#!@%?#$! ingrate!

...so I finally took my first castle last night; it took around four hours.

Couple of issues: 
  1)  There seems to be a bug with Senguptche (sp?), because after I fight off the initial resistance my army gets stuck trying to get through a wall to the back part of the castle where there is apparently more enemies.  This happened on at least 6 seperate assaults.  Obviously this prolonged the siege, as I had to rely on attrition as well as assault to reduce the commanders resistance to surrender.  On the other hand, the fact that I also successfully beat off at least 12 - 13 relief forces allowed me to triple my renown to over 600, plus I have three noble prisoners.
  Nevertheless; is this bug typical of interior castle - grounds?

  2)  Yaroglek (I'm Vagier) claims that I violated his peace with the Khergeit, plus he's not happy that my companions have been lobbying for kingship for me, so instead of being happy that I brought him a strategic position along a key mountain pass along the caravan routes, he is supporting a rival Boyars claim to ownership of the castle.

  Thus, my biggest question is how to influence him to give me the castle; all I can think to do is keep asking until he randomly says my name.  Also; will riding like hell to get to a feast, so as to influence other Boyars, be helpful?  The problem I see with that is that they rarely have anything that they want me to do for them.  Which also reminds me of another question - how's come there seems to be so few missions overall?  I travel around and ask everyone under the sun, but the most I've had at one time is 4.

Anyway:  Sorry this went long; thank you for any help.

Iullus Cornelius Smegmus Pantocrator Nordicus Victor

Well, if the Vaegir kingdom was at peace with the Khergit Khanate when you laid siege to Sungetche castle, then yes you violated that peace agreement and that's the main reason why Yaroglek is unhappy with you. If you've been telling your companions to travel around and spread word of your right to rule, of course he's going to be unhappy about that as well because that means you're becoming direct competition to him. None of the kings of the land will be happy about that. If you want to stick with the Vaegirs, your best bet is to do any missions you can for Yaroglek to improve your relations with him once again, and to lay low. Don't siege anything owned by a neutral kingdom, and don't work against Yaroglek.

Really though, you'd be better off just joining Prince Valdim at this point and re-sieging Sungetche castle when it has a scant garrison. That would give you a foothold, and any friendly lords in the Vaegirs you've got could be persuaded over to your side. They bring their lands with them.

Orion,

  Thanks for the response; I am certain that there was a state of war in effect, but I had a few beers in me so I could be wrong (I may have missed a peace declaration, but i don't see how, given that you have to click 'continue').

  I suspect your advice is on the mark; I will try to locate Valdim, methinks, as I have been getting irritated with Yaroglek anyway, and Lady Alkina is annoying me too, so perhaps a cultural change is in order.

Smegmus Pantocrator said:

Orion,

  Thanks for the response; I am certain that there was a state of war in effect, but I had a few beers in me so I could be wrong (I may have missed a peace declaration, but i don't see how, given that you have to click 'continue').

  I suspect your advice is on the mark; I will try to locate Valdim, methinks, as I have been getting irritated with Yaroglek anyway, and Lady Alkina is annoying me too, so perhaps a cultural change is in order.

Click to expand...

Its actually reeeaaally easy to just click continue quickly without looking, especially if you've been playing 3+ hours without a break.

Also, if your right to rule is high enough, you could also start your own Kingdom. Maybe start with that castle if you want it really badly.

Yeah, that castle is as vulnerable as it will ever get right now. If you were the one who laid siege to it, you're the only who would have put troops into it. Normally when the AI sieges something, they all drop a handful of their own troops into the garrison. It's awfully hard to keep your own conquests if all the garrisons have to be payed by you, but that means if you decide to switch sides you basically have a freebie to take.

Actually, I'm starting to enjoy this turn of events.  When Yaroglek offered me a paltry 900 denars while informing me that he had conferred the castle on someone else, I rejected his offer and his patronage and declared myself soveriegn; I had no idea that this could even happen, so this ought to be fun.  I think that I should offer a peace/alliance to the Khergeit and Nords, as I am much weaker than Yaroglek and I am hopeful of some support.

Glad you're enjoying yourself, and if those peace offerings are accepted, you'll gain a lot more right to rule. Cheers to your future conquests!

Cheers indeed! Enjoy the new direction of your fate.

Can you kill the king? If so kill the king, problem solved.

Now that you are sovereign more the reason to do so.

Much as I hate, even loathe, admitting it; I had to go back to a previous save after renouncing my allegiance to Yaroglek and retaking the castle because I just didn't have the remaining strength to successfully fight for the survival of my nascent kingdom.  Instead, I collected a full band of troops and broke with Yaroglek, then swore fealty to Valdym and am currently awaiting, in my capacity as Marshall, for the other vassals to amass as ordered, that we may soon take a fortress and begin the end for ol' man Yaroglek!  I desperately need this to go well, as I now have no regular income with which to support my troops and morale is already below average.

Iullus Cornelius Smegmus Pantocrator Vindictivus

Smegmus Pantocrator said:

Much as I hate, even loathe, admitting it; I had to go back to a previous save after renouncing my allegiance to Yaroglek and retaking the castle because I just didn't have the remaining strength to successfully fight for the survival of my nascent kingdom.  Instead, I collected a full band of troops and broke with Yaroglek, then swore fealty to Valdym and am currently awaiting, in my capacity as Marshall, for the other vassals to amass as ordered, that we may soon take a fortress and begin the end for ol' man Yaroglek!  I desperately need this to go well, as I now have no regular income with which to support my troops and morale is already below average.

Iullus Cornelius Smegmus Pantocrator Vindictivus

Click to expand...

How unfortunate... If I may make a suggestion, it may be to your benefit to take the castle again, but previously get a force of 30-40 Vaegir marksmen and 80 skirmishers/archers and fill them into the castle with the rest of your lords. When the king comes to take the castle back you'll have an insanely powerful defensive force and the other lords will most likely sally out if you tell them to take on the oncoming enemy before they lay siege.

The benefit of holding the mountain pass with the archer war party make-up that I suggested is often the battlefield will have a very, very, very large hill in it to which you can tell them to hold position and hold fire until they are within killing range. This works very well when you eventually decide to fight the Khergit after having conquered the Vaegirs. They have a bad habit of assaulting mountain passes instead of on open plains to the East.