Tips for New Kingdom

[Admiral Link]

Do you recommend getting vassels and more soldiers before going to war? I only have one major city and a couple of other towns.

[Neme]

I do highly recomend to keep gathering up as many recuits as you can afford to place them into your city/castle to help deter attacks from other lords, aim for atleast 300+ better yet 600+

I would also recomend to keep a few lords as prisoners if you manage to capture them after battleing thier smaller armys so you can lower the man power of the other enemy factions just so a few less lords will show up at your city/castle with all thier men addin upto more then 600+ at times lol ..

Keep the ones you dont like as prisoners and let the ones you do like go so you get some honor and slowly but surely become friends with them doing that you will be able, over a good bit of time hopefully recuit thoes lords as vassels also lowering the man power of the other enemy factions

[kevinshow]

Have a lot of money. Your costs will increase as you grow your army and garrisons. During times of war, I may usually run around with 150-300 units (depending on field battle or castle seige), many of them being high-tier. In the garrisons, I will have anywhere from about 150-500 units, depending on how much chance I want to take with them being taken. This also means that I sometimes bait the enemy factions with a castle that seems easy to take. As they gather around, I would try to take out some of the lords' armies or I add my own band to the castle defense, so what was 100-150 units defending the castle, making it look like an easy target, now becomes 300-500 units.

You should also consider if you want to have lords who are your friends already, so you can have a chance to get them asap, or if you want to build up that relation when you are a new king, to give yourself more challenge.

[PancakeFuego]

In times of peace you can use feasts to improve vassel relations (just talk to them after they arive) and give villages to lords that have lower relations than the rest. Also, be very picky about choosing lords to let into your kingdom: if you get a message saying that a certain village petitioned for the protection of another lord check the village and write the name of the lord owning it, that's a lord you don't want. Also, if you ever get rid of a vassal then make sure you never let him back into your kingdom.

Check your capital every once in a while and filter through lords that want to join, I save before telling a lord to bugger off and then save again if he's a lord I don't have good relations with. Also make sure to talk to the ladies in your hall, that way you can tell them to get lost. If you have a feast then you'll need to empty your hall, that allows you to improve relations with more of your vassals.

[Admiral Link]

Okay. I have 1 capital city and two castle (mechin and Toldsnar). Should I bolster my defense first before starting waging another war?

[Darius]

Mechin and Todsnar are villages. Drawing a blank on Mechin, but I believe Todsnar's link is Derichos Castle -- unless you own it you will lose that fief.

All villages are linked, so if a Town or Castle is taken - it's villages go with it. They are not ever seperable.

If what you are saying is that you own a Town (Dhirim, Suno, Rivacheg, ect) then if you go rebel you will take the linked villages with you. However, you will lose any individual villages that were granted to you at some point. Same applies to castles - each castle has a single village associated with it.

[Admiral Link]

Originally posted by Darius:

Mechin and Todsnar are villages. Drawing a blank on Mechin, but I believe Todsnar's link is Derichos Castle -- unless you own it you will lose that fief.

All villages are linked, so if a Town or Castle is taken - it's villages go with it. They are not ever seperable.

If what you are saying is that you own a Town (Dhirim, Suno, Rivacheg, ect) then if you go rebel you will take the linked villages with you. However, you will lose any individual villages that were granted to you at some point. Same applies to castles - each castle has a single village associated with it.

Merchin is part of Knudarr castle. Right now the situation is this, Nords has most of Swadia's land and some of Veigar's land, Rhodoks has the same land, Khergit Khanate lost Halmarr but has Reyvadin, Sarranid Sultanate took Halmarr and Veigar only has Rivacheg and a few castles.

Do you think I should give most of my vassels villages? Also should I upgrade the villages and castles before I give them away?

[EagleShark]

for me my best defense didnt need a lot of troops. (A.K.A. 57 against 700 i won) but your choice.

[Darius]

Everything is situational. Yes, you can easily win seiges and land battles when you appear to be hopelessly outnumbered. But, do you want to have to fight every single fight? You can do that, but once your fledgeling kingdom becomes bigger it will be completely unmanagable.

You might play smart, but the AI lords need rest and preferably peace for a while to build up troops and build wealth.

I wouldn't release a companion until they are very well equipped and at least in the mid-20s. Best two you can do this with is Alayen and Firentis, upstanding and good natured respectively, but they're both superb warriors - you will miss them in combat if you'd had them for a while.

You need a substantial garrison so you aren't continually kept home defending against seiges and you need other lords dealing with bandits and pillagers. You can always help kick start your lords by recruiting troops for them - they'll train them on their own and the autocalc combat doesn't really take rank into account. Giving a lord 100 recruits is just as good as 100 knights or huscarls.

Companions also start with very little funds, something you need to keep in mind.

[kevinshow]

I have always wondered if the game would simulate all the same costs that I have, when using the lords or companions (who become vassals). It just seems as if they can handle any units (up to their limit) and they don't have the same morale or money concerns.

