! I wish to ask for help on M:TW VI. Can you tell me strategies for winning (without GLOOORIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS!?) Because once i reached the end of the campaign,i had only the Picts to destroy but they were TOO DAMN POWERFUL! I got crushed and pushed back to the starting islands. I'm new to the game, the only time I've won was in Shogun (using geishas,i suck i know) . So if you can help me post away!

Originally Posted by ErikBloodAxe

Ahaaa! I got it! You mean the Viking Thralls! You get them after you get the muster field (I think it's called recruitment field or something like that in the other nations?)

The Thralls are only spearmen, don't rely on them entirely. The basic "Vikings" are not on the Viking campaign. They only appear in the main MTW 1087 - 1453 campaign.

The best tactic is to make full use of the Huscarle units that you will gain for free as heirs come of age. These will cost you enough to support anyway so you should avoid training more units and send these very capable infantry raiding as often as possible. Contenctrate on ship building early on and try to build enough fleets to eventually encircle britain and ireland. Once you've done so you can pull the ships out to gain a cease fire and then move them back in to begin trading.

**unfortunate crow** · August 25, 2009, 03:38 AM

If you just keep Jutland pumping out ships, you will gain control of the seas pretty easily. As said before, make good use of your heirs to keep the cash flowing in with raids. You really don't even need to fight many battles, as the AI will more often than not decide they cannot win the battle with good target selection. You can use that money to rush the Huscarl building (Royal Court/Palace? I forget what it was). Once you have that in place, you have the foundation to start building Huscarl armies. I never even bother with Spearmen to tell you the truth. Huscarles, Archers, and a few Cavalry to screen my flanks and chase routers is all I've needed.

Once you establish a foothold somewhere and begin conquering, be sure to go on raiding expeditions every once in a while using the same tactics of choosing weakly-defended targets and minimizing the battles you need to fight. A lot of times, inflicting enough pillage on a faction will cause unrest and many of their provinces will be assaulted by rebels. This keeps any one faction from becoming too strong while you do your work.

**caravel** · August 25, 2009, 05:18 AM

To add to the above, you don't need to manually raze AI provinces to the ground in order to raid successfully. Simply invading provinces with Abbeys is enough. More often than not the AI will retreat and the Abbey will be automatically razed. Raiding the Abbey provinces like this brings the gold flowing in quickly. It's a good idea not to waste time, but simply raid and move on. With the Vikings I tend to start raiding from the very start as you can run out of funds very quickly otherwise (those Viking Huscarles cost a lot of upkeep in ale, mutton and wenches).