Viking Conquest, conquered it all.

[Hektor Riven]

Fellow gamers, I've conquered all the map in Viking Conquest, I think some of you may find interesting what I've discovered during this long journey.

Warning, potential spoilers ahead!

Conquest details

First and foremost I've built all the fief improvements in each fief, including conversion buildings (this, so far, brought the number of subjects converted to about 1,700,000 last time I asked my minister, who is Beda by the way and, you know, he may have a bit overexagerated).

Secondly, I recruited lords on a culture basis, giving priority to all the Angle lords, all the Saxon ones, then Briton, a Pictish and a Goedelic in regard of their family connections (common mother, many marriable daughters or sisters and so on).

Thirdly, I've given to each lord a relatively big portion of territory, usually with at least one town, some nearby forts and the relative villages.
Warning: in Viking Conquest the ruler will always loose relations with every lord when assigning a fief (beside the vassal to whom the estate is granted), it's not that if an NPC owns already a number of settlements then he doesn't care.

Difficulty details

I started playing with max difficulty settings. I lowered to the minimum the bandit parties spawn and the Campaign AI only after the conquest was completed (this point will be further explained later).

Cheat details

I used the Import/Export character "cheat" at some point during the playthrough because, for personal tastes, I don't like leveling in any game. I simply don't want to think about it so I max every stat for the main hero and then, with a save game editor, I apply the same for companions too.
As a side note, I suggest you to do the same and try the arena matches with them, it will be a real and exciting challenge.

I used the "Find an item" cheat for roleplay purposes. While I've collected all the special items via legit in-game means, for tunic colours and helm appearance of me and my companions I decided to choose from the great selection of this module, also to fully enjoy the armour and weapons models that have been made.

Endgame considerations

Bugs:

Some rulers, upon their faction's defeat, will respawn as members of the "Adventurers Faction" and will stand still with a party of just one troop (themselves) until some bandits will battle and defeat them, then they escape and respawn. This happens for Saxons and some Eiru clans.

When the player faction defeats the last standing other faction by conquering all of their fiefs and defeating their ruler, lords from that faction who hasn't already defected will always roam the map with their parties figuring as they belong to their faction, with relative conversation interactions. When defeated, a message also appears as usual telling that "Lord X of the X faction has been taken prisoner / managed to escape".

All the other lords from all the defeated faction will stand in the player faction capital's Lords Hall asking to be recruited as vassals.
If the player refuses their proposal, quits the conversation and speak to them again without exiting the Lords Hall, they'll say "Surrender or die, your choice", and if the player answers "I'm not afraid of you, I will fight" then he, the ruler, will loose 103 relation points with his own faction, the player faction in fact.

Egil and Reginhard, after the story mode is finished, will both strike on their own as adventurers, even if Reginhard died. Both of them, after some time, will become lords and, eventually, will ask the player to be vassals as all the other realms are defeated.
When talking to them in the Lords Hall while the player faction is the last standing one, they will say that they are "ready to join your party" and, if answered by the player "Welcome back, my friend!" they will actually become companions, again!

Lords that were still on the field when defected but they're denied from being vassals of the player faction will roam the map as "Outlaw" parties and will start recruiting outlaw troops. They do not raid villages, however. This is done, at this point, by Deserters only (Masterless Men).

Mechanics:

Traders are very few, I suspect they're based on the number of kingdoms rather than the number of settlements. As the last standing realm, judging by the Kingdom's Report, I can state that there are at most five traders on the map, at max.
When there were all the kingdoms I was a trader too and navigated all the seas to transport goods. During these trips I've found so often other traders and asked them about their journey, so I'm sure there were so much more.

