So I've been experimenting a lot with Greenland as a nation, initially to learn to micromanage stuff but it's turned into a sort of unhealthy obsession. I thought maybe some of you madmen could use my notes to have a little fun.
State at the start of the game:
Greenland starts in the high north with an extremely spare population - 1000 people spread over two provinces; Gardar and Herhjolfnes.
It has no towns, no industry, no key ressources like Lumber, no soldiers and sailors, and it is a Dominion of Norway,
It is, however, surrounded by empty lands within colonial range but - of course - without the population to colonize. Despite that I think it's possible to have a fun game with them.
The long term goals in a Greenland-campaign should be:
- Colonize the rest of Greenland
- Achieve independence from Norway
- Colonize in America, e.g. Newfoundland
Here are my notes on the matter.
Invite Settlers
Your immediate task is to raise your population. The way to do this is to use the 'Invite settlers' diplomatic action, which will make 10 people from a nation migrate to your lands every month for a couple of years. Yes, it's slow, and yes, you can only invite settlers from one nation at the time.
In my experience it's best to focus on Gardar. Your immediate goal is to have enough population for both farmers (around 500), and the R.O.G (around 1000).
In order to invite settlers, you need to Curry favour with candidate nations: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Isle of Man, The Lordship of the Isles, Orkney, Scania. You need 5 favour to invite settlers, and at some point you will not be able to curry more favour with them, especially if you go independent early. As long as you are a Dominion of Norway you get favour from them, though.
Parliament
You will periodically be asked to call a parliament - often you will simply be going for whichever option is the easiest to pass. Avoid expanding R.O.Gs - you need them small so your population can eventually start to migrate to the colonies close to your settlements. If possible, make Gardar and Herhjolfnes - the locations, not the province - into towns via the 'Urbanization' parliament decision. Don't be afraid to offer the estates - mainly the Nobles - something to make it happen, e.g. decentralization or naval focus or whatever else they ask for. Don't give them more privileges.
Estates
You start with a strong Noble estate, a strong and happy Clergy estate, no Burghers, and a powerless Commoners estate. They're not hard to juggle - but try to keep their powers in check. You will struggle economically if the Crown-estate becomes too weak. Don't be afraid to Bribe them to keep rebels in check. Mint money if you have to - you absolutely cannot win a revolt, but you can get your money back down the line.
Independence Movement
You want to create an independence movement focused on Norway to eventually break free and maybe conquer lands in Iceland and the Faeroese Islands. To do so, raise opinion to more than 50 with select nations which can win a war against Norway and Sweden. It's important not to select nations which will go to war against each other before you initiate the independence war - so avoid inviting both Scotland and England.
- England - stronger than Scotland, has a navy which can defeat the Swedes & Norwegians
- Denmark - close to Sweden/Norway and with quite a large army. Can sometimes be defeated if Sweden has a stronger fleet
- Flanders/Brabant - Pretty strong and not likely to go to war with the others
Avoid inviting Iceland or Orkney, you may want to conquer their provinces in the war. Don't put off the independence movement - send an insult if you must to get started - because after a while you cannot invite any members, for reasons unknown to me.
When do you activate the rebellion? Hard to say - Denmark is often crushed fairly early in the game, but you also don't want to go independent too early as it comes with its own drawbacks. As long as you're a Dominion of Norway you get favour and can invite settlers - but they can also colonize using your ports, which is a problem for your own ambitions. See how the game goes.
Industry
For the longest time you have no industry to speak of and very little money. You will want to build something cool to make up for that, but you have no ressources. How do you get out of this?
- As soon as you can, build a Mason. It costs about 50 gold and will make it possible to build other things when staffed
- You should consider setting your employment system to Equality - in this way, you will produce a little of everything you have built, which is crucial in an isolated economy
- You should import Lumber to get started
- In fact, get used to micromanage trades or at least some of the trades to get your buildings built and industries producing
Consider building a couple of Market villages - they increase trade capacity, food capacity, and market access and can sometimes produce scarce goods (like tools) if you import the right raw materials. They're also usually profitable.
After that, it's a matter of selecting the most profitable building available to you where the raw materials are also available. I often go for a Rural Clothmaker as you have wool available from Brattahlid. Don't overbuild - if you have enough open slots for labourers you will run out of peasants and won't be able to colonize.
If you can, raise trade capacity - this is the key to making money in Greenland.
Exploration & Colonization
You're blessed with a government reform - Family Sagas - which allows you to explore. But to explore you need to somehow get 250 sailors and some money. You're better off trying to colonize the rest of Greenland before a European power beats you to the punch:
- Middle Settlement - Only 3 locations and also closest to you (and Europe). Start with this.
- Vesteribygd - 6 locations, so takes a lot of manpower to colonize. If you're too slow, though, Norway will likely colonize it before you can, and you don't want that as it gives them a springboard to go to America.
Eventually, however, you will be in a position where you can explore some of the North American coast - if you can scrape together 250 sailors and some money. To get the sailors you need to build naval buildings like:
It will take a while before you can achieve this, but with a little luck and some skill you can beat the Europeans.
You can also build Fishing villages to get sailors, but be aware that they are typically not profitable and take up peasants which could otherwise migrate to colonies. I haven't tried this strategy, but maybe there's something in it, give it a go.
Research
For the first 3-5 games I played as Greenland had lovely institution spread and always had stuff to research. As of this version - 1.0.11 - I research everything in short order and don't get the institution spread to keep going. I don't know if this is a specific nerf of institution spread or a result of me triggering the independence war earlier - more testing needed.
