Norway (M2TW:K Faction)

M2TW Kingdoms:

Factions: The Britannia Campaign England Scotland Norway Wales Ireland The Crusades Campaign Kingdom of Jerusalem Principality of Antioch Egypt Turks The Byzantine Empire The Teutonic Campaign The Teutonic Order Lithuania Denmark Novgorod Poland The Holy Roman Empire The Americas Campaign New Spain The Aztec Empire The Mayans The Apachean Tribes The Tlaxcalans Tribes The Chichimec Tribes The Tarascans Tribes

Overview

Norway is a faction in Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms which is highly based on powerful melee units being used to powerful and speedy extent. Norway is often considered the hardest faction in brittania due to generals constantly rebelling and lack of power in field battles. However their units are highly advanced and even the cavalry are pretty good. They suffer from massive economic problems, but their islands arent likely to get attacked by the AI, Although there is always an inherent problem in competetive hotseat. To survive norway must either go and quickly take a large part of a rich land like ireland , or must sack until your finincial reserves are high enough.To sack well you must use the manueverability and superiority of your boats to your advantage and ferry troops to advanced cities and then remove the troops after you destroyed every building in the city and sacked.

Using the viking tactics described above will help you get settled in economically after about 10-20 turns after the death of King Haakon. It is sometimes better to just stay on your islands while raiding and wait for the right time to strike (make sure you have deployed spies in order to keep track of the other factions)When you finally see a weak, unguarded, region that would be easy to defend; strike hard and fast and show those fools the fury of the Norsemen!

Starting Area

Norway starts on several islands off the coast of Britain and one region at the very north tip of the main Isle. The starting capital is Castle Town, located on the Isle of Mann. Castle Town will prove most valuble when launching attacks on any of the other four factions. Be sure to use your naval supremacy to secure the remaining smaller islands that begin under Rebel control before making any big assault moves on the two main islands (Ireland & Britain). It is a very good idea to have this task completed before King Haakon arrives; this will allow you to use his army more effectively and not be forced to split up his advanced units.

Victory Conditions and Agents

Long: Hold 35 Regions, including Dublin, Perth, London, Caernarvon, and Castle Town. Short: Hold 25 Regions, including Dublin, Perth, London, Caernarvon and Castle Town.

Units

Good selection of siege assault weapons and anti-infantry field battles. Suffers against powerful ranged power and regular battles (although regular battles they still have a slight advantage over most factions)

Infantry

Mostly shock troops with heavy 2 handed weapons that are effective against armour, but can be weak against archers.

Hero (Haakon Haakonsson; also called Haakon the Old)

Be prepared to use Haakon and his arriving army quickly and decisivly. When he does arrive, his army will be well equiped for a good seige, or perhaps you could use him to fight off the Scottish invaders in the Wick region? Whatever you decide to do, know this, King Haakon will die soon and his son Magnus will be left as the new king. Historically this is supposed to be the point at which Scotland and Norway make peace with each other, however it is very hard to convince the AI to ceasefire. Make sure that you use Haakon to his full potential because things go down hill once he dies.

Dynamic Kings purse

Of all the kingdoms factions the most diverse in the kings purse is Norway , which gets a substantial boost when the king appears which is lost several turns later.

Mercenaries

There are several mercenaries your enemies can recruit when they take a town with high norway culture.