Did I declare my own kingdom too soon?

[☧ Voievod]

Background
Culture: Empire
Ok so, I started out as a mercenary for the Northern Empire then I became vassal and after some time after getting the quest to declare my own imperial faction (having done all the requirements) I declared my own faction while owning the following:

1. The city of Amitatys
2. Gersegos Castle
3. Sestadaim Castle
4. Varagos Castle
5. Thorios Castle

Once I declared my own kingdom and decided to keep my possesions, I was declared war by all three fractioned empires.
Since none wished to join my new kingdom I was unable to form armies to defend my holdings and slowly I lost Gersegos, Sestadaim and Thorios (Varagos barely holding out with a few dozen soldiers). All of my fiefs including the small villages have been attacked and raided.

Soon I will have nothing to my name.

Have I failed the entire game? What is there to do after losing Amitatys (my last stronghold)?
Should I just start fresh a new campaign?
Did I declare my indipendence too soon ?

[Rhapsody]

It's almost impossible to truly lose the game, but I'd start over.

Leaving a kingdom and basically stealing their fiefs is a grave offense and subject to immediate retaliation with maximum prejudice. :p

It may be better to take over a town that has rebelled against their overlord faction, or just join an existing faction and wait for its ruler to die and be elected in their place.

[Clovis Sangrail]

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

Did I declare my indipendence too soon ?

Yep. You sure did.

Had you simply left the kingdom and kept your holdings, but not created a your own kingdom immediately, you would have only had your original kingdom Northern Empire on your ass, not three factions. And you could have bought peace for probably under 100k.

Then you could have safely stayed as an independent clan while you consolidate your ♥♥♥♥.

For now, to rescue this game -- Abdicate from your fledgling kingdom (button in kingdom page) before you lose Amitatys. If you have any other clans in your kingdom, one of them will get to be king. If no other clans, your kingdom will be dissolved. I don;t thinkyou will be at war with anyone, and you should get to keep your town if you still have it. Then stay as an independent clan until you get a chance to rebuild.

Then you can declare a kingdom or join an existing one, but you will be on stronger footing.

And whatever you do -- You have way too many castles.

[☧ Voievod]

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

Did I declare my indipendence too soon ?

Yep. You sure did.

Had you simply left the kingdom and kept your holdings, but not created a your own kingdom immediately, you would have only had your original kingdom Northern Empire on your ass, not three factions. And you could have bought peace for probably under 100k.

Then you could have safely stayed as an independent clan while you consolidate your ♥♥♥♥.

For now, to rescue this game -- Abdicate from your fledgling kingdom (button in kingdom page) before you lose Amitatys. If you have any other clans in your kingdom, one of them will get to be king. If no other clans, your kingdom will be dissolved. I don;t thinkyou will be at war with anyone, and you should get to keep your town if you still have it. Then stay as an independent clan until you get a chance to rebuild.

Then you can declare a kingdom or join an existing one, but you will be on stronger footing.

And whatever you do -- You have way too many castles.

Thanks man, I also want to say that this playthrough is my first one.

By abdicating the kingdom I think I also crash/fail the main quest right?
And even if let's say, I declare my own kingdom again in the future, I couldn't complete the quest unify the Empire right?

Why do I have too many castles? isn't this the purpose of the game? to grow your own kingdom?

[flyingscot1066]

In addition to what both Clovis and Rhapsody said, I'd also restart to undo the fact that you followed the main quest. It's horrendously broken, and with very little exception will lead to boundless frustration on your part as you progress. It's 100% optional.

[☧ Voievod]

Originally posted by flyingscot1066:

In addition to what both Clovis and Rhapsody said, I'd also restart to undo the fact that you followed the main quest. It's horrendously broken, and with very little exception will lead to boundless frustration on your part as you progress. It's 100% optional.

I have a save before I broke away. But im ashamed to save scum the game.

[flyingscot1066]

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

Why do I have too many castles? isn't this the purpose of the game? to grow your own kingdom?

Castles are money sinks. They require far more resources to maintain than they produce. Leave them alone until later game, and in my opinion they are best to give to vassal clans.

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

Originally posted by flyingscot1066:

In addition to what both Clovis and Rhapsody said, I'd also restart to undo the fact that you followed the main quest. It's horrendously broken, and with very little exception will lead to boundless frustration on your part as you progress. It's 100% optional.

I have a save before I broke away. But im ashamed to save scum the game.

There's no need of that. :P It's an early access state, incomplete and quite worthless campaign.

I prefer sandbox myself... brother or no.

[Clovis Sangrail]

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

By abdicating the kingdom I think I also crash/fail the main quest right?

Main quest is fubar and is totally optional. The cool kids let it expire. That banner doesn;t do ♥♥♥♥ for you anyway. This next quote from flyingscot sums it up nicely --

Originally posted by flyingscot1066:

It's horrendously broken, and with very little exception will lead to boundless frustration on your part as you progress. It's 100% optional.

