I can't seem get Vanheim to work. Need some help.

[The Panther]

Ah, Vanheim is one of the best nations in the game. I have it in my personal top 4 along with Pythium, Caelum, and C'tis. The reason Vanheim is so good?

Vans, vans, and more vans. Don't bother to build anything but vans. Those guys are the single best troop in the game for the cost. There has been a bunch of analysis and some combat simulators which show this in spades.

The main thing you need to make Vanheim work ridicuously well is to get a Fire 9 Bless on your pretender. The best way to do this is with the Phoenix. In addition to the Fire 9, your Phoenix can also get Air 4-6 to give your vans a (mostly) free air shield when blessed.

To start, get a level 4 prophet so he can do Divine Bless on your vans. Then build vans. You really need Order 3 to have the gold to make lots of vans. Sloth 1 works fine because the vans are a lower resource troop. Dominion 5-6 is sufficient to have the capitol holy level to pump out the vans.

Put your starting Huskarls around as targets and use your vans to swoop in from the side and kill enemies. It is quite easy to begin taking Level 9 indies (except cavs or knights) on Turn 4 with this method. Once you use up all your starting huskarls, you have enough vans to kill pretty much any indie on the map.

Meanwhile, your phoenix can stay at home and research Alteration 3 plus Evocation 1, at which point he can take most Level 9 independants all by himself.

Fire 9 vans have the additional advantage that they can destroy enemy SCs with ease because of the 8 AP damage from the Fire 9 bless.

Try it and see!