I assigned relatively many fiefs to lords because I decided to have vassals from certain cultures, didn't want to manage too many of them and desired to have some "indipendent" armies with enough troops to face enemy hosts.
This, however, has been the ruin of my game as lords now have more than seven hundreds of troops so they're incredibly slow and basically cannot move.
While their decision making doesn't appear to be broken, they'd take too much time to reach a point prior to change their mind on what they're going to do.
I wanted them to court and marry other lords daughters and sister, and they start the trip to reach their beloved one's court, but they naturally interrupt it immediately as they find a bandit party to follow. Ah, these males, always loving to fight rather than to love...
They chase bandit parties, indeed. Small bandit parties of a dozen of bandits will keep busy all the lords for the rest of the game. They refused to join any military campaign I started and they never attended to a feast of mine. Some of them figure as they "Travel" and, if asked, they say, "I wish to attend a feast there", but as soon as they spot a bandit party they start chasing it, then switching to one that's more near and so on.
I tried to lower the difficulty settings concerning bandits but it doesn't help at all.

Finally, if a marshall NPC is appointed, he will (try to) ride where the above mentioned "outlaw lords" are being spotted, saying that "the enemy is coming in force".

Conclusion

I hope some of you will find these information interesting as I think there aren't many around. Few posts are published concerning the final thoughts after having conquered the whole map.

[Brytenwalda Studios]

Hello Hektor Riven,

Congrats on your success! and thank you for your feedback. We will look at it carefully. I think many players will find all this information interesting.

[Hektor Riven]

Originally posted by Brytenwalda Studios:

Hello Hektor Riven,

Congrats on your success! and thank you for your feedback. We will look at it carefully. I think many players will find all this information interesting.

Thanks to you all for this leggendary DLC and the fantastic world you've created.
In addition I think everyone appreciates the fact that developers like you are still active on this masterpiece.
Consider, by the way, that I didn't mean to report bugs, it was just sharing a gameplay experience.
I think, actually, and this is important, that these aren't bugs related to Viking Conquest, they are overshights of Warband itself, as it's relatively rare to conquer all the map and, above all, to keep playing a lot after it, so maybe certain situations haven't been considered, but it's not a big deal.

[Brytenwalda Studios]

Thank you for your kind words. Don't worry, it's normal for us to take notes and learn from player feedback :)

[Brytenwalda Studios]

Hi Hektor,

We will like to check your comments and revise the issues. Could you add a savegame? Thank you.

[Hektor Riven]

Thanks for being willing to go deep into these "oddities" more than issues that I've reported.

Here's my saves folder: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XF9liIlFz8KCBt62ZAB8xcHoRL-lx7tR/view?usp=sharing

One of the saves (name is self explanatory) is just before the last other kingdom got defeated, so you can try having all the lords in the capital hall (in my case is Dunwic).

[Brytenwalda Studios]

Thank you so much, Hektor.

[Hektor Riven]

You're most welcome but, really, I haven't done anything...

By the way, since I'm keep playing, I have to say a few more things on what I've initially reported.

In more in-game weeks a feast happened twice and a couple of vassals managed to reach the marshall.

The feast was held by a noble to whom I've given land in Eiru, he hosted the feast once in a fortress and the other time in his town (which I think he considers his house as I gave it as his first fief). In both cases a few vassals managed to join, especially the ones in Eiru.
It strikes me that I've seen less bandits in Eiru lands, so lords can move a bit more easily. Contrarywise, Englaland is so filled with different outlaws parties that nobles still struggle to reach any destination.

What I mean with this is that, I think, after conquering all the land it's just another gameplay scenario, where players must understand and master new strategies to accomodate the different game mechanics which aren't necessairly issues.

[Brytenwalda Studios]

We have been reviewing everything you reported and we have seen that most of the things are part of how Warband works. Anyway, we're tweaking a few things for the next patch.

The theme of bandits depends on several factors. The bandit bands may have been decimated in Ireland by the lords at one point, just before they grew in size, which has meant that there are now fewer and smaller ones. Ireland is a smaller territory which makes it easier to hunt these enemies.

[Hektor Riven]

Yes, as I suspected, many things depend mainly by the way the native Warband works.
I really appreciate that you still make projects for new fixes, this speaks highly of your modus operandi!
Thanks again for the support.