Policy destroys my influence

[hound]

So I have a new kingdom that's my own and I have no parties/lords/vassals.
I have 90 influence and when I activate a policy (Senate), even though it costs 50 my influence goes to -40 or more. Why is this happening?

[Captain Lasagna]

I noticed the same thing. This is just speculation on my part, but I believe it could be due to the fact that you lose 50 (just for bringing it to a vote), then you lose more on top of that due to it having 0% support in the kingdom.

Not really much of a vote when you're the only one voting anyway lol.

[Aethrys]

You can easily set yourself up to earn heaps of influence with prudent law choices before you ever get a vassal, and from there enact whatever laws you want to without any opposition or relations loss.

[hound]

Originally posted by Aethrys:

You can easily set yourself up to earn heaps of influence with prudent law choices before you ever get a vassal, and from there enact whatever laws you want to without any opposition or relations loss.

How can I do that when I got into a big minus after my first law.
Also what laws should I add for massive influence gain?

[Captain Lasagna]

Royal Guard is useful if it's just you and some companion parties
Noble Retinues (think it's called)
And there's one other one I have, can't remember. I get like 5-6 influence a day or so?

[Arenor]

Make some parties in your clan menu, they will roam and get you some starting influence. If you have a good economy maybe hire a mercenary company, it's around 3 parties that will get you influence. When you have about 150 you can invest in a law that gives you influence, read them because they depend on your play style. When you have lords or if your'e a vassal the quickest way to get influence is to donate prisoners in friendly (not owned) dungeons.

[madracc00n]

Pretty sure it is a bug.When u have other clans in ur kingdom it cost just 50 influence,when u are alone it cost 50 but nets u additional -100.

[Aethrys]

Originally posted by hound:

Originally posted by Aethrys:

You can easily set yourself up to earn heaps of influence with prudent law choices before you ever get a vassal, and from there enact whatever laws you want to without any opposition or relations loss.

How can I do that when I got into a big minus after my first law.
Also what laws should I add for massive influence gain?

Council of the Commons gives you +1 influence per day for every notable character in settlements you own. This is huge if you own a town, and still pretty good even if you just own a castle. It also adds +1 militia production per notable as well, so your settlements will have an easier time defending themselves. No reason not to pick this one.

Sacred Majesty provides you the ruler +5 influence per day at the cost of -1 influence for every non-ruler clan. Kind of sucks to be them, but they'll get over it.

Castle charters provides an extra +1 influence per castle, not that big unless you own lots of castles, but it also makes castle upgrades 20% cheaper, so no reason NOT to get it.

Royal Guard is +1 to ruler influence, and even better, +80 party size limit for you. At the low low price of 0.2 influence from vassal clans per day.

Council of the commons is the main one, because as ruler you're probably gonna hold most if not all the land for a while. I've weaseled my way into having 3 towns as my personal demense along with some castles I lifted off the Aserai so I'm currently gaining +51 from that law alone, and that's not even close to what it could give.

Now, as for gaining influence when you're negative?

Mercenary companies. If you see a Mercenary leader (The actual mercenary companies like Legion of the Betrayed and the company of the golden boar, not random units in taverns) you hire them. They'll quote you a set rate they will bill you per influence point they accrue. For me that's currently around 500 Denars per point. They won't gain you lots of influence necessarily, but it'll help get you out of the negative, and even better they're like vassals except better in every way. So long as they get paid, they don't care about anything else, so they'll never get mad and betray you. They will randomly drop your contract after a while but you can immediately rehire them if you're near their leader.

Aside from that, tournaments give some for winning them I believe, and battles in general. Military Coronae gives +30% influence earned from battles but makes your troop wages 10% more costly.

[medhathobo]

There are tons of policies that are I think all at the top which give the lord of the kingdom loads of influence over time. Grab whatever seems best then wait awhile and get another. I would say you should have some vassals so they will sometimes vote in favor of those policies, but it looks like kingdoms need a number of vassals before they start voting, even if players support them.

[Aethrys]

Originally posted by Sheepify:

Originally posted by Aethrys:

Aside from that, tournaments give some for winning them I believe, and battles in general. Military Coronae gives +30% influence earned from battles but makes your troop wages 10% more costly.

Clan member parties also earn influence from battles, and there's a perk in - uh, Steward? - that gives +10 influence from winning tournaments.

If you go independent, it's best to get some of the "controversial" policies (strengthening the ruler or tier 5+ clans, and whatever else you want that has drawbacks lords might object to) BEFORE getting vassals.

Considering how much influence you'll earn defending against everybody else in Caldaria coming to add your little corner of the map to their faction, it shouldn't take too long, either >.>

I'd have thought that would be the case, but all my real wars have been started by me against the Aserai so far. And I typically just snag a couple fiefs then pay them a few thousand denars to ♥♥♥♥ off until my mercenary companies have replenished their parties.

Khuzaits declared war on me but they didn't have any fiefs so that didn't really count. Rhagaea has been super understanding about me declaring independence after being awarded all her holdings she took from the Aserai.