Norway opening strategy

[Germanicus75]

Playing Norway on easy/med (SS 6.4, no sub-mods, Lusted AI)

I'm finding it difficult, Norway is small and poor as a faction.

My strategy so far:

- Ally with the Danes and pay them 100 florins a turn to keep them happy.

- Turn Bergen into a city for money

- Take Oslo and build it up

- Take Nyköping which is the largest rebel settlement in Scandinavia and build it up

- Take Visby and exploit the silver there

- Later on attack the Lithuanians and maybe the Novgorodians

But it's taken me 150 years to build Nyköping and Visby into decent money making cities.

Does anyone suggest an alternative strategy:

- As above but turn Oslo into a city, then take Skara and build it up as a castle. Let the Danes have Nyköping. So I have 3 cities and one castle and a better economy.

- Later look for a castle on the Baltic coast to raid from. Can anyone recommend a particular rebel settlement?

Thanks for your tips for Norway

Cheers! Germanicus75

[Earl Dibbles Jr]

I'd suggest invading Scotland. A stack should do the trick.

[Germanicus75]

I'd suggest invading Scotland. A stack should do the trick.

Thanks for the recommendation. Scotland actually just landed a naval invasion and took me totally by surprise, taking my only city, while my main army was a long way away in Palanga on the Baltic coast which I took early. I didn't have the money to raise an army in Bergen so I had to abandon that campaign.

I started a new campaign on medium and have taken Oslo and made an alliance with DK. Now I have invaded Scotland. The trouble is the English have taken Edinburgh, the only town in Scotland worth having, and so I am left with lousy Inverness and Aberdeen. Whether I try to beat the English back remains to be seen - I can only afford a single stack army.

[Ichon]

Taking Denmark is the fastest way to sound economy. After that you can do whatever you want.

[Germanicus75]

Taking Denmark is the fastest way to sound economy. After that you can do whatever you want.

The trouble is it typically takes me at least 100 years to beat the Danes (they seem overpowered in this game and often take a fair chunk of central Europe) by which time the other game factions have gotten too strong and have expanded too much...

[Ichon]

Sieges are usually easier so if you can divide your army- basically save money for 10-15 turns then recruit armies that put you in deficient and you can field 2 armies- move one towards Karak and usually Danes will leave one region undefended- a single spy can tell you which one and sail to that region and easy capture. Then defend in the following sieges.

[Germanicus75]

Well I had no major problems beating Scotland but England is another matter. They have tonnes of provinces and are way richer than me. There's a 2-stack army waiting for me in York alone. I can only afford one stack despite having 3 cities.

I give up. I'm going to play Denmark again...

[Lifthrasir]

When I play Norway, I usually conquier all Scandinavia first, destroying Denmark on the way. That gives me a good and strong position and improve my economy a lot.
Then, I focuse on the English Island, starting by Scots or English, depending how strong they are. Meanwhile, I keep an eye on the East (I don't trust Novgorod) and in South (for HRE).
Once, England, Scotland and Ireland are all mine, I can choose to expand anywhere I want.

[Delvecchio1975]

you should be more aggressive initially when picking off rebels in scandinavia. if you time it well and split up your armies correctly you'll get most settlements, apart perhaps from Kalmar, although it's possible to take even that. you have boats to transfer your armies to the settlements closest to the Danish, so you can cut off their progress. focus on those first (Skara and Kalmar/Nykoepping), then take Gotland (moneymaker), then focus on the others like Oslo. Always hold back a bit of army around the west, to prepare for the inevitable scottish or english invasion.

[Duck of Death]

You could also (as Norway) take Oslo and make and ally with the Dutch. You can park a defending force in a fort just east of Oslo at the bridge (its the only bottelneck the Dutch could attack you from). The Dutch will be busy for awhile taking Upsalla and Stockholm.

Then load up and invade Scotland. Wipe them out and make alliance with England once you have Edinburough. Then there's a fair chance theres still one rebel settlement in Ireland you can grab and they have a silver mine

So now, as long as you keep England and Denmark happy, you have 7 territories that are walled off from attack by your allies. This leaves you free to send most of your army down to Marakesh (call a crusade in the area if you can). Take those two west coast African cities then make peace with the Moors.

Then head over to Greece (where Athens and Corinth might still be in rebel hands). Now you should have 11 territories and no enemies and you have colonies at almost every corner of the map so you have a fast response presence in every theater. Your only castles are in Corinth and Oslo, so your 9 cities should really help your economy.

The only threat you should face for awhile is the Moors trying to take their lands back in Marakesh, so thats where you build up your defenses. Youve cut the Moors territory in half so their east and north territories must build up seperately. I would leave as strong a defensive force as you can just north of Fes and send your armies east to roll over northern Africa (the Spanish powers should be able to slowlt wipe out the Moors in Iberia now).

[ludizoki]

I destroyed Denmark early on but then both Novgorod and England started with naval invasions. So i decided to invade Novgorod (i took Turku, Pskov, Polotks, Novgorod) and just build 3 fleets which i use to destroy fullstack English armies on the sea. Of course i'm getting excommunicated all the time for this but it's easier this way than camping a huge army in Norway which i could otherwise use somewhere else.

I probably destroyed 10+ full armies at sea and countless smalled ones. I just don't know where is AI creating them. They were sending them one after another like they have no waiting for the unit to become available and infinite money. After stabilizing Norway, France (who have expanded to Hamburg) sent some huge armies in my way, so i quickly married my faction heir to their princess and could use my armies to finally invade those warmongering English.