Creating your own Kingdom

[MinusTaurus]

am i the only one who think creating your own kingdom is an extremely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ experience?

everyone instantly declares war on you, and the only thing you can really do from that point on is to stay in your town and abuse the dumb siege AI to defend against armies of 2000-3000 with your 1000 defenders repeatedly, and watch your villages being raided until you run out of food and prosperity.

diplomacy basically seems to be nonexistent, everything is just 100% randomized.
am i missing something here, or is the game just bad?

[kristianjakob]

-Start as a vassal for faction A.
- Beat up faction B, and take their land for yourself.
-Declare independence and hire the, now landless, lords of faction B.
- Crush your enemies.

[MinusTaurus]

Originally posted by kristianjakob:

-Start as a vassal for faction A.
- Beat up faction B, and take their land for yourself.
-Declare independence and hire the, now landless, lords of faction B.
- Crush your enemies.

well thats kinda what i did, but the other factions are just so much stronger that my guys have no chance at all, how should they defend in the field against lucon with his 2500 elite soldiers?

[Clovis Sangrail]

Originally posted by MinusTaurus:

am i missing something here, or is the game just bad?

I'm going to go with the former option.

[2GenL]

When a settlement rebels, take it. Then, you can build a kingdom without attacking the main kingdoms. Peacefully build the kingdoms strength before attacking the others

[MinusTaurus]

Originally posted by 2GenL:

When a settlement rebels, take it. Then, you can build a kingdom without attacking the main kingdoms. Peacefully build the kingdoms strength before attacking the others

the other factions will declare war on you regardless
the diplomacy in this game doesnt seem to follow any logic, the war declarations are just random

i tried to get my influence up with lords and everything, nothing really stops them from declaring war on you

[2GenL]

Originally posted by MinusTaurus:

Originally posted by 2GenL:

When a settlement rebels, take it. Then, you can build a kingdom without attacking the main kingdoms. Peacefully build the kingdoms strength before attacking the others

the other factions will declare war on you regardless
the diplomacy in this game doesnt seem to follow any logic, the war declarations are just random

i tried to get my influence up with lords and everything, nothing really stops them from declaring war on you

I've managed it this way... So cant be all that bad

[Action Man]

Makes sense to me that the new - and most likely weakest - kid on the block declaring himself king would bring the ire of the established kingdoms/empires/factions.

Planning ahead is how you do it. It's almost like having a good plan is the best way to achieve long term goals. :)

[MinusTaurus]

Originally posted by Action Man:

Makes sense to me that the new - and most likely weakest - kid on the block declaring himself king would bring the ire of the established kingdoms/empires/factions.

Planning ahead is how you do it. It's almost like having a good plan is the best way to achieve long term goals. :)

so what exactly do you suggest me to do to prevent others from declaring war on me at random?

[Action Man]

You say 'random' - I say they're declaring war on what they view as a weak target.

There's a few ways I've done it.

The 'easiest' way is to be a vassal and rebel. Leave the Kingdom and keep your fiefs. Your former faction will declare war on you, and you'll take a pretty hefty relation hit with all the clans. -40 with each clan I think. Before you rebel, consolidate your power. Get your fiefs built up and have good relations with other clans. Protect your borders, and let the rest of your faction wither away if you want since you'll be leaving them anyway. Once you declare your own kingdom, recruit clans to your side. It can be pretty costly, but bring them to your side, maybe even give them your fiefs so they have a base of power. Now you've got more clan parties to build armies and fight back. Have an idea of what clans you want, because you'll need to track them down and recruit them.

Stay independent, and wait for cities to rebel. Swoop in and take them before another faction does. You can do this as much as you want, although you don't want your territory spread out too much.

Wait for other factions to be weakened - but not eliminated - before you declare. That will give you some good prospects for clans to recruit. For whatever reason, you cannot recruit factionless clans, so you want to bring them to your side before their faction is eliminated.

Have plenty of money in the bank, because you'll be paying for your additional clan parties as well as a sizeable garrison while you bring more clans to your side.

[kristianjakob]

Originally posted by MinusTaurus:

Originally posted by kristianjakob:

-Start as a vassal for faction A.
- Beat up faction B, and take their land for yourself.
-Declare independence and hire the, now landless, lords of faction B.
- Crush your enemies.

well thats kinda what i did, but the other factions are just so much stronger that my guys have no chance at all, how should they defend in the field against lucon with his 2500 elite soldiers?

