how to play as Vikings?!

[Danzig]

I'm a cheiftan of the Alfhiemr, Old Gods start date. I have a demense fo 16/5, been conquering local tribes right up to and including finland. Problem is I cant make myself a Duke/King because I have no money. And I cant go raiding because i have no ships, because I have no money.

[Mikixi]

You can wait a year or two, just the time you make enough money (from taxes) to make duchy and then ships...

The problem should be your 16/5 desmense, because going over your desmense limit (5 in your case) let you take far less tax than if you had 5/5, something like even -80% with 16/5;
So you should make a duchy title ASAP, so you can give your heir the worse counties without losing him as vassal;

Going feudal as norse, would let you call vassals ships, so you shouldn't lose money, at the cost of relations

P.S:
idk if you know it, so beware succession as tribal if you have 2 or more male sons, they will split your counties, so you'll have to re-take it from your brothers with war, or by killing them with assassination.

[CidDaBird]

Originally posted by Mikixi:

You can wait a year or two, just the time you make enough money (from taxes) to make duchy and then ships...

The problem should be your 16/5 desmense, because going over your desmense limit (5 in your case) let you take far less tax than if you had 5/5, something like even -80% with 16/5;
So you should make a duchy title ASAP, so you can give your heir the worse counties without losing him as vassal;

Going feudal as norse, would let you call vassals ships, so you shouldn't lose money, at the cost of relations

P.S:
idk if you know it, so beware succession as tribal if you have 2 or more male sons, they will split your counties, so you'll have to re-take it from your brothers with war, or by killing them with assassination.

This is mostly false.

1) Tribals don't get reduced taxes based on your desmense size, as the same from nomad type governments.

2) Its better to keep land so you can market city spam. (+0.50 each province is godly)

3) You get free ships as a Merchant Republic, 20 without building any buildings yourself and as one you can make x15 amount the ducats a empire with just being a duchy MR.

4) Have you ever played as Visby before? Theres no way you can make 190 gold/ducats in two years. That actually made me laugh.

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So things our friend did get right are that your male sons will take titles if you have more then one son (even worse like to think you know op that a duchy is very much needed for this case), you wouldn't lose money if you were feudal but the hurtiful cost of negitive relations with your vassals.

Other then that I would offer another perspective, a MR is better because no one is there to challenge you economically. You'll be throwing out mercs and getting land like a mad man and if you wish to convert to Catholicism instead of getting hammered down by the pope, you could holy war your neighbors for easy land but before try this,

1) Form a duchy before 800, if you can't do it redo a game.

2) Raid, raid, raid thats how you can make easy gold and go to war with neighbors.

2a) Raid neighboring Norse tribals BEFORE going to war with them after you can field about 1,500 troops from provinces NOT using prestige, use this as a fallback tactic.

3) In every province you own, build market cities it can not be stated more how important these are to tribals.

3a) They are in a sense your life blood to killing everything, early game of course.

4) Get your absolute tribal goverment and build a large market city and then become a MR.

5) Your choice

I hope this helps you out, add me if you want to know more. Would love to help anyone. Now go out there and be the best killer of the Franks ever.

[Liberty Prime]

My favorite tactic is to relocate to Britain. Speeds your development by a lot.

[CidDaBird]

Originally posted by butters:

My favorite tactic is to relocate to Britain. Speeds your development by a lot.

Thats very true.

[MorganAngelo]

I don't think the raiding part yield you much ducats as you as a tribal leader are always going against feudal lord's troops whihc are less in number but better then yours and you ususally can't get much out of them.

Though if you are patient you can actually make an empire out of Visby but you have to take out the major forces in Lappland and Olso as soon as chance comes up. They are basically cheating in character numbers :/
Try to spread and take over other tribal land as early as possible which in terms yield you better chance against those strong kingdoms in Scandinvia and leave Finland to the last after you have all Sweden Norway Iceland in control and have kicked Denmark out of skane first. As you step into Finland the rebel chances rises significantly, not sure if it's intended or bug and you will inevitablely come into contact with the Slavic tribes which have outragously large forces that will become a pain in the arse if you also run into Catholic Crusades ... You don't want to fight both from England/France and Russia at the same time. (Plus your little adorable -200 Evil tyranne supporters from Finland D:)

If you are afraid your other male heirs would take your preferred sucessors' land you could actually send them to join the Greek mercenary as the window pop up. It gives you some prestige and also send them to either militray leaders or dead (one less people for your sucessors' land :O)

[CidDaBird]

Originally posted by MorganAngelo:

I don't think the raiding part yield you much ducats as you as a tribal leader are always going against feudal lord's troops whihc are less in number but better then yours and you ususally can't get much out of them.

