best norscan early game army comp?

[titanopteryx]

I just started a norscan game. What's a good army composition in the early or mid game?

[Ardariel]

Whom you play with and are you aiming for a wide or tall buildup?
Also difficulty?

[titanopteryx]

Wulfric, Normal difficulty, and probably tall since norscans can't really do wide well with their inability to occupy most settlements, unless I'm wrong.

[A.Pot]

Since you are going as Wulfrik, it should be obvious that Marauders will be your go to units in the early game. My recommendation is to mix it up with things like 4-5 units of regular Marauders, 4-5 units of Marauder Spearmen, 6-7 units of Marauder Hunters (either) and then fill the rest fast moving units like Horsemen, Hounds or Chariots.

You can also go for the classic Surtha Ek stack of just all Chariots.

[titanopteryx]

Originally posted by A.Pot:

Since you are going as Wulfrik, it should be obvious that Marauders will be your go to units in the early game. My recommendation is to mix it up with things like 4-5 units of regular Marauders, 4-5 units of Marauder Spearmen, 6-7 units of Marauder Hunters (either) and then fill the rest fast moving units like Horsemen, Hounds or Chariots.

You can also go for the classic Surtha Ek stack of just all Chariots.

Thank you. I'm going to adjust my army. Currently it's Wulfric and then all berzerkers.

[Ardariel]

I would say - ignore spearmen. You not likely to meet units they are designed to deal against in earlygame, you gonna get better units much faster. And for occasional larg units your javelins would suffice.

i would go wiht marauders + javelins in 2 to 1 ratio, switching them both for berserkers, until i could get my hands on skin wolves and support them with horseman/chariots as range/harraser. Then transition to shariots wiht feral mammoth and war mammoth at the end.

Since you go tall, fast confederation is out of question, then after initial fight, go raiding kislev. It would inprove your relationships with both moulder and wintertooth, plus there are couple of monster hunts nearby. And since you gonna go tall yo might want to go for that hunts.

Once you get fast enough army you can try get on couronne. It would boost your economy by a good degree, and would help to get good relationships with naggarond.

[☸𝕵𝖔☸]

I cant recommend marauder horsemen (throwing axes) enough, they are ap and have shields, dont just use them as skirmisher though, skirmish against heavy cavalry, but use them aggressively to rush and charge the back line and get rid of artillery, archers etc...

I recommend 6 of them in each army.

Later, you can use feral manticore instead, they are more useful in sieges as well to attack wall archers while your infantry close the walls. They can prevent charge bonus of enemy cavalry, can fly over the main line to rush the back line, and can be used in combo to bully lords and heroes.

Marauder great weapons and berserkers as main line early game does ok overall, later champions great weapons and a few skinwolves and mammoths, but you should always have those 6 fast units to complement each armies, imo.

Also colonising Norsca is a trap for the players, you let that to the AIs, you can go hunt the other LL if you want him, but after that you should leave. Honestly not sure on normal, but I can tell for certain that on VH its impossible to hold Norsca, and not worth trying anyway. I learned it the hard way...

Easiest is similar to WoC, you ally with moulder, help it in his wars and befriend the factions he likes, and when you are in military alliance, you will have great help with skaven colonising everything you raze.

[A.Pot]

Originally posted by ☸𝕵𝖔☸:

Also colonising Norsca is a trap for the players, you let that to the AIs, you can go hunt the other LL if you want him, but after that you should leave. Honestly not sure on normal, but I can tell for certain that on VH its impossible to hold Norsca, and not worth trying anyway. I learned it the hard way...

*Laughs in Druchii*

[titanopteryx]

I just started over on very hard / very hard and took Coronne's 2 settlements by turn 19 with an army consisting of wulfric and 16 berzerkers. Unfortunately Coronne still has a settlement somewhere which means if I don't find it before long they'll start confederating. Meanwhile the high elves just declared war on me.

Anyway, my long term objective is to take Galleon's Graveyard and then harass the high elves enough so that my favor with nagarrond gets high enough for a military alliance, then wait for him to take over everything. Campaign victory conditions count territory held by a military ally.

[Zeek]

Originally posted by titanopteryx:

I just started a norscan game. What's a good army composition in the early or mid game?

Berserkers mixed with marauder shields to hold and destroy the front line, then have a small back line of javelin Throwers to target other ranged units and large.

This will melt all of your early game enemies until you can get skin wolves and such

[Ardariel]

Originally posted by ☸𝕵𝖔☸:

Also colonising Norsca is a trap for the players, you let that to the AIs, you can go hunt the other LL if you want him, but after that you should leave. Honestly not sure on normal, but I can tell for certain that on VH its impossible to hold Norsca, and not worth trying anyway. I learned it the hard way...

What?
Well, granted, its not an easy route, to confed norsca, you need to know what you do. But alrternatives are - reeeealy slow campaign, where you are at mercy of AI.

If person trying to play norsca he better learn quick anyway. Fast confed is best snowball start IMO. Otherwise you would be dragged behind by AI in norsca or even pulled towards defensive battle there (shivvers).

[☸𝕵𝖔☸]

Originally posted by Ardariel:

Originally posted by ☸𝕵𝖔☸:

Also colonising Norsca is a trap for the players, you let that to the AIs, you can go hunt the other LL if you want him, but after that you should leave. Honestly not sure on normal, but I can tell for certain that on VH its impossible to hold Norsca, and not worth trying anyway. I learned it the hard way...

What?
Well, granted, its not an easy route, to confed norsca, you need to know what you do. But alrternatives are - reeeealy slow campaign, where you are at mercy of AI.

If person trying to play norsca he better learn quick anyway. Fast confed is best snowball start IMO. Otherwise you would be dragged behind by AI in norsca or even pulled towards defensive battle there (shivvers).