Firstly, the AI is rarely that strong; though that could be a matter of how many years have passed before you go king.

Between you and your own companion parties you should already be able to raise a sizeable force. Add in some extra lords from the defeated faction, and you should be in a good position.

Just pay off any faction that declares war on you, expect one, and focus on that one.

A small trick you can do, before you declare independence, is to invite the clanleaders (as many as you can handle) into an army and park it just outside you capital.

Then declare independence
capture them
recruit the previously mentions landless lords (faction B)
Proceed to dismantle faction A and hire their clans as you make them landless.

If done right you can have the strength of two factions within weeks.

[MinusTaurus]

Originally posted by Action Man:

You say 'random' - I say they're declaring war on what they view as a weak target.

There's a few ways I've done it.

The 'easiest' way is to be a vassal and rebel. Leave the Kingdom and keep your fiefs. Your former faction will declare war on you, and you'll take a pretty hefty relation hit with all the clans. -40 with each clan I think. Before you rebel, consolidate your power. Get your fiefs built up and have good relations with other clans. Protect your borders, and let the rest of your faction wither away if you want since you'll be leaving them anyway. Once you declare your own kingdom, recruit clans to your side. It can be pretty costly, but bring them to your side, maybe even give them your fiefs so they have a base of power. Now you've got more clan parties to build armies and fight back. Have an idea of what clans you want, because you'll need to track them down and recruit them.

Stay independent, and wait for cities to rebel. Swoop in and take them before another faction does. You can do this as much as you want, although you don't want your territory spread out too much.

Wait for other factions to be weakened - but not eliminated - before you declare. That will give you some good prospects for clans to recruit. For whatever reason, you cannot recruit factionless clans, so you want to bring them to your side before their faction is eliminated.

Have plenty of money in the bank, because you'll be paying for your additional clan parties as well as a sizeable garrison while you bring more clans to your side.

well thats almost exactly what i did:

i started off as battania, doing some bandit hunting and questing until i had about 50 troops, then i became a mercenary for battania and joining their armies, always letting captured lords to go increase my relations with them while doing my best to prevent battania from being wiped out as it usually happens.

at some point, i had ortysia and jalmaris as fiefs and built them up as much as possible.
at this time i already had good relations with with most lords because of all the released prisoners, and i had 100 with all battanian lords, so when i left the faction with my 2 towns, i only dropped to 60 with them.

the battanians at this point only had a single city left, so they were on the verge of being wiped out, means i was in no way the weakest kid in the block. problem was that everyone still declared war on me, so there was no chance to go and recruit any lords because i had to defend my city nonstop, on top of doing the stupid main quest to cancel the conspiracy or whatever.

so yeah, i was neither the weakest, nor did i have bad relations with other factions, thats why i am having the impression that war declarations are just totally random.

also, by the time i betrayed the battanians, vlandia and the eastern empire already took like 40% of the map each

money also wasnt an issue at this point, i had several millions from smithing

[MinusTaurus]

Originally posted by kristianjakob:

Between you and your own companion parties you should already be able to raise a sizeable force. Add in some extra lords from the defeated faction, and you should be in a good position.

well yeah, problem is that as soon as i go to capture another settlement, i will lose the one i have

[kristianjakob]

Originally posted by MinusTaurus:

Originally posted by kristianjakob:

Between you and your own companion parties you should already be able to raise a sizeable force. Add in some extra lords from the defeated faction, and you should be in a good position.

well yeah, problem is that as soon as i go to capture another settlement, i will lose the one i have

Pay the other factions off. Focus on one.

If you cannot handle that then pay all off them off and go recruit and then take them on; one at a time.

[MinusTaurus]

Originally posted by kristianjakob:

Originally posted by MinusTaurus:

well yeah, problem is that as soon as i go to capture another settlement, i will lose the one i have

Pay the other factions off. Focus on one.

If you cannot handle that then pay all off them off and go recruit and then take them on; one at a time.

how would i "pay them off" though? do you mean making a peace agreement?

[Ruffio]

Originally posted by MinusTaurus:

Originally posted by kristianjakob:

Pay the other factions off. Focus on one.

If you cannot handle that then pay all off them off and go recruit and then take them on; one at a time.

how would i "pay them off" though? do you mean making a peace agreement?

Yes, you pay for peace...