Though if you are patient you can actually make an empire out of Visby but you have to take out the major forces in Lappland and Olso as soon as chance comes up. They are basically cheating in character numbers :/
Try to spread and take over other tribal land as early as possible which in terms yield you better chance against those strong kingdoms in Scandinvia and leave Finland to the last after you have all Sweden Norway Iceland in control and have kicked Denmark out of skane first. As you step into Finland the rebel chances rises significantly, not sure if it's intended or bug and you will inevitablely come into contact with the Slavic tribes which have outragously large forces that will become a pain in the arse if you also run into Catholic Crusades ... You don't want to fight both from England/France and Russia at the same time. (Plus your little adorable -200 Evil tyranne supporters from Finland D:)

If you are afraid your other male heirs would take your preferred sucessors' land you could actually send them to join the Greek mercenary as the window pop up. It gives you some prestige and also send them to either militray leaders or dead (one less people for your sucessors' land :O)

Solid info, I didnt know that you could give son's away to the Byzantines huh. You learn something new everyday lol

[MorganAngelo]

Originally posted by Care:

Originally posted by MorganAngelo:

I don't think the raiding part yield you much ducats as you as a tribal leader are always going against feudal lord's troops whihc are less in number but better then yours and you ususally can't get much out of them.

Though if you are patient you can actually make an empire out of Visby but you have to take out the major forces in Lappland and Olso as soon as chance comes up. They are basically cheating in character numbers :/
Try to spread and take over other tribal land as early as possible which in terms yield you better chance against those strong kingdoms in Scandinvia and leave Finland to the last after you have all Sweden Norway Iceland in control and have kicked Denmark out of skane first. As you step into Finland the rebel chances rises significantly, not sure if it's intended or bug and you will inevitablely come into contact with the Slavic tribes which have outragously large forces that will become a pain in the arse if you also run into Catholic Crusades ... You don't want to fight both from England/France and Russia at the same time. (Plus your little adorable -200 Evil tyranne supporters from Finland D:)

If you are afraid your other male heirs would take your preferred sucessors' land you could actually send them to join the Greek mercenary as the window pop up. It gives you some prestige and also send them to either militray leaders or dead (one less people for your sucessors' land :O)

Solid info, I didnt know that you could give son's away to the Byzantines huh. You learn something new everyday lol

They are the Varangian Guard after some years around 800 AD ??
When the event of Greeks setting up this band of warriors then your male heirs would have random event asking to join the Varangian Guard. Especailly if you hold them long enough in your court without giving them a position :)
If in the RNG favours them you may see them returning as seasoned warrior with a unique trait called varangian which is in par to viking. However most of the case is they either get maimed or killed. (Free assassination plot that gives you prestige lol How evil.)

[CidDaBird]

Originally posted by MorganAngelo:

Originally posted by Care:

Solid info, I didnt know that you could give son's away to the Byzantines huh. You learn something new everyday lol

They are the Varangian Guard after some years around 800 AD ??
When the event of Greeks setting up this band of warriors then your male heirs would have random event asking to join the Varangian Guard. Especailly if you hold them long enough in your court without giving them a position :)
If in the RNG favours them you may see them returning as seasoned warrior with a unique trait called varangian which is in par to viking. However most of the case is they either get maimed or killed. (Free assassination plot that gives you prestige lol How evil.)

Yeah the Guard was around when the old gods dlc came out, very useful. I didnt know your sons could actually take part of it though. I can dig that kind of evil though. ;)

[Mr_Faorry]

Raid your neighbours by land so you can make the money to create a duchy, then as soon as you do that create vassals so you are down to 5/5 demesne since being over the limit (especially by that much) gives you some nasty penalties such as lower taxes and I think it causes less troops too.
Once you've got your duchy up and you've given out all but your best counties start building markets so you make even more money. This should make it possible to have a decent number of ships.

