Playing as Harold Bluetooth

[KillingMeSoftly]

I haven't seen a lot of strategy discussion concerning the Danish Empire. Most discussion seems to concern them either being fun to play or being a low-tier civilization, power-wise. With the recent Steam Sale I bought the Danes so I'm not only looking for advice on how to best use them, but also just to spur discussion.

The first thing I noticed is that Harold's Unique Ability description seems to be wrong. Disembarking units doesn't consume any movement at all. I haven't double checked to see if embarking only costs 1, all, or no movement. This is an interesting ability that makes amphibious invasions a lot more viable and swift.

I've never really payed attention to pillaging tiles until this game either, since I normally like to keep most things in-tact when I capture a city. However first thing I noticed is that pillaging, while free for Danish melee units, doesn't earn much gold at all. I got 7 gold for pillaging a camp, and I think 12 gold for pillaging a plantation. This is chump change, really. I did notice that my workers can repair pillaged tiles even when I don't own the tile, which I found strange. The real strength of this ability is its tactical value taking out strategic resources; luxuries as well if the computer didn't have gobs of happiness for free. Over-all the free pillaging is very minor. Perhaps has more value in multiplayer games?

I've not gotten to the point of Berserkers or Norwegian Ski Infantry so I can't comment on those.

I started my game going down the Honor policy tree as my plans are early warmongering to take advanage of Harald's military strengths. World generator placed me in a largely plains and forested area with a small tundra to my north. So I forsee Norwegian Ski Infantry being a non-factor in the future if the game lasts that long. I built a second city early on the coast and constructed a few Triremes. Went for Iron Working very early and upgraded some warriors to Swordsmen. Obviously Harald is designed for amphibious invasions and what better opponent to test this against than England, directly to my south. I embark all of my units (couple swords, a horseman, an archer) and with my 2 triremes sailed down the coast and landed on England land. Immediately my units could attack and wiped out their defenders, and set up a quick siege of London (this is when I pillaged the earlier mentioned tiles).

Took London without a lot of fuss, but really it wasn't anything another civilization couldn't do with the same resources and time.

Anyway, I continued my reign of terror further south along the coast and set fire to an Iroquis city. By now my units have been promoted fairly well, and I've given all my swordsmen the Medic promotion so they can heal in the field much quicker. It seems to suit this raid, pillage, and burn strategy pretty well.

Harald seems alright so far. I like his color scheme and also like the look of his embarked units; viking longships!

Please share your insights, experiences, and your own strategies when playing as the Danes.

 

[MadDjinn]

the Danes landing ability part of the UA is fairly strong:

It doesn't matter what type of feature you land on, it only costs 1 movement point and you can still perform actions. Great for landing a surround on cities/units and wiping them out fast.

Free pillage helps a lot when you're making puppets. Usually you should burn all of the farms to prevent the city from growing during the rioting phase, as food is the only thing the city produces at that point. The gold is fairly minor, and random, but do it enough and you've paid for some upgrades or something else. (or, more likely, if you're negative on gpt, it covers a few turns/pillage of that gpt issue. Common when building an initial army before getting markets etc)

Danish units actually use their embarked movement points once they land. Given that this is usually higher than their land based MPs, (after a few tech upgrades to their embarked MP, etc) it's a big bonus (especially due to +1 MP for embarked). What this means is that catapults can land, move, setup, fire - all in one turn. Very potent if used correctly.

Berserkers are great. 3 move battle beasts that have no issues fighting across rivers or when embarked. Ski Infantry are only great when you've upgraded from Berserkers. Keep in mind that hills count, so while the snow part might not be useful, mostly, the hill part will be.

 

[Thyrwyn]

Ninja'd by MadDjinn. He covered all the major points - but I will reiterate "pillage all farms". The Danes are fun to play.

As MadDjinn pointed out, embarked move rates are often higher, so I like to use small lakes to slingshot my troops forward - especially artillery type units which need to set up before they can fire.

 

[mutant-enemy]

the Danes landing ability part of the UA is fairly strong:
It doesn't matter what type of feature you land on, it only costs 1 movement point and you can still perform actions. Great for landing a surround on cities/units and wiping them out fast.

The embarking unit consumes all of its movement points doesn't it? Only disembarkation is free. (Or is my memory playing tricks on me there?)

