M2TW Kingdoms: Norway in Britannia

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm interested in playing the Britannia Campaign for Medieval II: Total War as the Norway faction, mainly because they look incredibly cool, but having attempted it once or twice I'm finding the statements that it's one of the harder campaigns are quite accurate.

The Norwegians have a relatively safe position on little islands around the British Isles, since the AI's ability to do naval battles is limited, as well as a castle on the mainland. The problem is that these tiny islands are not good at building an economy, which is essential for building an army. While you DO get several reinforcements from Norway, the Scots start with a stronger position than you and will generally try to force you off the mainland by crushing your main castle, especially once William Wallace comes tearing into town. Add to this the fact that your King's Purse, the stipend you receive in addition to taxes, gets reduced, further hindering your ability to build an army.

I'm not sure how to run this well. I've heard several strategies, such as attacking cities specifically to sack them, demolishing buildings for cash and then leaving the city to rebel so you can retake it and do it all over again, but I'm concerned that that will whittle down my troops in an already weak economy. I've also heard a strategy of conquering Inverness and Glasgow, and then holding those two territories until your reinforcements arrive and using them to attack Perth, but I didn't feel I had enough troops to attack Inverness to claim and hold it.

Another suggests solidifying your hold on the tiny islands, abandoning your mainland castle to Scotland, and then massing any troops you have and sending them to conquer the Irish territories instead, using Ireland as an economic base while Scotland, England and Wales bicker over the mainland and you build the troops necessary to crush them. I like this strategy, but I'm not sure how effective it is.

Has anyone here played the Norway campaign? Any tips or tricks I can use to play through this straight (without cheating or using autocalc)? Anyone know a good mix of troops to use in battles? Mixes of militia that are good to defend cities with? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! :smallsmile:

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Yeah, those are the main two options. The raiding one is the most successful. Sacking the cities SHOULD give you enough money to just keep raiding and sacking until eventually your armies are strong enough and the enemies poor enough that you can switch to a more... normal type of warfare.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Yeah, those are the main two options. The raiding one is the most successful. Sacking the cities SHOULD give you enough money to just keep raiding and sacking until eventually your armies are strong enough and the enemies poor enough that you can switch to a more... normal type of warfare.
I'm just concerned that I'll be wearing down my forces. I suck at tactics, so I tend to just try and build overwhelmingly large forces and rely on autocalc, as it seems every time I run the battle myself, I get my general killed.

My main castle (aside from the mainland one) is situated on a tiny island. It's kind of hard to bring troops back to be retrained there and then get them back to the front before the other guys counterattack.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I've never had any problem with tactics... I mean, sieges will, no matter what you do, devolve into a slaughter to the last man at the central square, but winning a siege ain't hard, really.

Build 2 rams and as many other things as you have infantry you think you can spare from the gate assault. If you want, the second ram, or maybe the third, can be used to assault from a second side, and if you're lucky you can get soldiers to the square before the defense is too strong there, or at the very least hit the square from multiple sides.

No matter what, though, you will lose guys. But, the more guys you lose, the less your upkeep is, and the more spare money you have to build more guys, so I wouldn't worry about that TOO much.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I've never had any problem with tactics... I mean, sieges will, no matter what you do, devolve into a slaughter to the last man at the central square, but winning a siege ain't hard, really.

Build 2 rams and as many other things as you have infantry you think you can spare from the gate assault. If you want, the second ram, or maybe the third, can be used to assault from a second side, and if you're lucky you can get soldiers to the square before the defense is too strong there, or at the very least hit the square from multiple sides.

No matter what, though, you will lose guys. But, the more guys you lose, the less your upkeep is, and the more spare money you have to build more guys, so I wouldn't worry about that TOO much.
What about battles out in the field? Or in siege defenses? Or against the Mongols/Timurids (I know they're not in Britannia, but I've never been able to take them in a fair fight)?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Siege Defenses, put all your ranged units on the wall, put a few melee units behind any threatened gates, put a few melee units on any walls that the enemy's stuck ladders or siege towers in front of. If they have only one ram, try and use fire arrows to destroy it. If not, might as well still try to destroy it, or decide to destroy siege towers, or just shoot at the normal dudes to kill as many of them as you can. Your call.

If they have artillery, don't put any guys on walls, and stick them in reserve (not too far back! Just half a block from the wall at most), to try and cover any gaps in the wall the artillery makes.

If you think you're gonna lose the walls, hope that you kept 1 or 2 infantry units still in reserve (unlikely), and use them to cover a retreat to the streets. A fighting withdrawal to the square (where your mean are unroutable) can still wina siege.

Field battles really depends on the terrain, and your and your enemies forces a LOT more than sieges do.
As for the mongols, I've had the most success when I tried to fight them at their own game: cavalry with a focus on missile cavalry. The Turks, Egyptians, and Hungarians are all good factions to do this with, but the Poles and Byzantines also have a good chance at this tactic. Other than that, THEORETICALLY an army of heavily armoured Pavise Spearmen protecting a LOT of foot archers can also work well, but I've never had a chance to try that in-game.

If you have any other questions about tactics, I love doin this so I'm down so yeah!

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Well...I've had a bit of success. While most things have gone according to plan, moving all my forces to claim land in Ireland and abandoning Wick to the Scots, it had the opposite effect I intended. Instead of being able to strike while my enemies were busy fighting each other, I ended up pretty much uniting them against me. I landed and claimed Dublin and Trim, both of which were under the command of Rebels, but all that did was get the remaining English in Ireland and the Irish mad at me, and while the English haven't been much but a nuisance, the Irish are a major threat. Coupled with that, England decided to ally with Scotland and set aside its differences with the Irish to deal with me. Though I've got most of Ireland's eastern coast thoroughly under my control, it's going to be tough to dislodge the remaining Irish, and the English and their Scottish allies are going to continue to nibble at my shins.