Raiding

[DecayWolf]

So what is the most "optimal" strategy going for a mass of cheap infantry, such as Bondí that can carry more gold, is cheaper to recruit and has higher pursuit.
Or going for Heavy Infantry Varangian Veterans?

1 Varangian veteran worth a little more than 3 Bondí Upkeep wise. Therefore they carry about 3x less gold.
3 Bondí are stronger than 1 Varangian, however Varangian has higher total damage output, which is better for raiding purposes where you want to wipe and sack the enemy asap.
However high toughness/low damage can be a great tool to train knights into berserkers.

The most optimal strategy for raiding seems to always have many small stacks going around, after all 2 raids happens at same time, which means 100% more time efficient.
So the more parties the better, but you don't want these parties to get wiped.
Bondí's requires to be close to the enemy in numbers, where Varangian can kill well over their quantity.

Another possible problem is the lack of knights in many multiple parties of raiders, the more parties you have, the more knight splits required.

Lastly ships cost money based on quantity, going for small parties helps to negate the higher upkeep.

Anyhow whats your thoughs? Go cheap and many? Or Go strong in order to get more parties going at same time?

[VoiD]

It depends really, cheap sounds better, on paper, but then you realize you got nothing but trash, and levies are dead weight, so if an actual army attacks you there's a huge risk of losing a battle, and all of your loot.

Besides, having a more expensive army often allows you to raid richer lands, like the HRE, france or even the byzantine empire, which ends up filling up your loot faster as you'll have to siege less provinces.

I never really did the math, I just raise my armies and hit the best looking places I think I can handle with what I got.

[Сааребас]

Usually I start out as tribal so initially I pay with prestige, which is easily won by attacking hostile armies when raiding, therefor I prefer a stronger, single, army.

If you are playing Norse, in Europe I suggest becoming a Duke asap.
This because then you can create 4 MaA regiments, each consisting out of 500 men.
Composition: 1 Huscarls, 2 Varangians and 1 Light Cavalry.

With a martial focused ruler leading the army you should in no time be able to defeat armies 3x your size, especially if you get some artifacts boosting your knights effectiveness.

For optimal cheese Blend your culture with one who has 'Horse Lords'.
Create an army with 1 huscarls, 1 Varangian and 2 Horse archers.

The reason I prefer to at least have 1 Huscarls instead of another Varangian is because the stats are just a small bit lower but they do have slightly different boost.

As for your knights, try to get some berserkers in there, it'll pay off even if there prowess is slightly lower then the next guy.

For your lifestyle focus: martial.
left tree completely and at least 4 of the right right branch.

Dynasty legacy pure Norse first try to get 'making a killing' a priority so you'll get 4 gold per 100 kills, which'll help immensely if you are (going to be) feudal and/or become of an organised religion.


As for raid targets, it depends on how strong you are and your needs.
Hostages can be very profitable, epsecially if you have the right dynasty legacies.

The church in Kent has a high value of gold, so do goldmines.
Other then that leading the raiding party with your ruler will give you periodically an event where you can either take slaves (boost development of your capital) or increase the raiding warchest.

Do hold in mind that losing a battle whilst raiding will nullify you raiding warchest.

Hope this helps.

[DecayWolf]

I've done a re run to try more expensive maa. The type depends entirely on your starting location and your closest raiding locations.

Anyhow, I think going for Varangian veteran is a little bit too expensive very early game.
It's quite hard to keep raiding income going. At least, I felt like I was very far behind economically wise, without cheesing with OP perks.
France and it's adjacent empires can quickly reach 3 - 5k troops. Your few, but very strong Varagian just won't cut it.

It's easier also to form 2 parties with the additional Bondís due quantity.
Likewise a few barracks may be benefitial early game. 1 Barrack can equal 10-15 gold per raid. Say your raid take a whole year to return, then that's 10-15/year.
Meanwhile your other buildings should net between 2,4 - 6/year, without the tax modifiers ofc.

However, you'll need strong troops and knights behind your levies, otherwise they'll be useless. Maybe you can create as an additional force, where you purposefuly left behind, where your main maa does the army killing and forward raiding, your levies will raid the behind and safer near the chores places.

IDK, but I think 3 Bondí are the best start, quantity really matters early game, but as you progress, the Varangian keeps getting more and more relevant. I suppose eventually trading bondís to Varangian seems like a legit move, although one could simply not hire, save the gold and invest elsewhere in the first place.

Still, maybe I just used incorrectly the varangians... Not 100% set on the "best" approach yet.