Vassals' Philosophy : Convincing Vassals to Join your Kingdom

When creating a new kingdom, you will need vassals to help you. This guide tells you how to convince a vassal to think about joining you. It's not easy and it requires certain steps before you can convince a vassal.

Disclaimer

some information was from Flaviojs' blog "The Chronicles Of My First Kingdom - 1st Peace"
can be found here: http://mountandblade.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Flaviojs/The_Chronicles_Of_My_First_Kingdom_-_1st_Peace

Step 1: Building Relations and Discussing in Private

The first and MOST IMPORTANT step. Make sure you have a friendly relation with the lord you are speaking to. It's best to convince whoever you have a good relation with first. Some lords that don't even know you are willing.

To ask them to join you, approach the vassal and select: "There is something which I would like to discuss with to you in private."Here are some conditions on when and when they cannot talk to you in private:
• If they are accompanying someone or on a campaign, they will say that they'll discuss it "at a later date"
  
• If you've recently talked to them about their king, then they will say that they're "weary of politics" at the moment.
  
• You cannot start a private discussion when you are in the Lord's Hall (of a castle or town) when another Lord is in the room too. You must talk to them privately on the map.
  
• "_____ is my liege. That is all that I will say on this matter." There is a chance that if you ask to persuade them to say more than they will feel pressured and will not talk to you. Your relation with them will go slightly down. But most of the time they will say that they will have some slight disagreements with their king.
  
• Some vassals that are close/loyal to the king will probably never depart from their faction.

• Some vassals that you are indifferent to you could be willing to speak to you in private.
  

Step 2: Persuasion

Arguments

• claim - based on right to rule, conflicts with victory argument
  
• ruler - based on honor, conflicts with lords argument
  
• lords - based on honor, conflicts with ruler argument
  
• victory - based on amount of territory, conflicts with claim argument
  
• benefit - based on amount of people you promised a fief but haven't delivered, you must give a fief

Personalities and Philosophies

• Upstanding:
  "Kingship and lordship have been instituted to keep the peace and prevent the war of all against all, yet that must not blind us to the possibility of injustice"
  Use Argument: Victory.
  Do not use: Claim and Ruler
  (Has bonus honor. 3 relation)
  
  
• Martial:
  "My sword is at the disposal of my rightful liege, so long as he upholds his duty to me."
  Use Argument: Lords
  Do not use: Claim and Ruler
  (Has bonus honor. 5 relation if your honor is negative)
  
  
• Good Natured:
  "Well, you should keep faith with your promises, and not do injustice to others. Sometimes it's hard to balance those. Stick with people you trust, I think, and it's hard to go far wrong."
  Use Argument: Lords
  Do not use: Claim and Ruler
  (Has bonus honor. 3 relation)
  
  
• Quarrelsome:
  "Bah. They're all a bunch of bastards. I try to make sure that the ones who wrong me learn to regret it."
  Use Argument: Lords, Victory, or Benefit
  (Has bonus honor. -3 relation)
  
  
• Calculating:
  "Well, it's a harsh world, and it is our lot to face harsh choices. Sometimes one must serve a tyrant to keep the peace, but sometimes a bit of rebellion keeps the kings honest. Circumstance is all."
  Use Argument: Lords or Victory
  Do not use: Ruler
  
  
• Pitiless:
  "Men will always try to cheat others of their rightful due. In this faithless world, each must remain vigilant of his own rights."
  Use Argument: Lords, Victory, or Benefit
  
  
• Debauched:
  "My philosophy is simple: it is better to be the wolf than the lamb."
  Use Argument: Benefit or Victory

Step 3: Their Observation

After you chosen an argument, the vassal will now observe your army, your political stance, their stance on your argument, and a statement.

From there you can choose:

• It is time for you to make a decision.
  OR
  
• No need to decide anything -- we can speak of this at a later time.

Here are some factors that you would have to choose the second option (overall the second option is always best. When you select the first option, they will probably decline and they won't talk about politics with you for a long time)
Factors:

• You chose the wrong argument (they will say something like "good" if they agree with your argument)
  
• They say "Militarily, you're in no position to protect me, should I be attacked..."
  
• They say "Politically, I would be a better position in the court of my current liege, than in yours."
  
• They question or disagree with your argument for recruiting them
  
• Their final statement mentions why it's bad to commit treason or to change lieges.

It is always best to talk to them later, like in a couple of weeks. Their mind will change if their king does not give them their needs. If you have a lot of good statements from them then you could go for it and ask them to join you at that moment.

Step by step example (with images)

1. Identify their philosophy
2. Identify their opinion on their liege
3. [Decide] If you want to know more on how they feel about their liege
4. Ask for their support
5. Going back to their philosophy, choose the right argument. In this case, I can choose "lords" or "victory" to this vassal since those are his views. 6. Read their observation
They don't think I will help them in a battle

He doesn't support me politically.
He supports my argument.

His last statement says that sometimes you have to change lieges for the right reason.

In this case, I chose to talk to him later about it because he doesn't support me militarily and politically.

[RedRockRun]

How does this work with convincing lord to support a claimant?

[Superpie]

Is there a list of the lords by personality? Or does it re-roll it every game?

[I eat, John. it's what I do]

This guide is so good, thanks

[dreamEnd]

When capturing enemy vassals, try to let the neutral & good vassals go while just imprison the bad personality ones and just let them rot in your prison. You can deduce their personality based on their responses. neutral vassal will say something simple like "I yield" and the good vassals will congratulate you on your victory, while the bad personality will said something like "such a shame of losing (to you)" and being all rude like "call back your dogs"

After conquering a kingdom or two, kings will start exiling lords left and right and some might flock to your front door. Its okay to just reject those bad vassals even at the cost of controversy.

Avoid vassals with low or negative relations because they will refuse to partake in campaigns and more easy to defects to the other kingdoms. they're more of a liability than anything. in the case you really need to recruit them then try to avoid giving them castles and towns as when they defects you will lose those lands.

[RealFidel]

So, i just converted one lord, he said to me 1) isolated by enemies, 2) likes me and my crew, and likes the promise of land (he is debauch), so 2/3 and i managed to get him, but i also have high honour and renown, and he had 0 relationship. I guess i was lucky lol

[Sturmhorst]

Very ggood structure and presentation, but the content is just wrong.
Good natured requires of course ruler and not lords argument and so on.

[Artyk]

So, Ruler is always a NO GO? Damn.

[Kriidus]

Claims works on upstanding lords They'll say "A king must have a valid legal claim for there not to be chaos in the realm and yours is well established"

[Brady Gunner]

I modded my own Warband so my Vassals won't lose relation even if I don't give them fiefs (still gave most of them fiefs because otherwise their army size is pitifully small) I currently have 13 Vassals (3 of them are companions because Lords from other factions wouldn't join me) and I'm basically the new Vaegir Empire at this point. I have like 50000 denars and I've got productive enterprise in every major city :D

[Aldodrem]

If you have a good natured use "Ruler" and not "Lords"