me no good at vikings

[snuggleform]

I got the flavor pack, tried bjorn ironside the guy listed as "easy."

I got rekt. Got subjugated 10 years into the reign by a powerful alliance a couple blocks west of my capital, and ever since I dragged my feet around for the next hundred or so years trying to build up power to do something, couldn't do anything interesting like go adventuring because I was no longer independent.

Tips?

[DoofMaster4000]

Raid

[snuggleform]

Everything was raided already, no more gold to loot

[Razorblade]

Hunt, feast, create titles, raise runestones, commission epics, etc. as often as possible for prestige. Use that prestige to spam out Varangian Veterans, a men-at-arms type that is comparable in strength to House Guards (the MAA type you get for taking the 5th war dynasty legacy).

When you have 300-500 veterans, go raid Brittany or an equivalently powerful duchy. The AI will attack you constantly because it thinks it's stronger, but it won't stand a chance against your men-at-arms. Since raiding does not count as a personal war, you get prestige for winning battles (an obscene amount of prestige). Use that prestige to make more Varangian Veterans. Once you hit about 1500 veterans, you're effectively unbeatable. Should be doable within the first few years of the game, and can even be done as vassal, if you happen to be subjugated before then.

While you're busy prestige spamming, it's a good idea to complete the August lifestyle tree, as that will allow you to diplomatically vassalize any neighboring Norse Asatru of lower rank. Going to war as a viking is almost always the worst choice you can make, as it wastes prestige, and it's much faster to just diplomatically vassalize your neighbors.

[CrUsHeR]

The suggested starts may not be so easy, as you noticed their neighbors aren't all that nice. Also their rulers are usually old with several sons, and/or have terrible stats (like Sjaelland).

Instead, you may want to start as a simple Count, perhaps with the Ruler Designer.
Either as 16 year old, or 30-35 year old. With 16 you wait until 30+ to get married, don't take concubines. Or marry one of the age 50+ moms from noble families for bonus prestige and alliances.
Alternatively the 30-35 year old ruler gets 4-6 lifestyle perk points and can start producing a few heirs right away.

The best locations:

A) West Iceland

B) Lofotr (most northern county in de jure Norway)

Obvious reason to start in Norway, because it is entirely disorganized. You start by raiding the next 2-3 neighbors, then conquer them. Repeat. Also, both locations are too far away for any enemy raiders. In Lofotr you need to beat the sami neighbors to your east once, then they should leave you alone.
Big advantage to start as 16 year old; you have no family that could be abducted. By the time you get married at 30+ your realm is already too big for anyone to reach you. In particular Iceland will never have anyone even try to siege your capital during wars.

Another important question, do you want to stay Asatru (and reform?) or do you want to be a catholic viking. The latter has the advantage that you can choose wether to use holy wars or conquest when attacking Asatru rulers, where the holy war gives all territory to you while the conquest gives you vassals. And you NEVER want any established vassals, who have troops and claims and dynasty/house members and allies - these will immediately conquer your weaker vassals and become a huge problem in no time.

Being catholic also protects you from holy wars by catholics - most annoying thing is when Scotland or its vassals attacks you early on, sometimes they also get huge allies from mainland europe. And if you plan on owning England as Asatru, be aware that this will 100% result in a crusade against you.


Only downside of being catholic is that you lose the ability to raid after becoming feudal; however there is one way to keep raiding for another 100 years: If you choose the Elevate the Kingdom of Mann and The Isles decision.
For that you need the maximum fame level, 2000 prestige, and you should own all of The Isles and The Northern Isles in addition to Mön. What the decision does:

1. You adopt feudalism (regardless of your faith, tech or tribal authority)
2. Your dynasty gets 2500 renown (3 legacy perks, raider branch recommended)
3. Your dynasty can raid for 100 years, even if catholic or reformed Asatru
4. You get 7500 special troops (inheritable, high quality)
5. Mön, Isles, Northern Isles become a new de jure kingdom with Mön as your new capital
6. Mön gets ~8 building slots, 25 development, and extreme construction speed
7. And more (see wiki)

Just the special troops make you so powerful that you can immediately conquer all holy sites to reform Asatru, if so desired.


If you want to do Varangian Adventures ASAP, make sure to start in Lofotr, because Iceland and Northern Isles don't count for the county cap which gives the bonus troops.
While for Mann & The Isles, Iceland is the no-brainer. In that case you should aim for a beach head in Ireland to shorten your raiding tours; if you also plan to reform Asatru then make sure to grab Prandheimr and as much land in mainland Norway as you can get without effort.

So if you have decided where to start, first thing to do is to get all courtiers married. Also recruit guests if you can afford them. Later on do the same with all prisoners you can't ransom. Use women to get the best knights married to your court, and the men get wives with high learning and positive personality.
Of course you also need 1 good spymaster and an exceptional physician (20+ learning), get these after having a decent Knight roster.

You never make vassals, you conquer land for yourself and give the land to the most lazy/content courtier. He then gets his own courtiers which you can turn into new vassals.
Whenever you need a break from warfare, go raiding. Don't be afraid of realms like the Karlings in France and Germany, their 5k troops have no chance against 3k viking raiders with champions all having 20-30 prowess.

