Crusader Kings III – 867 Start: King Aella of Northumbria

 

Introduction

So, Ælla of Northumbria was an Anglo Saxon ruler who played an interesting role in the Viking era… capturing the legendary Ragnar Hairypants and executing him by casting the Viking into a pit of vipers.

This made Ragnar’s sons a little bit angry, so they put together a big army to have their revenge. The “Great Heathen Army” (mostly Danes, but also other Scandinavians) led by 4 of the 5 sons of Ragnar Hairypants – Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan White shirt, Bjorn Ironside, and Ubba, the other guy.

Long story short, Aella lost, and Ragnar’s sons made the “Blood Eagle” out of him.

In CK3, the 867 start has the Great Heathen Army coming up from Jorvik (York) towards Northumbria. Ivar the Boneless has the Duchy of Lothian as his objective, and Halfdan White shirt has the Duchy of Northumbria as his objective. (Bjorn Ironside is sitting on his ironside back in Sweden and Ubba is ?.)

You cannot survive losing both wars to Ivar and Halfdan. If that happens, they make the Blood Eagle out of you, and you die. Game over.

So, how do you survive 10,000 Viking warriors with 800 Ango-Saxon conscripts? That’s what we’re going to talk about.

Step 1: Getting yourself ready – SAVE YOUR GOLD.

Number 1, you may lose, but that’s okay. You’ll lose quickly, and you can try it again. LOL.

First, DO NOT SPEND ANY GOLD. It would help if you had all of it.

So don’t hire any Physicians. They can’t help you recover from the Blood Eagle. They only matter if you survive the war… and to survive, you need gold.

Second… DO NOT RAISE YOUR LEVIES.

Move your Rally point closest to Ivar’s capital.
Leave your Levies UNRAISED so that you can build up a little bit more and save as much money as possible.

As soon as the Vikings are about to enter your lands (and cut you off from your Levies), that’s when you RAISE ALL. If you wait for the Vikings to ENTER your lands, they start to cut off your access to your Levies. (Which is bad.) So wait as long as you can, but don’t wait too long.

You’ll have about ~800 peasant conscripts in your Levies (as compared to 5,000 of Halfdan’s troops and another 5,000 from Ivar the Boneless).

Pretty good odds, yes?

Step 2: The Cheap Northern Army

So, you’ve got your 800 dudes.

That is not enough to take out Ivar’s capital. As soon as it’s close, he’ll send one or two stacks after you, and you’ll melt & die.

You want to move your 800 dudes close to the Capital, but don’t touch anything. Don’t get Ivar’s attention.

…

Instead, wait. Watch the Mercenaries tab on the Armies screen.

At first, you won’t have enough gold to hire any Mercenaries. However, with a little patience and luck, you’ll get BARELY enough to hire the cheapest Mercenaries on the list. (I think they are called the “Woad Raiders.”)

(When you CANNOT hire the mercenaries, you’ll see the Circle/stop sign. That means you’ll incur so much debt; the game forbids you from borrowing that much.

However, that Circle/stop sign changes into a TRIANGLE/yield sign as soon as you have enough gold. YES, you’re going to be heavily in debt, but you’ll have troops to do what you need… and Aella can’t spend the gold if he’s made into the Blood Eagle, so make sure you hire those troops as soon as you can.)

They have ~750 Skirmishers, which aren’t much. However, they give you enough workforce to march on Ivar’s capital.

Step 3: Ivar: White Peace Out

At this point, the Great Heathen Army is probably wandering around, sometimes crushing your territory in Northumbria.

However, the Lothian counties should be okay now, especially if Ivar gets distracted by East Anglia (he’s got another war to fight there).

This means you should have time to send your 800 troops plus the 750 mercenaries to take Ivar’s capital.

With a 1550 workforce, you’ll have enough to make Ivar stay away from you… and you’ll have plenty to take the castle.

As long as Ivar hasn’t done much in Lothian, you should get about a 25-30% War Score from Ivar’s capital.

