Playing the Varangians: Scouts, Knights and transitions
Learning the Varangians with Scouts into Knights on Arabia, setting up your eco and knowing when to add Jarls or switch army comp.
Guide under review: the plans below are not build orders validated in real games.
To get started with the Varangians on Arabia, go Scouts into Knights. The most important thing is keeping your eco running during raids: keep your TC and Stables producing, then adapt your army comp when the counters show up.
Open Scouts, without forgetting your farms
Herding, hunting and fishing also generate gold. In his tests, Ornlu measures 10 gold per 100 food dropped off by villagers from these sources. This bonus doesn’t speed up food gathering and works on neither berries nor farms. So set up your farms before the animals run out, then the gold miners you need for Knights. (Official overview; Ornlu, 9:13)
In Feudal, if his Spearmen are holding the wood line, look for villagers elsewhere. If he’s fully walled and you can’t do damage anymore, don’t keep making Scouts out of habit: lay down your farms and get your Castle Age up ready. Keep your Scouts alive to see what comes out of his base.
Bloodlines gives 30 HP here instead of 20: it’s the tech’s effect that goes up by 50%, not your units’ total HP. The upgrade still costs resources. Don’t start it if it stops you from making the Scouts and villagers you need right now. (Official tech tree)
In Castle Age, group your Knights before attacking
You don’t need a Castle to go Knights. If you’re under pressure, secure your gold before moving out. Otherwise, group up your first Knights and look for an exposed wood line or gold. Avoid sending them one by one: you risk giving them away without taking anything.
Against a mass of Pikemen, switch sides. Before engaging archers, check whether there are Monks or Pikemen behind them. And while you’re microing your Knights, don’t let your TC idle: winning a raid only to fall behind in villagers isn’t the point.
Vendel Legacy adds splash damage to Knights. But you have to pay for the Castle and then the research. Wait until you have a mass that benefits from it; if the investment forces you to stop your Stables while you’re already short on units, put it off. (Varangian technologies)
Add Jarls when Pikemen shut down your game
The Jarl throws axes at range, but deals melee damage. Its anti-infantry role lets it help Knights against Pikemen. Keep it behind your cavalry and pull back if your opponent closes in. It’s trained at the Castle: you need to plan for the stone, then enough food and gold to make it consistently. (Unit overview)
Against archers, also look at your Skirmishers and siege. Against lots of Camels, get Pikemen ready before you lose all your Knights.
Varangian Guards are another transition, from the Barracks. The gold they generate in combat doesn’t make a lost fight worth it. Above all, avoid building up Knights, Jarls and Guards at the same time: you risk being short on units in every group.
In Imperial Age, you can upgrade your Knights to Cavaliers, but you don’t have Paladin. Hussars are still available for raids. If you switch army comp, add the production buildings before paying for every upgrade. (Official tech tree)
On Arena, the Castle isn’t mandatory
Plan your Castle Age up, then scout your opponent’s exits before investing in several TCs or an army. The gold from animals makes the start easier, but won’t pay for continuous production on its own.
Castle into Jarls is an option, not an automatic choice. If you go for it, watch the enemy Monks and keep enough to keep producing after building it. The Varangians have neither Bombard Cannons nor Redemption and Block Printing at the Monastery: get your Trebuchets ready, and something to defend them, for siege fights.
In your replay, look mainly at your first raid: how much TC idle time did you take while microing? Were your Stables still producing? That’s often where you can already gain a lot, before looking for a more complicated army comp.
Practicing the build order
Mastering the Scout Rush in 10 minutes, tutorial · Ciskhan (FR) presents a general build order. It isn’t a Varangians guide: practice the execution and scouting, without assuming every timing carries over.
Sources and limitations
Patch 185872, official sources and Ornlu’s analysis; official tech tree cross-checked locally. Partly untested draft. Ornlu’s tests are from early access and were reviewed through automatic transcripts; they don’t demonstrate a current ranked meta.
