How to properly start as Jarl Haesteinn?

[DaniTheHero]

It seems that the first move is rather clear, get Brittany.
But afterwards is really hard to get any other location as anything you can declare war on, France is allied with and is much stronger than you.
Regardless if somehow you got lucky with a Capital prisoner capture, or the alliance with France not existing in your save, you'll get attacked by France or an All out Holy war fairly quickly anyways and lose land that you just conquered anyways.

[DaniTheHero]

Originally posted by Talamare:

Originally posted by DaniTheHero:

Game starts at 867, gets attacked roughly in 880 by holy crusade.
Literally impossible, so i had to convert to Catholism to survive, only problem is that now i can't easily siege counties anymore. (No raider CB).

What an uncharacteristically unlucky event

In the 5 games I've played, I've yet to see a GHW within 13 years

I mean i'll continue playing to see how that involves, but this defeated the whole purpose of a full norse raider viking run..

[Xingzhi]

He's supposed to be played as one of the Norse Adventurers, can literally take him anywhere and settle. I conquered the Pope [Latium], and then used those special troops of his to declare on Italy for the Romagnan territory. I later formed the Kingdom of Romagna and hold Rome as my capital. Haven't noticed any major issues except the total collapse of Catholicism. Converted to Orthodoxy because its more stable and Byzantines have most of Southern Italy now. He's one of my favorites because he is so versatile. I thought of conquering North Africa in my next campaign as him and converting to Islam.

[DaniTheHero]

I tried to make this playthrough work about 30 times but sadly it always collapses way way or another.
The character starts off also quite old 52, not enough time to use his 3k soldiers to it's fullest potential, enemies all around always being very very aggressive and they are also always allied with one another.
Holy crusades.
Religious and culture revolts.

There simply isn't enough time to make this sustainable unless you really luck out with RNG and Capital prisoner captures.

[Supply Slut]

Originally posted by DaniTheHero:

Originally posted by Supply Slut:

skip brittany, its a distraction and you're sharing a border with a usually massive neighbor... Go straight for england or iberia - taking out 2 or 3 of the duke sized independents over there. If you go to britain, going insular protects you from catholic crusades, and you get to have multiple wives. going to iberia you can choose which religion to go to, whichever benefits you more.

Wouldn't the whole point of being a Viking is keeping the faith that comes with it?
If i wanted to be a Christian i could be literally any other European count no?

Yeah but if you want to be norse religion then you should focus on scandanavia - that's where 3 of there holy sites are. If you don't reform the norse faith its going to be a tough slog, especially against christian crusades.

[AdahnGorion]

RP and you will find much more joy.

[Supply Slut]

Originally posted by DaniTheHero:

I managed to get an amazing start, but no matter how good of a start you got, for example getting most of England or by miracle France, you get a holy crusade of 12k+ rushing to take everything you worked for away.

it seems like the only method of making any of this work is forsake the Norse pagan religion and go Catholic.

If you go the british isles route, do not go catholic - go insular. Insular has 3 holy sites in the isles, allows 4 wives, and has ecumenism so catholics will not declare crusade on you.

[=яενєηąŋŧ=]

Murder Charles and his heirs until you get a daughter in line. West Francia is male only and Aquitaine is male preference, so they'll split.

That or just keep raiding Paris until you capture Charles or one of his heirs that you can force-convert to Asatru, then murder them onto the throne and watch Europe implode.

Then just yank Normandy and easy-peasy.

Can also bait the Catholics into wasting a Crusade by taking the Holy Site in Iberia and leaving Kent alone. I don't usually have crusade issues though, what with all the sinful bishops.

[Supply Slut]

Originally posted by Talamare:

Where even is this guy?

I wanted to give this specific person a try and I legit can't find him

He’s one of the 867 start recommended under “adventurer”

[Freed_fr]

War for the entire duchy of Britanny (it can be very fast, you're near their capital, the first battle can do it). Attack south of Britain to take an entire duchy (Stonehenge one for me : Wardruna way of life. Not the better, but my son was a futur scholar, my wife wiser than me, in my game Haesteinn make war and loot gold, his wife and son tell him what to do with). Then raid to buy men at war and to create the two duchies and the kingdom of Britanny.

Your legacy must be safe.

Wait for Alfred to be at war, expand on him or take his kingdom ; and have a see on who's on the sea...

After that, it's almost beetween nordsmen in england empire.

At least it is what i've done.

For now, i'm beginning the grand son of Haesteinn, the only holy war i saw was in Jerusalem.

And don't forget, Haesteinn start with 3000 men, they disappear on his dead, and don't replenish/heal/recruit. I didn't used them in win-by-advance battles, or to siege.


Tip : Duchy of Zeeland is near, often rebel, and it's a sacred place for Nords ; )

(sorry, no english born speaker)

[=яενєηąŋŧ=]

Just did a start with him and attacked Brittany, who allied West Francia right after. Thought I was toast, after I stack-wiped the Bretons in one battle, France came in to siege my capital with 3,000 troops.

I attacked them and absolutely kicked their ass. Between the defensive bonus, the 200 Heavy Infantry you get, Haesteinn's commander skill, and having more and better knights I just slaughtered them. 900 enemy dead for 150 of mine. Let them regroup and try to attack again and mauled them even worse. You can definitely beat them, especially if Haesteinn started with the Gallant tree for the advantage and knight efficiency.

After taking Brittany and creating the Duchy, Leon will actually accept vassalization from you without a fight which is nice.

Immediately declared war on West Francia for Normandy and won easily. Waited for their army to show up, beat the snot out of them, then hopped in my boats and sailed to Paris. I'd murdered both Lois I and Louis II by this point with 95% chance for each (everyone wanted them dead), so there was a child in the throne and I captured him when I took Paris for an easy win. Even if I hadn't the war wouldn't have been hard, they only had Asturias as an ally with 1,500 troops at this point.

Formed Norman culture for the sweet tech boost at this point, then half of West Francia revolted against Baby Louis to put some random chick on the throne. They're definitely going to win, which is going to split West Francia in two and have Aquitaine break free. So that's nice.

Right now I'm just raiding around for money. Plan on using my Invasion CB on Wessex after I take Cornwall.

Funny story, I was raiding France with about 500 levies and 200 Men-at-arms when the last surviving 1,400 French soldiers decided killing me was more important than stopping the rebellion and managed to jump me. Thought that was Game Over for Haesteinn, but their commanders and knights were so bad at this point that I was fighting at +50 advantage and actually managed to stack-wipe them and capture a couple Dukes, after my Champions ripped the heads off of half the realm.

Haesteinn is so much fun.

[Crim]

I tried him out, invaded England instead of Brittany, got a GHW declared on me after like 1 game year

The trick is that apparently if you take their Holy Site in England, they will want it back

So did it again, Took only London's Duchy. Expanded around in the area until I founded the Kingdom of England. Worked on Infrastructure the entire time. Haesty has died, I'm at +10gpm and 7k Levy... I could keep going, but this doesn't feel super entertaining.