IMMEDIATELY settle for White Peace with Ivar.

This takes him out of the War and protects the Lothian area from being taken over. Most importantly, it completely takes the Blood Eagle out of the game.

Step 4: The Trouble with White Shirt

So, do you think you can take Halfdan White shirt?

Yes, you’ve got allies from Wessex and Mercia… but these guys don’t do anything to help you. They will probably hide over in East Anglia (where Ivar will come down to fight a war after you White Peace him).

It’s doubtful you’re going to get anything out of those guys.

So, IMO, you should surrender to Halfdan White shirt.

You could wait it out and see if Mercia and Wessex come up to help, but you’ll probably lose the war before that happens.

By surrendering, you can start digging yourself out of debt a little earlier. By waiting, you have a chance of keeping all your lands, but it’s not a great chance.

(YES, you’re going to lose all of Northumbria if you surrender. That sucks. However, this end is the usual way that Halfdan takes Northumbria, Ivar takes Lothian, and Aella gets made into the Blood Eagle. By White Peace with Ivar, you AVOID the Blood Eagle. That’s the main trick – figuring out how to survive so you can stay in the game. Retaining all your lands? This is CK3. You ought to be able to figure out how to survive a loss. Keeping all your lands isn’t as important as keeping your head.)

It’s up to you, but I suggest surrender and moving on to the rest of the game.

Step 5: Conclusion and a new beginning for Aella

So… at this point, you should have White Peace with Ivar. The war with Halfdan White shirt should be over, either by surrender or by an improbable victory.

Where do you go from here?

You’re terribly in debt. You’re still weaker than anyone else around you. Aella is married to a Lowborn wife, so there are no allies there. Aella’s son is married to a lowborn woman… so, again, no allies there. Aella’s daughter is the captive-wife of Sigurd Snake in the Eye, and he hates your guts. Basically, you have nothing for allies.

#1 choice… bend the knee.

Since “King” Aella is actually a Petty King, he can pledge fealty to the King of Alba (his neighbor to the north). This immediately gives you the protection of a Kingdom.

You can still get rid of your wife, your son’s wife, and try to arrange a more advantageous marriage. However, the Kingdom of Alba provides you immediate safety without waiting for Murders to succeed.

…

Once that’s done, you can do another thing for your safety: MURDER JARL HALFDAN.

Most of the other sons of Ragnar Hairypants are kind of resistant to Intrigue plots. Jarl Halfdan? He’s a dumb bass, and Aella starts with very high Intrigue.

You should have a 95%/95% chance to murder Halfdan. Since Halfdan has a few sons, this means you’ll split up his lands a little bit when you murder him.

…

Beyond that? It’s the regular game of thrones for you.

It’s not an easy place to start with 2 large, powerful Viking rulers nearby. You’ve got the pieces of a Duchy (Lothian), although Edinburgh is a perfect area to own. (And I recommend moving the capital to Edinburgh.)

Whenever the King of Alba finds himself in a winnable war? OFFER TO JOIN HIS WAR. You’re a foreigner in his court, so you want to get on his good side as soon as you can.

The rest of the game should be pretty simple, assuming you know how to play this game at all. Just survive and advance.

Good luck!

Follow-up: My Life as a Scotsman

RECENT UPDATE:
(Aelfgar, son of Aella, Duke of Lothian.)

Just showing that you can survive and have Northumbria. I have all the counties I need to form Northumbria at this point, and almost enough for Lancaster (in addition to Lothian).

So, yes, you can survive the Sons of Lothbrok, and you can thrive. (IRONMAN, of course.)

………………………………………………………………
(Previously. Ruler: Duke Aella of Lothian.)

So… a few years out as Duke Aella, I’m doing well.

Murdered Halfdan Hvitserk.

Murdered Ivar the Boneless.

Sigurd Snake in the Eye is in my prison (and then burned at stake).

Bjorn Ironside… dead.

Aella’s revenge tour is COMPLETE.

EDIT: Oops! Forgot Ubbe.
Now it is complete.

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