What difficulty?

It was one of the hardest campaign I played on VH, and the main reason for this is because I focused on Norsca, I owned it all and it has many problems.

1) You get too much territories too fast and all AIs hate you, "great power" hit you too hard. You dont really have the economy to support both cost of buildings and armies to defend it.

2)You dont make enough money with these settlements worth the investment/time.

3)You cant defend much, they have no walls, and subpar defenders, I mean they give you almost only slow units for garrisons, you just get shot the entire battles. AI has no problem coming in Norsca, corruption doesnt do much to stop their effort or is immune.

4)You need Skaven allies to colonise razed regions during your conquests of the world, and owning Norsca likely will prevent that because of diplomatic hits. Worst, If you make the mistake to ally Archaon you will be at war with everyone and just play wack a mole for the entire game as not you nor WoC can colonise regions you raze.

5)The dark elves will come...good luck!

Having said that, I can see a way to pull it off, by being relentless enough to sack the empire 24/7 so that you can afford more armies to defend Norsca, but I cant see how your going to defend 10ish stacks of DE later when they turn their eyes on you...always in range of black arks etc...

I personally had to abandon Norsca, everything, it then made me much less "great power", I fled east and attacked Moulders enemies, challenged Archaon and managed to take hold near Moulder and allied them. Likewise the DE were wasting time colonising worthless Norsca and forced to pass through the Empire as well, dragging them into war.

Then my effort against the Empire got me in their favour and I actually made peace and allied the DE too, lol, then proceeded to finish the empire and brets granting me campaign victory.

So...I think it would have saved me over 50 turns if I just focused on allying Moulder asap and not bother at all with anything Norsca.

[Ardariel]

Originally posted by ☸𝕵𝖔☸:

Originally posted by Ardariel:

What?
Well, granted, its not an easy route, to confed norsca, you need to know what you do. But alrternatives are - reeeealy slow campaign, where you are at mercy of AI.

If person trying to play norsca he better learn quick anyway. Fast confed is best snowball start IMO. Otherwise you would be dragged behind by AI in norsca or even pulled towards defensive battle there (shivvers).

What difficulty?

It was one of the hardest campaign I played on VH, and the main reason for this is because I focused on Norsca, I owned it all and it has many problems.

1) You get too much territories too fast and all AIs hate you, "great power" hit you too hard. You dont really have the economy to support both cost of buildings and armies to defend it.

2)You dont make enough money with these settlements worth the investment/time.

3)You cant defend much, they have no walls, and subpar defenders, I mean they give you almost only slow units for garrisons, you just get shot the entire battles. AI has no problem coming in Norsca, corruption doesnt do much to stop their effort or is immune.

4)You need Skaven allies to colonise razed regions during your conquests of the world, and owning Norsca likely will prevent that because of diplomatic hits. Worst, If you make the mistake to ally Archaon you will be at war with everyone and just play wack a mole for the entire game as not you nor WoC can colonise regions you raze.

5)The dark elves will come...good luck!

Having said that, I can see a way to pull it off, by being relentless enough to sack the empire 24/7 so that you can afford more armies to defend Norsca, but I cant see how your going to defend 10ish stacks of DE later when they turn their eyes on you...always in range of black arks etc...

I personally had to abandon Norsca, everything, it then made me much less "great power", I fled east and attacked Moulders enemies, challenged Archaon and managed to take hold near Moulder and allied them. Likewise the DE were wasting time colonising worthless Norsca and forced to pass through the Empire as well, dragging them into war.

Then my effort against the Empire got me in their favour and I actually made peace and allied the DE too, lol, then proceeded to finish the empire and brets granting me campaign victory.

So...I think it would have saved me over 50 turns if I just focused on allying Moulder asap and not bother at all with anything Norsca.

Lege/VH. Norsca is my favorite faction. And i tried different stuff, from raiding empire, to wandering the world. Only thing i can say for sure about any of that games, is that you need to make norsca secure. How? Does not matter. But fast confed is best way i played so far (although became boring around turn 40-50, where you just roflstomp arund).

DE indeed is your strongest enemy, that is why it is important to either befirend them early or destroy them early. Prefer latter :)

ABout re-colonising - you can make enemy attack you instead of coonising. Not a big deal. But indeed skaven could be good for that. Still best is to befirend beastmen or morathi, youhelp each other, while your corruption criipple skaven clans.

[☸𝕵𝖔☸]

@Ardariel

Interesting, of course playing them often must help, I only played them once in WH1 and last year once for WH2, I still am sceptical though, that owning Norsca is worth it, if you aim to achieve the victory condition asap, like I wanted, aka (destroy brets and empire).

Like I said, I did hold it for like close to 100 turns but when Malekith turned his gaze on me while I was destroying Bretonnia, it got out of control quite fast, him owning his half of america and having captured Ulthuan...on top of that Moulder was attacking me on the other side...it was hell!

Could not ally him he declared war on me quite soon in the campaign ,because of the confederations everyone hated me. Only later when I abandoned Norsca and fought my way through his area that I managed to make peace and soon ally him.

Its true that having owned Norsca for a while allowed me to have more agents, so I could always scout well...but I think that I could do the same with just some capitals.

Cool what works for you with the experience you got playing them! :)

I went in it blind and got a bit surprised how they played, I remember how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ disappointed I was when I settled Couronne and and I saw it had no walls...I was like WTF even here??? lol.

So if I was to play them again I think things would be a lot easier. But I would certainly let the AIs have Norsca and build it up to tier 5 before I even go back to claim it, if at all.

[Witski]

Berserker only infantry with hunters till you get monsters/mammoths

[Dan]

For VH/H or H/H I always go berserker + javs, you can get some great units early ( a mammoth ) from one of the lords close by. Just have to win the battle and force the mammoth to flee.