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

Why do I have too many castles? isn't this the purpose of the game? to grow your own kingdom?

Castles are not very profitable. I only keep the one closest to my main town to use as a source of noble troop replenishment. Make the locals happy, and they will send their sons off to war with you. Again, I refer you to flyingscot --

Originally posted by flyingscot1066:

Castles are money sinks. They require far more resources to maintain than they produce. Leave them alone until later game, and in my opinion they are best to give to vassal clans.

You want towns. They make good money.

[nephilimnexus]

At a high enough level of Charm there is a perk that, with enough money, let's you just buy holdings from nobles. I mention this because doing so does not force you to create a new kingdom nor does it make you a part of theirs. You become a fully independent property owner with no official government ties of any kind.

Why do this? Because since you aren't part of any realm nobody can declare war on you. Which, in turn, means you don't need armies or even garrisons to protect your property. You can keep 100% of your tax income worry free because you have plot armor against invasions of any kind.

Do this enough times and you can build yourself a proper kingdom long before ever actually declaring yourself one. Take your time and max out all the buildings, etc. Buy out your future rivals until they're down to a single castle before formally donning a crown and squashing them like the insignificant bugs that they've become.

The prices for these buyouts are, of course, pretty obscene but that's nothing that the eternally broken blacksmithing system can't fix with zero effort.

Just sell javelins until you can just buy the whole map.

[Clovis Sangrail]

Originally posted by nephilimnexus:

At a high enough level of Charm there is a perk that, with enough money, let's you just buy holdings from nobles. I mention this because doing so does not force you to create a new kingdom nor does it make you a part of theirs. You become a fully independent property owner with no official government ties of any kind.

Why do this? Because since you aren't part of any realm nobody can declare war on you. Which, in turn, means you don't need armies or even garrisons to protect your property. You can keep 100% of your tax income worry free because you have plot armor against invasions of any kind.

Do this enough times and you can build yourself a proper kingdom long before ever actually declaring yourself one. Take your time and max out all the buildings, etc. Buy out your future rivals until they're down to a single castle before formally donning a crown and squashing them like the insignificant bugs that they've become.

The prices for these buyouts are, of course, pretty obscene but that's nothing that the eternally broken blacksmithing system can't fix with zero effort.

Just sell javelins until you can just buy the whole map.

First -- It's a Trade perk, not Charm. Trade 300.

And second, this poster obviously hasn't smithed for a while. Javelins were nerfed long ago. You will not be selling and 130k javelins like you could way back when.

[☧ Voievod]

Thanks for all your replies. Guys keep in mind that Im new to the game.

Is the Eagle Rising mod worth playing? Does it add new gameplay features to the game besides just roman textures?

[venims]

things going wrong makes the game fun it gets boring cooker cuter playing campaigns afder a while

[flyingscot1066]

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

Thanks for all your replies. Guys keep in mind that Im new to the game.

Is the Eagle Rising mod worth playing? Does it add new gameplay features to the game besides just roman textures?

At least until full release, I wouldn't bother with Mods. Any updates tend to change the source code enough so they will no longer work until the mod builder goes in and makes adjustments to update to the newest patch. That is, understandably, very frustrating and time consuming for the creators so many are not bothering to keep up on them in a timely manner. I'm sticking with vanilla until release.

[Chaotic Misfit]

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

Thanks for all your replies. Guys keep in mind that Im new to the game.

Is the Eagle Rising mod worth playing? Does it add new gameplay features to the game besides just roman textures?

My honest opinion it is worth playing... but I wouldn't play with overhaul mods until you get a better feel for the game itself as many of them make the game much harder. Also if you do play with mods be prepared for starting over a lot. Every time there is a hotfix or patch it will break the mods. If the new update isn't a new "number" then you can't stop it from breaking your save.

[Clovis Sangrail]

Originally posted by ☧ Voievod:

Thanks for all your replies. Guys keep in mind that Im new to the game.

Is the Eagle Rising mod worth playing? Does it add new gameplay features to the game besides just roman textures?

You are new to the game. Stick with mainline (currently 1.7.2) and avoid mods and beta.

Save early and save often. No shame in that. Save that badass Ironman crap for when it's out of EA and when you know the game better.

Play the campaign game, not sandbox. Rescue your siblings, but blow off that fubar main quest.

Get married, and get spouses for your brothers. Your spouse plus 2 brothers' spouses equals three extra spouse companions. Add in your three siblings, and you have six companions who do not count against your companion limit.

Get to breeding. Between your and your spouse and your two brothers and their spouses, your clan is capable of popping out 15 or more little babies over the next few years, all of whom grow up to be . . . . you guessed it . . . additional companions.

When you take a fief, assign a nice governor and take care of the people's needs. This is not a conquer-and-go game. You have to be a ruler, and a good one, or you will start losing towns to rebellion.

And above all -- take your time. This game is intended to span multiple generations.