Berserkers are great. 3 move battle beasts that have no issues fighting across rivers or when embarked. Ski Infantry are only great when you've upgraded from Berserkers. Keep in mind that hills count, so while the snow part might not be useful, mostly, the hill part will be.

Yeah, 3 movement PLUS river fighting ability is killer! So much more fun than with longswords.

 

[MadDjinn]

The embarking unit consumes all of its movement points doesn't it? Only disembarkation is free. (Or is my memory playing tricks on me there?)

Embarking (going from land to water) is as per normal (all MP lost).

Disembarking is where the Danes shine, letting them use their embarked MP points to keep moving after the landing (which is the part I was talking about).

 

[timtofly]

Their UA is great on "island" worlds. Units can "hop" over land and back into the sea in one turn.

 

[vonbach]

Their UA is great on "island" worlds. Units can "hop" over land and back into the sea in one turn.

Yeah but on pangea maps their UA sucks.

 

[ShahJahanII]

Yeah but on pangea maps their UA sucks.

So don't play on Pangea if you find it difficult
Wainy's generic conquest victory covers a long-swordsmen rush with the Ottomans on Pangaea.
The Berserkers are just better replacements to long-swordsmen anyway, so you could apply the same strategy he did.
It was on Pangea, Diety, and he tried not to use any unique components.

To the OP: what map/difficulty were you playing on?
It might be worth taking Liberty after researching Ironworking to acquire more iron through settling if you needed it.

 

[KillingMeSoftly]

Thanks for the replies guys,

My play was on Emperor with Small Continents. Might consider Small Continents stacking in favor of the Danes, but I really wanted to make sure I could adequately play to their strengths.

I ended up winning the game before I could ever test out Norwegian Ski Infantry. Berserkers however are very strong. Free amphibious promotion is great and 3 movement points helps a lot more than it seems on paper. By the time I had my Berserkers they were already highly promoted with Medic and March, so it was easy to keep them roaming around and pillaging.

After a while of playing with the unique ability I got the hang of it a lot more and started using it to sickening effect, it really is very good. As MadDjinn touched on about pillaging potential puppet states, I figured that out as well. It's really easy and quick to pillage most of the land before taking the city so you can replace them with trade posts before the city grows too large. A neat little tactic that isn't obvious at all! I also love being able to disembark a trebuchet and fire on the same turn; kind of an amphibious blitz tactic. It's just a shame that Denmark doesn't also get embarked defense, but I guess we can't have everything!

Originally I thought the UA was bugged since it didn't seem to consume movement points at all, but I realized as mentioned in this thread that the movement is taken first from their embarked movement, which is higher than their land movement. So long as you don't use all of their movement points on the way to disembark, you'll still have some left to move and attack with.

Several berserkers, a couple trebuchets, and some frigates are all you need to conquer the world pretty easily as the Danes. I really enjoyed it and I think Denmark is well worth the buy.

 

[vonbach]

So don't play on Pangea if you find it difficult

Its not difficult the UA is just useless on Pangea. Theres a difference.
Reading comprehension is your friend.

 

[ShahJahanII]

Its not difficult the UA is just useless on Pangea. Theres a difference.
Reading comprehension is your friend.

You used "sucks"
That could mean anything.
Grammar is not your friend
I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, just helpful.

 

[Rex_Mundi]

Its not difficult the UA is just useless on Pangea. Theres a difference.
Reading comprehension is your friend.

You still get free pillaging, and you have an easy time when attacking on the coast.
Not useless, but definatly less usefull.

I guess you did not read or did not comprehend the description of the unique ability.

 

[ForzaFiori]

Its not difficult the UA is just useless on Pangea. Theres a difference.
Reading comprehension is your friend.

Even Pangea maps have water, which means you can use the UA. It becomes useless on great plains or highland maps, which dont have ANY oceans. On pangea, you get to screw with any area on the coast that you want, and it's gonna be a pretty dang big coast.

 

[MadDjinn]

Even Pangea maps have water, which means you can use the UA. It becomes useless on great plains or highland maps, which dont have ANY oceans. On pangea, you get to screw with any area on the coast that you want, and it's gonna be a pretty dang big coast.

there are still lakes on those maps, so you can still use it, minimally.

 

[Treso]

I like the Danish if I am playing a war oriented game. I like both UU. Replaces LSs, thats even after the nerf still being a good medieval era unit and the upgrade (rifles). You can cripple some AIs exploiting these units.