Vassal management strategies?

[Compassionate727]

Can't seem to find a guide or a wiki page about this, so I thought I'd ask in a discussion. If such things exist, feel free to just point me to them.

Currently playing with normal campaign AI, Native module. I'm finding that managing my own realm's vassals is a lot harder than managing them while pressing a pretender's claim. When I was pressing a pretender's claim, I seemed to incur much fewer opinion maluses from handing out lands; characters would (almost) never object to me giving a fief to a character who had fewer fiefs than them, and even landless lords who had just defected to the realm wouldn't always mind being passed over the first couple of times.

Not so when I'm the monarch. Whenever my choice contradicts the choices of my vassals, I incur an opinion penalty, sometimes very large.

What should I do about this? When I was a vassal, it was possible to persuade lords to support my preferred candidate, but that doesn't seem to be an option when you're the sovereign. (Otherwise, I'd just hold a feast, and use that as an opportunity to play politics regarding who gets what.) I'm tempted to just leave the majority of fiefs without holders permanently, as I can currently, without much difficulty, summon a large enough army to capture most holdings; however, I am afraid that if I find myself in need of more (or more powerful vassals) in the future, when I'll have a lot more vassals in my realm, I'll sorely regret putting it off.

Are certain personalities less likely to prefer themselves when it comes time to hand out lands? That would make it possible to select for vassals that are more... amenable to my preferences. Or should I just keep a core of only a handful of vassals (the ones that like honor or dishonor, depending on my monarch's preference) and grant them a large number of holdings? Lords don't suffer inefficiency, and having fewer, more powerful vassals would make it easier to placate vassals upset about my land grants with fiefs of their own. Should I just do my best to obey my vassal's preferences? Should I tyrannize (grant lands to whoever I want, vassals preferences be damned) and just deal with the consequences?

What strategies do you more experienced players prefer?

[Tuidjy]

I don't have the time for a full answer, but the most important thing is:

Yes, personalities absolutely matter, especially if you match fiefs to renown.

Good-natured and upstanding lords can be kept happy easily, as they are not envious.

Martial and sometimes cunning lords don't object if the lord getting the fief is due one by renown.

The rest (quarrelsome, pitiless, debauched) are jealous bastards who cannot be kept happy.

[ricklong]

Holding a feast and playing politics works. See who the majority favors and try to talk some of the others to that candidate, then grant THAT particular fief, not some different one. I usually wait a full day between each of those so that each time I do my round of talking, I get a rep bonus with each of them.
No matter what they all think, the siege tower castles only go to reliable lords. Even if a decent candidate only has a few backers that's who I push it to him ... or myself if I just can't take the hit.

[Erei]

Personality is indeed key. Good lord will be happy if they have a fief or 2 (3in some mod) and never complain afterwards. Also note that it affect how they act. Martial lords like to fight and are likely to follow the marshall. Good lord are likely to follow the marshal, but they dislike war (and will lose rep if you war dec without provocation). Bad lord will do whatever pleases them, and tend not to follow the marshall.
Good lord are very unlikely to betray their liege. Martial more likely, and bad lord are total bit***.
You can know about their personalities in some mod where it's written, or by their dialogue. Good lord will compliment you when you win against them, for example. Google "lord personality" and it should be the first link (it's for pendor, but works for warband).

A good strategy I read about "bad" personality lord is to give them a village as fief. Don't bother keeping them happy. When they leave (either you discard them when they are no longer useful, or leave on their own), they can't take the fief with them, since it's a village.

Still, they are crap, and they are likely not to help in war. Which mean they are useful only early when you have few lords and many of those useless lords banging at the door.

[White Knight]

It is a normal part of the game. In my current game, I don't give out fiefs as a monarch very often for this reason. When I do, it's mostly villages because A) having them tanks my tax inefficiency, and B) I won't lose them if someone defects.

Eventually, the worst nobles will leave and I'll be left with the best ones. At that point, I might start handing out some castles? I made some desperate choices early on, just to get enough armies patrolling my lands to let me focus on other things. It takes time to clean-house.

[Erei]

If you are desperate early, give villages to bad noble. Don't bother keeping them happy, they'll leave, but can't take anything because the village is linked to the nearest walled fief.

Be a nice guy with good personality. Don't take them prisoners, do quests,... The 2k-ish ransom you can have is not worth alienating the best lord in the game.
Also note that those noble will increase rep as you increase renown (while the worst personality will decrease their rep).
I usually start my game doing quests and stuff to the good personality noble. You know, when you start and quests are a good chunk of the stuff you do. Also, as a mercenary-vassal, helping them is a good way for free rep. And then eventually, marry into their house. At this point, being a lady helps, because you can marry a good lord, and when you rebel, he'll join, and so you'll start with a nice lord.

Eventually, when their kindgoms are destroyed, the good lord will start looking for a new liege, and if you have good rep, that's you.

[Jones]

Best way to go about giving out fiefs is to see who your lords vote for, and hand out titles to the most voted, good luck.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Compassionate727:

...What strategies do you more experienced players prefer?

Don't worry about handing out fiefs to everyone... Focus only on keeping a handful of Lords happy. Give out villages, here and there, to Lords that really need them, but only ever give out the most important fiefs like Towns/Castles to Lords you are sure you can depend on.

Hold Feasts as necessary to keep the rabble happy.

There's a benefit to this general strategy - Lords with smaller armies, thus those with few/no fiefs, move quickly. They are very adept at catching small bands of bandits and the small armies of enemy Lords that may have made it into your backfield. A Lord that has a village deep in the backfield, away from most of the front-line fighting, is actually a benefit in this kind of situation, since they'll generally stay back there, patrolling your interior. However, they are vulnerable if they are reckless.

In general - Vanilla Warband is a great game, but in the late-game things can sort of break down if you don't take certain steps, like ensuring only a handful of your Lords are the ones that get all the best fiefs. At the point where it's starting to become too difficult to keep your own kingdom stable, you need to start pushing for "the end of the game."