Last couple of years i've gone through at least 5 or 6 play through s with E1200 that lasted at least 400+ days. However I almost never stay a vassal for more than 50 days before I break out on my own.
You have a few options for starting your own kingdom...
1) Still being a vassal and when you take a castle and your king refuses to give it to you (instead he plans on compensating your campaign with money). = You're supposed to be able to refuse his decision and rebel!
- This was always the default easiest way to do it from Native...however for some reason I've never come across a king yet in the Mod who will NOT give me whatever I ask for. Perhaps it's my gaming style or how I interact with them, but they never seem to refuse me. So that option was dead to me but mabe it works for you.
2) Going Solo:
You already said that you left your kingdom. So I know you're not a vassal of anyone. Wherever you go...I would do a few things 1st.
- After you've picked a region... develop good relations with the villages in the area. As many as possible, so when you take your castle for the REBEL that you'll become...you'll have to Garrison it quickly.
- I would also help to weaken the faction of the place you want to occupy 1st.
For example..
* One time I was a vassal of Genoa (but we were NOT at war with Sicily) Still, I often attacked Sicilian caravans and lords. Needless to say my king was not happy. too bad
So you loose a little honor...no big deal.
* I fought and captured at least 5 of the Sicilian lords and had them prisoner. They were fighting on too many fronts and my holding 5 of their lords had to hurt them as well.
* Sicily was at war with Pisa and had been taking >>> Losing and retaking the city of Pisa multiple times. Pisa was always left with about 40 -70 troops after a retake so it was an easy target. So when I finally decided to break out on my own, I quit Genoa and took PISA for myself.
* After I dumped 100+ of my troops: (50 Merc Pavaise Xbowmen and the rest top tier infantry) I quickly ran to all my favorite villages and grabbed at least 100 more recruits. Those men, plus hiring as many Mercs I can find from towns and also hired from Castles = Pisa now had almost 300 men in it very quickly. Keep doing it as fast as you can and train up the recruits quickly...once you have close to 500 in there nobody will challenge you unless you get the HRE or somebody else that big on your A$$.
3) shamless plug! The problem with option (A) pissed me off so much, I had to create my own option:
Renounce / Rebel & keep your stuff tweak Find it in my tweak thread.
Notes:
- Make sure you and your companions have allot of Training skill to Pump up your new recruits quickly.
- Every time you win a tournament or sell allot of prisoners...spend 10k on buying a velvet shop somewhere far off in the world. Once you have 10 - 20 + of those shops...you can fund a major war no problem.
- If you're fighting Noble tourneys set the game option for every 5 days if you u really want to rake it in.
