Best time to switch Norse Tribe to Feudal/Republic?

[BanDHMO]

How do you prefer to time it? ASAP, after a specific date/condition, never?

Seems that going too early you'd risk getting raided by all your neighbours, while waiting too late you risk being overrun by much stronger feudal armies with Holy War and other CBs.

At some point raiding becomes harder too, as everybody upgrades their security and has bigger armies that wiped the floor with your light infantry.

[CidDaBird]

If your a tribal republic, good luck I never had the chance to make this work, but as a feudal nation you can just become a vassal to a german or french nation then break free later.

[avil]

ASAP, obviously. If you want to keep your religion, best you can do is quickly conquare all holly sights around you, raid rest of religious authority, and reform religion. And emidietelly make everything to become feudal. You must prepare before holly orders will show up, because they DESTROY everything that is tribal. Just not use your perosonal levey for raiding, germanic people don't complain when used for it (unlike catholics).
As a republic it's very hard, you can't grow quite quick enough, and fight against primary kingdom, in which you under de jure. And AI is really dumb about going feudal, so you probaly will have to go catolic before leaving your former liege. You don't need to become vassal of greater power, if you know, how to abuse your fleet superiority.

[Segovax]

I usually bank about 10-15k gold from raiding, upgrade all holdings and then switch. If you're next to a huge, centralized christian nation then the danger is always there and comes from switching to reformed paganism and losing the attrition benefit. If you're not next to a huge nation then you should have some military tech into light infantry, tons of troops and a lot of solid LI/Siege commanders to keep you rolling into the 1100's if you really wanted to wait that long. I usually get frustrated with elective gavelkind way before that though.

[Ea0]

Get the Jomsvikings prior to your conversion (if 920 or later).

[Solitus]

My goal is to go ASAP to get away from gavelkind. I wait as long as I can, preferably till my capital is fully upgraded. This means spending almost all your time in italy, burning everything to to the ground.

[avil]

In early game, with small levy, I like to just surface raid Byzantine isles and muslims. They have loads of undefended moneys, and it count pretty quick with just 1k group (i.e. vassal levy), so you can actually benefit from your taxes.

[BanDHMO]

Interesting; the implication in a lot of your guys' answers is that one should reform Germanic faith. Why is that?

I was actually planning to convert to Catholic before going Republic. Reforming Germanic seems hard for very little gain, unless your plan is to fight it out with the Catholics around you.

[Yaldabaoth]

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

Why is that?

Because harem.

[BanDHMO]

Originally posted by Yaldabaoth:

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

Why is that?

Because harem.

LOL. Well, if you really need multiple women, that's what seduction focus is for, as well as the "Introduce Debutante" decision.

[domuka]

best time to reform is when you're already over 2k in gold stored so as to hire mercs when, not if, needed. gold is the factor for me when i reform as feudal pagan or catholic republic

[BanDHMO]

Originally posted by domuka:

best time to reform is when you're already over 2k in gold stored so as to hire mercs when, not if, needed. gold is the factor for me when i reform as feudal pagan or catholic republic

Sure, you need gold, but is that the main factor? Suppose it is 900AD and you have 2k. Would you reform, or keep raiding for a bit longer?

[Segovax]

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

Interesting; the implication in a lot of your guys' answers is that one should reform Germanic faith. Why is that?

I was actually planning to convert to Catholic before going Republic. Reforming Germanic seems hard for very little gain, unless your plan is to fight it out with the Catholics around you.

A lot of reasons. Switching to a christian faith has its benefits, including security. Reformed germanic - holy wars on everyone, conquest remains unlocked, raiding remains an option, great holy wars if you're the Fylkir and crusades are unlocked, improved moral authority, etc. Depends on how you want to play, I suspect most people playing germanic are playing aggressively and reformed germanic unlocks even more options to attack people.

[domuka]

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

]

Sure, you need gold, but is that the main factor? Suppose it is 900AD and you have 2k. Would you reform, or keep raiding for a bit longer?

are you in the charle start? then as soon as possible. old gods start? then way before 1000 if you can. regardless, just reform as soon as you can and have a load of gold saved up. you can always raid later (but with more costly troops to raise) but it will be for naught if the great holy wars have started as you will be very easy to defeat.