You're probably going to want to reform germanic by capturing the holy sites or switch to catholic later down the line(reforming is more fun).
Once you've done one of these start working towards feudalising since going feudal will switch your troops from mostly light infantry to mostly heavy infantry, so you'll be on even ground with the catholics in battle.
While you will lose things like the subjugation cb from going feudal, you will be able to switch away from gavelkind to primogeniture so your lands won't be split on death.
Going feudal also allows you to raise vassal levies/ships so you don't even need to use your own men, vassal levies/ships are essentially troops that you don't need to pay for.
Your economy will also go up considerably when you feudalise which means even more money.

[Danzig]

Thanks for all the help guys :)

Yeah was amining for the reforming germanic route! Could I still do this and be a Merchant Rep?

Also I never know about the Varagian Guard tactic! Hehehe

Once I have become King of Norway and Sweeden will be looking at expanding into Britain!

I also have some extra 'dynastic' problems... I only have 1 child, (a daughter) but by guy hasnt hit thirty yet and he's got a wife, a lover and three concubines so hopefully I'll have a male heir soon!

The money thing can be pretty crippling because I've got an income of +0.24 from ALL my terratories and I have -100 debt from my last war to conquer the Finns. I hadnt paid too much attention when the game told me an alliance had been set up by ever other viking and slav nation around the baltic........ The problem I have with raiding my neighbours is I cant make up the ammount I lose from having soldier out :/ They're so poor!!

[CidDaBird]

Originally posted by Lord Danzig:

Thanks for all the help guys :)

Yeah was amining for the reforming germanic route! Could I still do this and be a Merchant Rep?

Also I never know about the Varagian Guard tactic! Hehehe

Once I have become King of Norway and Sweeden will be looking at expanding into Britain!

I also have some extra 'dynastic' problems... I only have 1 child, (a daughter) but by guy hasnt hit thirty yet and he's got a wife, a lover and three concubines so hopefully I'll have a male heir soon!

The money thing can be pretty crippling because I've got an income of +0.24 from ALL my terratories and I have -100 debt from my last war to conquer the Finns. I hadnt paid too much attention when the game told me an alliance had been set up by ever other viking and slav nation around the baltic........ The problem I have with raiding my neighbours is I cant make up the ammount I lose from having soldier out :/ They're so poor!!

Then just restart! You know more than you once did and thats how I learned this game.

You can reform Norse and still be a MR, Danzig. Just be careful about giving land to the other families within your MR. Make sure you have tons of men and women in your dystany and don't worry if your not the leader of the MR that gives you time to plan and make more holdings for your family.

[Danzig]

AH cool, thaks Care :)

[AdahnGorion]

You can't play as Vikings, you can however play as Norsemen.. (pun intended)

[Danzig]

Hehe

[EmotionallyBroken]

Originally posted by Mr Faorry:

Raid your neighbours by land so you can make the money to create a duchy, then as soon as you do that create vassals so you are down to 5/5 demesne since being over the limit (especially by that much) gives you some nasty penalties such as lower taxes and I think it causes less troops too.
Once you've got your duchy up and you've given out all but your best counties start building markets so you make even more money. This should make it possible to have a decent number of ships.

You're probably going to want to reform germanic by capturing the holy sites or switch to catholic later down the line(reforming is more fun).
Once you've done one of these start working towards feudalising since going feudal will switch your troops from mostly light infantry to mostly heavy infantry, so you'll be on even ground with the catholics in battle.
While you will lose things like the subjugation cb from going feudal, you will be able to switch away from gavelkind to primogeniture so your lands won't be split on death.
Going feudal also allows you to raise vassal levies/ships so you don't even need to use your own men, vassal levies/ships are essentially troops that you don't need to pay for.
Your economy will also go up considerably when you feudalise which means even more money.

I was trying to do that, but theres no money coming from sweden when I sit on their land with loot toggle on adjacent counties. -_-
Or any of his counties for that matter.