Ivar & Halfdan

[OftheTarRealm]

Why when you begin the game are the armies of Ivar and Halfdan not allied? They always end up fighting each other and one or the other is ruined for their entire life from the conflict? It's usually Ivar who gets messed up.

[sbudy]

Because none of Ragnar Lodbrocks sons are allied. They often fight each other, during or after the war against the despised duke of Northumbria.
Ivar's armies usually go either directly north to Northumbria or south to East Anglia, where they have another (doomed) war. If you're Halfdan, just go west to Lancashire and you'd be out of their way.

[sbudy]

BTW, as Halfdan you can choose to ally with Ivar, Sigurd or Bjorn after the war (also Ivar's sons if he got Lothian and they are his vassals and your neighbors). I usually preferred not to since they always got me involved in their wars and they often picked up doomed wars or wars with each other. I was the sensible sibling :)

[dwarfpcfan]

Yeah they are not allies they just hate the same guy. Which is actually pretty realistic as it comes to viking (or any rulers) really, viking chieftains were always feuding and fighting each other for territory and such. Each of the brothers want the whole pie of england and scandinavia so obviously once they sort that whole Nothumbria kurfufle, it's back to business killing each other for the throne of emperor of Scandinavia and Britannia lol.

on what sbudy said however about alliances, yeah it's a problem with their A.I thought not just with them, the A.I calculates conquest chance of success based on troop numbers regardless of distance and other considerations which any intelligent person who know that even with those numbers the war won't go the way they want it.

That said I've done a few playthroughs as Jylland, (thought not Jarl Baeseg himself, just custom rulers) and as Jarl of Jylland you can snag Saga Truthspeaker as a wife and she's one of the best options stats wise as a non commoner wife. Haldan will always then get you into warring in England but once that's done for it's manageable especially since he tends to die relatively quickly. And then allying with either Sigurd or Bjorn can be an effective way mid term to keep Sigurd from trying to take your land allowing you to form the kingdom of Norway or Danemark rather easily.

[OftheTarRealm]

Originally posted by sbudy:

BTW, as Halfdan you can choose to ally with Ivar, Sigurd or Bjorn after the war (also Ivar's sons if he got Lothian and they are his vassals and your neighbors). I usually preferred not to since they always got me involved in their wars and they often picked up doomed wars or wars with each other. I was the sensible sibling :)

I'm playing as Bjorn right now and Sigurd snake in the eye invited me to a feast. At the feast he vomited on me when he got too drunk and right after I scorned him for it he declared war on me, while I was still at the feast! Luckily he wasn't able to arrest me while I was there. Lucky also I had a young daughter I was able to betroth to a son in Jyland and get an ally because I was extremely under powered by raiding in which I had lost 2/3 of my forces in doing.

[dwarfpcfan]

Originally posted by MoBo DigiBo:

I'm playing as Bjorn right now and Sigurd snake in the eye invited me to a feast. At the feast he vomited on me when he got too drunk and right after I scorned him for it he declared war on me, while I was still at the feast! Luckily he wasn't able to arrest me while I was there. Lucky also I had a young daughter I was able to betroth to a son in Jyland and get an ally because I was extremely under powered by raiding in which I had lost 2/3 of my forces in doing.

Yeah with the northern lords dlc they have a few minor extra events/interactions like dealing with their funerals if one of the other brother dies and stuff.

Bjorn is the best positioned in terms of the brothers because he's surrounded by weak counties you can easily curbstomp other then Sigurd's realm, but his son really sucks stats wise.

Actually that's a problem with all the brothers, they have god tier stats but are all shackled with incompetent heirs and too many sons, killing your realm with the partition rules of inheritance.

[sbudy]

Both problems may be solved with changing the succession law to Scandinavian Elections for all their duchies. You need the relevant brother to survive until one of his grandsons or a new son with better stats reaches adulthood and can win the elections, so this solution probably won't work for Ivar or Bjorn. But Halfdan (taking Medicine focus) or Sigurd can pull it off. Especially as Halfdan does not have many sons and he is forced to give them (well, forced giving someone) land as soon as he wins the war against the despicable duke of Northumbria.