They are producing near full stacks in the first few turns on normal so 2 stacks on legendary sounds right. I got stuck as id sent my second smaller army over to ireland to raid to try and get some money because you start with no trading and it doesnt take many extra units before your in the red. Then a Danelaw stack glides right through Mercia ignoring it completely without a care in the world and goes straight for london. This has happened on two starts now although i didnt go for ireland the second time but i still cant defend against their superior units this early. Their swords take almost no damage from the archers you can buy. oh and not to mention the full stack of Danes that declared war immediatly and then turned up to take canterbury.

Im really lost on how to start their campaign, it feels worse than mercia in the normal DLC.

Looks long but tried to be succinct & extensive, hope this helps and hope I don't sound condescending in any way:

Starting moves:
I found it fine, I set a non-aggression with Danelaw and Mercia and went after Glywysing & Wales for trade resources. Using Alfred the Great led to a swift gain, especially with the faction perk which means there's no instability penalty for conquering. I then secured trade with whoever I could to fund several armies to claim England (Wales has lead and Iron). I knew Mercia and Danelaw would come to blows, allowing them to damage each other before I moved in for the kill, first declaring war on Mercia as their lands bordered mine.

Vikings:
Then came the war with Danelaw. They were already at war against Strachlyde/Scotland and slightly damaged from the steamrolling of Mercia & Northumberland. I attacked instantly. I had only researched military tech from the start for -Fatigue Rate and campaign movement. I made sure my armies stayed together - about one and a half stacks - and using my high cunning generals to attack mainly at night.

Tactics:
Welsh Longbows focused on hard hitting infantry and their general (two handed axes disappear under longbow fire), whilst my small amount of unarmoured cavalry tended to take heavy losses chasing multiple skirmishers. Normally keeping my infantry pretty static. With their skirmishers busy I could move my javelinmen to fire on Hirdmen and their generals from behind. With their General dead, Dane armies crumble pretty fast especially early on. Keep yours safe or use him against weaker units to get a quick breakthrough their line. Having the skirmish advantage is huge for Wessex - Longbows are so good (with military traditions upgrading missile damage +20% they almost do javelinesque damage).

Consolidating your Kingdom:
After beating the main Danelaw armies just take their lands as soon as possible and keep an eye out for Dane fleets from Jutland crossing the channel. You can deal with rebellions later or keep a small force in your backlines to deal with them (I always keep a 5-8 unit force or two in my lands in case of rebellion or surprise attack). There's not too many cities in England but once you have it and become a Kingdom you can turtle up for a bit and build. I kept out of Scotland and Ireland unless they declared war on me in which I would subjugate and support another faction - their land isn't bad per se but I like having them seperate like the UK now + cool units if they're puppet states, also having more people to trade with is good.

Building up:
I stayed away from making non-aggression pacts with mainland Europe and only traded. If you don't plan to attack a nation then make the deals and get that money but you don't need to be too friendly with anyone. Most leave you alone to your island and are to busy at war with others. (Ireland can be troublesome at times as its close to home). Danelaw, Mercia and Wales generate a huge amount of income if you build right - Babbenburgh + Jorvik are major cities in Danelaw, Wales has lead and iron (I use this as a recruitment centre) and Mercia has Timber. Wessex is best set up for agriculture where it can make a lot of money too and grow fast. Focus on trade as well it's a huge benefit as you have resources and you live on a safe little island away from the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wars in Europe.

After that you should be pretty powerful to attack wherever. I did mine on Legendary, attacking the Danes and moving into Europe through Jutland into old East Francian territory - securing Frances northern border before attacking them. I found Asturias early game to be the most challenging personally - Wessex was a piece of cake in comparison.

Buy your time. invade southern wales and occupy it and begin trading with every faction and i mean everyone you can.

If you use the "all diplomatic options" mod it would help you a lot, since mercia will most likely join you(same blood). Otherwise focus on economy buildings a skip a lot of turns to build up a strong economy.
Longbows are key to sucessful battles, since there are no match to counter that unit at least in England. GL!

All of the above doesnt work on Legendary. Probably using other mods to change something or make easier. Only tactic i find that works is build as many cheap units aspossible and rush Danelaw into the ground then to chace any armies down and recapture land.

The only way I found to defeat the vikings was to unite Mercia and Wessex, but I did that with a mod

after failing around 50x. I learned the AI repeat the same routine, which I hope they've fixed at this point. You have to play defensive and use a lot of archers on in your towns to destroy them and once you know the routine routes the enemy will take into your town, you can have traps set up and once you've beaten enough of the danes high ranking generals, they start to leave you alone.

yeah I just cant make the wessex economy work, I just seem to turtle and defend against danish stacks

My question would be what difficulty level has the mod been balanced around?
Not all mods work well on all difficulty levels.

Originally posted by Unexcpected Spanish Inquisition:

They are producing near full stacks in the first few turns on normal so 2 stacks on legendary sounds right. I got stuck as id sent my second smaller army over to ireland to raid to try and get some money because you start with no trading and it doesnt take many extra units before your in the red. Then a Danelaw stack glides right through Mercia ignoring it completely without a care in the world and goes straight for london. This has happened on two starts now although i didnt go for ireland the second time but i still cant defend against their superior units this early. Their swords take almost no damage from the archers you can buy. oh and not to mention the full stack of Danes that declared war immediatly and then turned up to take canterbury.

Im really lost on how to start their campaign, it feels worse than mercia in the normal DLC.

doesn't heavy shot work while placed on a barricade? I always wait until they are a few meters away and then turn on fire at will, they start dropping like flies, they get close and now at point blank range it is a death sentence for them(always start firing a little early before they reach the barricade, remember the barricade can get destroyed, so this is about controlling the ammo and losing arrows at the optimum range for highest accuracy and power....and with crossbows....it's basically cheating)

Originally posted by Meralious:

after failing around 50x. I learned the AI repeat the same routine, which I hope they've fixed at this point. You have to play defensive and use a lot of archers on in your towns to destroy them and once you know the routine routes the enemy will take into your town, you can have traps set up and once you've beaten enough of the danes high ranking generals, they start to leave you alone.

maybe this is the reason the English longbow man came from England, after Wessex won it was because they had to rely on so many archers to fend off Danish attacks

Going back to Stix_09 question: "what difficulty level has the mod been balanced around?
Not all mods work well on all difficulty levels." Anyone? I know battle difficulty should always stay on normal since the AI just gets unfair bonuses at higher levels, but what about campaign difficulty can I set that to very hard? Thanks in advance!