To turn your army into a cost-effective killing machine, you only need Bondi & Vigmen, and Knights/Champions. So all your holdings need at the very least the first level of the War Camps, each of them gives +1 knight limit and +10% knight effectiveness (lvl 2 gives 2x of that). Also get the Gathering Halls for prestige and control, and the +75% knight effectiveness from Gallant after getting the 1-point-wonders in the other Martial trees (-50% CB cost and dread/control).

You also can add 1 squad of Varangians but they are way too expensive, there are literally no realms within range which the cheap army setup above cannot defeat.
There also is no point in raiding e.g. Rome or Constantinople, it takes too long to get there and you should take turns raiding France and England instead.

[Turbulence]

Disregard the above post, aside from starting small in Norway which is nice. First secure the best alliance you can to aid you in your first conquest or two. This way you can steamroll your neighbors from the start and snowball from there.

Second, get all varangian veterans as maa, they are seriously overpowered. Expensive, sure, but tanking your prestige into the negatives isn't even a big deal so go for it. Use prestige on nothing else until they're maxed out. An army of varangian veterans can take out armies the NPCs throw at you 3 or 4 times their size. As a bonus, nobody told the other rulers so they will happily march their army into your 2-3k space marines (depending on whether you get the legacy for more heavy infantry) repeatedly.

[FriendlyFaceForFun]

Being a vassal , you typically look for possible allies first, either other vassals or, foreign rivals or you liege, secure their support, then start the war when your liege is at war, also try to assassinate heirs of your liege, support the weakest heir and the strongest claimant etc. there are so many things you can do just be being in the court of your liege.

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by FriendlyFaceForFun:

Being a vassal , you typically look for possible allies first, either other vassals or, foreign rivals or you liege, secure their support, then start the war when your liege is at war, also try to assassinate heirs of your liege, support the weakest heir and the strongest claimant etc. there are so many things you can do just be being in the court of your liege.

Yeah I was kinda hoping to avoid doing all that, seeing as that is not very viking-like to play court politics and spymaster/intrigue. That's more something I learned to do when I want to discomfort myself playing as a small 2 count vassal inside a large kingdom like in east india.

[dwarfpcfan]

Vikings are very strong, if a bit annoying at times to deal with. Their unique troops, traits and such make them the strongest tribal culture in the game. But the northern map can really be a pain to play given who the other players are, and their holy sites are scattered all over the place, making a reformation to go feudal without switching to christian really annoying to deal with.

[Razorblade]

Originally posted by dwarfpcfan:

Vikings are very strong, if a bit annoying at times to deal with. Their unique troops, traits and such make them the strongest tribal culture in the game. But the northern map can really be a pain to play given who the other players are, and their holy sites are scattered all over the place, making a reformation to go feudal without switching to christian really annoying to deal with.

Getting all of the Holy Sites is actually pretty easy if you go the diplomacy route. Uppsala, Jorvik, and Ranaheim are all owned by Norse Asatru rulers by default, so all you have to do is be a single title rank higher than them, and you'll be able to diplomatically vassalize them if you have the True Ruler perk (as well as every other Norse Asatru ruler in the world). There's also a large chance that East Francia will be conquered by Haesteinn, meaning Paderborn will often be diplomatically-vassalizable as well (because Haesteinn never saves enough gold to form East Francia).

Or you could go the even easier route and just declare a Varangian Invasion on a feudal title, skipping the need to reform altogether. Or form the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, which turns you feudal as well.

[FriendlyFaceForFun]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

Originally posted by FriendlyFaceForFun:

Being a vassal , you typically look for possible allies first, either other vassals or, foreign rivals or you liege, secure their support, then start the war when your liege is at war, also try to assassinate heirs of your liege, support the weakest heir and the strongest claimant etc. there are so many things you can do just be being in the court of your liege.

Yeah I was kinda hoping to avoid doing all that, seeing as that is not very viking-like to play court politics and spymaster/intrigue. That's more something I learned to do when I want to discomfort myself playing as a small 2 count vassal inside a large kingdom like in east india.

dont be stereo-typical , a viking will do court politics as anyone would if its more effective for him

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by FriendlyFaceForFun:

Originally posted by snuggleform:

Yeah I was kinda hoping to avoid doing all that, seeing as that is not very viking-like to play court politics and spymaster/intrigue. That's more something I learned to do when I want to discomfort myself playing as a small 2 count vassal inside a large kingdom like in east india.

dont be stereo-typical , a viking will do court politics as anyone would if its more effective for him

I didn't buy the flavor pack in order to NOT use the viking special features.

[snuggleform]

Where do you guys raid when there's no place left to raid. All the low hanging fruit has already been taking by the other vikings in the area =.=

[Razorblade]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

Where do you guys raid when there's no place left to raid. All the low hanging fruit has already been taking by the other vikings in the area =.=

Spain. Rich holdings, weak kings, and out of the range most vikings are willing to raid.

[snuggleform]

What about varangian adventuers, are there any really interesting or powerful targets to move your realm to? Would there be any reason to say migrate to India bit by bit? xD

[Razorblade]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

What about varangian adventuers, are there any really interesting or powerful targets to move your realm to? Would there be any reason to say migrate to India bit by bit? xD

There is an achievement for Varangian Adventuring your way into the Red Sea, so that's at least one reason to head towards India.

As for good places to settle, I'm fond of Sardinia. It's capital has a mine, and it's in the middle of the Mediterranean, the richest region in the game. Definitely a great place to settle if you want to be swimming in gold.