But I have read or seen articles where people did say that giving 1 vassal several properties will let him have more units and better units, as well as giving them villages that you have built-up will also result in better income and units (at the same time, I don't know if you gave them a regular village, would they do their own building new things to improve the village or if villages only get this upgrade when a player does it)

[Darius]

No, they dont have to deal with all the BS you do.

No food concerns and no real maint. Sieges all seem to take roughly the same amount of time to initiate, ladder or tower. Recruiting/training does cost them money and I've never come into possession of a fief with any improvements made. I just don't think it in the programming to do so.

Troop composition is based off percentages, however as time goes by they will continue to train up after they hit them. For example, in my current game - Rhodoks were not really a factor in any campaigns.. they went to war a handful of times against the Sarranid and Swadians, but they were short lived. By the time I got around to deal with them personally I was sqauring off against lords with 50-100 sergeants and sharpshooters each, it was truely a royal pain in the ass. Never mind the sieges.

AI lord party sizes are based off a number of factors - technically, the only documented fief adjustment is for castles.
These are defaults...
Base party size = 10
Leadership = 5 /per
Renown = 25:1
Monarch bonus (AI) = 100
Marshall bonus (AI) = 20
Castle owned (AI) = 20 / per

AI party sizes also increase as you level, similarly as bandit groups.

[Admiral Link]

Why does the Nords have a freaking hardon on declaring war against me for for the 5th time?

[kevinshow]

Usually they want to reclaim what you have taken from them or you have weak defenses somewhere that they think they can handle, including if you don't have many lords on your side yet.

But to make them stop, you'll have to be aggressive in capturing their lords or taking their territory. On the other hand, if you just want some action for your warband to get loot and exp, then having many lords to fight against is more interesting than going after bandit groups.

To me, there are so many villages that you can't defend them all, so I sometimes will just let villages get looted (especially if it is on the other side of the map). But any village looting that I"m near, I'll try to stop it.

Castle attacks are easier to defend against because the large army groups will usually pick just one, so you can just head there. Also, losing a castle means losing villages also, so it's definitely good to follow up on any hostile sieges in your territory.

[MiKye200]

You'll need a substantial income if you want to declare independance.
Try to have a business in every town and several substantial real estate investments spread around the map(preferably fairly close to home, to save travel when you collect the cash).
I had a business in every town and about 600 acres of land before going it alone.
It also helps to have a means of harvesting the massive bandit armies' prisoners as a quick source of troops for garrisons; Manhunters are excellent as they use clubs and excel at knocking bandits out, so you can sell the captured bandits for quick cash.
With a large income you can afford large garrisons.
I like to have 1000 strong garrison in my capital: overprotect your strong point; then you are free to act elsewhere.
Pick off the surrounding castles and give the castles and associated villages to trusted vassals. Avoid debauched and sadistic vassals.
When awarding the castle be sure to award the associated village with it - makes it easier for the vassal to protect his village and income.
Avoid defending an attacked castle when vastly outnumbered as you will likely be taken prisoner. Just wait and take it back after the attackers have left, picking off your enemies' armies as you have opportunities.
Gradually you can wear them down.

[Admiral Link]

Originally posted by MiKye200:

You'll need a substantial income if you want to declare independance.
Try to have a business in every town and several substantial real estate investments spread around the map(preferably fairly close to home, to save travel when you collect the cash).
I had a business in every town and about 600 acres of land before going it alone.
It also helps to have a means of harvesting the massive bandit armies' prisoners as a quick source of troops for garrisons; Manhunters are excellent as they use clubs and excel at knocking bandits out, so you can sell the captured bandits for quick cash.
With a large income you can afford large garrisons.
I like to have 1000 strong garrison in my capital: overprotect your strong point; then you are free to act elsewhere.
Pick off the surrounding castles and give the castles and associated villages to trusted vassals. Avoid debauched and sadistic vassals.
When awarding the castle be sure to award the associated village with it - makes it easier for the vassal to protect his village and income.
Avoid defending an attacked castle when vastly outnumbered as you will likely be taken prisoner. Just wait and take it back after the attackers have left, picking off your enemies' armies as you have opportunities.
Gradually you can wear them down.

I found out being overrunned by 800 while I march with 200. Rhoodoks is getting lots of vassals.

[Sterbz]

Originally posted by navorskatie:

Have a lot of money. Your costs will increase as you grow your army and garrisons. During times of war, I may usually run around with 150-300 units (depending on field battle or castle seige), many of them being high-tier. In the garrisons, I will have anywhere from about 150-500 units, depending on how much chance I want to take with them being taken. This also means that I sometimes bait the enemy factions with a castle that seems easy to take. As they gather around, I would try to take out some of the lords' armies or I add my own band to the castle defense, so what was 100-150 units defending the castle, making it look like an easy target, now becomes 300-500 units.

You should also consider if you want to have lords who are your friends already, so you can have a chance to get them asap, or if you want to build up that relation when you are a new king, to give yourself more challenge.

I bait them too, My army consists of just 120 Swadian Knights and 30 Swadian Sharpshooters. I can usually Take on 500+ without having a single casualty, I have the army size on field set to 100, So my knights can just trample everything down. Sometimes I just sit back and watch as the Swadian Knights seem to always be insane on the field.