how did you run/grow your kingdom?

[Nightman20]

i try my best but eventually get attacked by multiple factions at once. how did you overcome this? what are some skills that are great to have to make your kingdom stronger? i remember seeing a skill that gives you an extra clan? idk im probably mistaken

[Ruffio]

Pay tribute and focus on one war at a time.

Not a extra clan. a extra party.

You can only get extra clans by either recruit clans to your kingdom or you promote a companion to a lord, but that require 20k gold, a feif to hand them and a bunch of influence.

[Nightman20]

Originally posted by Ruffio:

Pay tribute and focus on one war at a time.

Not a extra clan. a extra party.

You can only get extra clans by either recruit clans to your kingdom or you promote a companion to a lord, but that require 20k gold, a feif to hand them and a bunch of influence.

didnt know i could promote a companion to a lord. that means he has his own clan? can he recruit npcs to join? what is the benefit of doing this? i see the skill now do you go with +1 companion or +1 party? i was thinking i would get cities and my clans would get castles.

[Ruffio]

Originally posted by Nightman20:

Originally posted by Ruffio:

Pay tribute and focus on one war at a time.

Not a extra clan. a extra party.

You can only get extra clans by either recruit clans to your kingdom or you promote a companion to a lord, but that require 20k gold, a feif to hand them and a bunch of influence.

didnt know i could promote a companion to a lord. that means he has his own clan? can he recruit npcs to join? what is the benefit of doing this? i see the skill now do you go with +1 companion or +1 party? i was thinking i would get cities and my clans would get castles.

One party is more valuable than one extra companion. You will grow your clan in size with kids over time so companions become less and less worth imho.

If you promote a companion to a lord, it will become a Tier 2 clan with 3 dudes in it, But don't expect them to field much power right away.

[Odd fella]

Not sure about sandbox but in campaign I took vlandias settlements without being a kingdom. Had trouble with rebels but easier to deal with than a kingdom. Then declared myself as a kingdom once I took over from vlandia. Was able to deal with the war declarations then, just gotta catch little army's on their own.

[lar unuruur]

have to be very prepared. essentially, everything what can be done before declare new kingdom, MUST be done. not after, not to start think after the fact "oooh, i have not done this and that."
top tier fiefs. proper clan members leveled(one more aspect why never to waste companions on caravans).
so it would be not like jumping into sea and only after landing in water, start to think "do i know how to swim and where?"

[LockeCasual]

With my Imperial character I just latched onto the S.Empre and simped hard for Rhagea, a character without personal ambitions to rule. It became too easy, and we're taking the whole map easily, starting with the Khargits, who's Khans Guard will make the rest of the conquest a little easier.

I'm having way more fun as an Aserai Bandit though.

I started at 40, with the idea that I'd make a bandit empire with this character, and turn it into a legit kingdom after she dies and her kid takes over. I started by created a Caravan train, forgoing companions in my main party and just putting them to work.

I started my land grab by taking the castles bordering the desert to the rest of the realms, paying off the factions I took them from and enjoying not being targeted for war. Basically, in this state, you decide who you war with, always. Buying peace from Empire factions is more expensive though, be warned!

My character was 47 bey the time we finally had an opportunity to take Charas from the West Empire, after they weakened it by taking it from Vlandia. Perfect bc my husband is a Vlandian fop and he makes a perfect governor there. Now I'm making more money than ever before... and a northern city as rebelled against its conquerors ... so I may take that also.

I call this a "vulture playstyle" bc I'm basically picking on the scraps of other factions wars, and emerging as a "lesser" faction that actually takes land. I always have 50+ Forest Bandits in my army with a growing number of Forest Bandit Bosss. They're OP I swear, and much cheaper that other archers. I always have bandit prisoners to make up for losses and have played very patiently this way. Charas the Bandit City! It's a beautiful thing, even if some say I use an exploit to get it. Not my fault that money talks.

[Kernest]

Promoting companions to clans costs 200K and 500 (IIRC) influence. The influence in particular can be hard to gain before forming a kingdom, and once you've formed a kingdom you have a rather limited window of time before you start getting attacked by neighboring kingdoms, because you're so weak.

What you can do, however, is recruit clans from other kingdoms. It takes good relations, a persuasion check and a barter offer of several hundred thousand gold (unless you got the trade perk that allows you to offer them a fief outright).

So basically, try to take over a city or two and a few castles, declare independence, barter for peace, and once you're ready to form your kingdom, the first thing you do should be finding clan leaders to talk to to try and convince them to join your side. I like to hand them a castle for good measure.

I joined Battania, took over a bunch of Sturgian lands and then became independent. It was less than a perfect position, because I was withing war declaration distance of 3 kingdoms, Battania, Northern Empire and Sturgia. But by getting clans from Sturgia to switch sides I effectively took their soldiers for myself. Northern Empire was very weak too and had bigger problems.

Calling all my men to my own army, I could take out armies the Battanians sent, and whenever I had recently beaten them, I could expand into what was left of Sturgia in particular.