Alone against all Pendor...

[Deathwhisper]

Spoiler

Yup, I'm at war with everyone and, even worse, they're all at peace with each other, which means their armies are free to attack me.
I've only got 1 poor castle and 2 lords. Even fierdsvain & ravenstern lords are going this far to loot my village...

Anyone got some advice for such a retarded situation? Can't make peace yet, since the fighting has barely begun against most factions and they're only at war with me, which makes them less likely to sue for peace. No need to talk about mercenaries, since I can't go into any town now. Can't recruit new troops either, since all villages are hostile (except mine, which is almost always looted, since it's impossible to defend it). Therefore, I can't get new troops, except by rescueing prisoners. There's some hope though, since Almerra castle is probably by far the easiest one to defend. But for how long?

 

[Lindis]

Give away that castle, then make peace with someone, and become lord of another faction (actually there was a possible option to join another faction as vassal through your minister in your capital - since you have only one castle - there he should be), then, when you'll accumulate enough strength and get at least one town, or 2-3 castles (towns still much better), just rebel out of your kingdom with all property you own. Otherwise I really doubt you'll be able to succeed in your current state.

 

[Deathwhisper]

Give away that castle, then make peace with someone, and become lord of another faction (actually there was a possible option to join another faction as vassal through your minister in your capital - since you have only one castle - there he should be), then, when you'll accumulate enough strength and get at least one town, or 2-3 castles (towns still much better), just rebel out of your kingdom with all property you own. Otherwise I really doubt you'll be able to succeed in your current state.

That could work, but I have as a house rule not to be the vassal of anyone (I got the castle by convincing it's lord to join me). I'd rather not give away the castle and instead try to defend it, makes things more interesting imo.

Defending it isn't the issue. I may be at war with everyone atm, but only 1 faction can siege me at a time, with usually about 1k troops. Even then, they get killed very easily by the garrison (About 300 empire troops, +150 with lord Deodatus's own troops, +about 50 veccavian troops from Boadice including royal archers). Even with normal damage and good AI, defending almerra castle is very easy and I'll probably be able to do it for a long time, since the garrison and my lord's troops refill automatically.

What I actually fear the most most is that Lord Deodatus decides to wander on his own after a siege, gets taken prisoner, and thus can't refill the garrison anymore. Then, I'd be screwed.

Taking other castles will probably be the hard part, and that's where I'm stuck. No way I can attack someone since I'm forced to defend all the time. Even then, without fresh troops I can directly control, It'd be impossible. And making peace with 1 or 2 factions in 1 or 2 months wouldn't solve anything, since I'd still have to fight 3 others and their 1-2k troops each. Even if I were at war with only 1 faction, expanding my empire would be very hard. Anyone got some advice for such a situation?

 

[Lindis]

Then keep fighting. Or die trying.
Just hope that one day they'll make peace with you and will go after each others' throats. =)

 

[Shadow-Seeker]

You can try spamming them with truces.

But here's what I would do.

I always make it a point to get my honor to about 300 before rebelling. RtR I usually have about 60 by that time due to all the wars I would of fought in.

What you can do it the following, once you have your honor high enough, find honorable lords, and if you can capture them with their relation still above 15, (21 should be the minimum you should try this, -1 for attacking, -5 for capturing.) they will ask if they can join you if you talk to them in the party screen.

This will extend your war with that particular faction, but get you land.

here is an example.

Let's say Lord Dion is the lord of Walven Castle, and he is an upstanding lord.

Due to your high honor he would like you more. Lets say he has a relation of 30

If you can find him and know that you can win the fight attack him.

-1 relation for attacking leaves him at 29 relation.

Let's say you win and succeed in capturing him, take him prisoner,

-5 for capture. Leaves him at 24 relation (above 15)

talk to him, accept his oath of fealty, and if your lucky you should receive Walven castle, and be free to give walven as a fief to another lord in your faction. It also gives another castle that the factions will besiege, relieving some pressure off your personal fief.

that's just an example.

 

[Deathwhisper]

You can try spamming them with truces.

But here's what I would do.

I always make it a point to get my honor to about 300 before rebelling. RtR I usually have about 60 by that time due to all the wars I would of fought in.

What you can do it the following, once you have your honor high enough, find honorable lords, and if you can capture them with their relation still above 15, (21 should be the minimum you should try this, -1 for attacking, -5 for capturing.) they will ask if they can join you if you talk to them in the party screen.

This will extend your war with that particular faction, but get you land.

here is an example.

Let's say Lord Dion is the lord of Walven Castle, and he is an upstanding lord.

Due to your high honor he would like you more. Lets say he has a relation of 30

If you can find him and know that you can win the fight attack him.

-1 relation for attacking leaves him at 29 relation.

Let's say you win and succeed in capturing him, take him prisoner,

-5 for capture. Leaves him at 24 relation (above 15)

talk to him, accept his oath of fealty, and if your lucky you should receive Walven castle, and be free to give walven as a fief to another lord in your faction. It also gives another castle that the factions will besiege, relieving some pressure off your personal fief.

that's just an example.

Yeah, I was thinking of doing this at first.

However, I've got negative honor (-10) for doing the "provoke another faction" quests. I didn't know the honor penalties were so high (about -7) and lord Deodatus gave me this quest 4 times in a row. At least it got me to 40 relation with him, and allowed me to have almerra castle, but in turn I started at war with all factions except the empire (since I had negative relations with them before founding my kingdom, and didn't know they carried over afterwards), and now the empire has declared war since I stole one of their lords.
I've also got negative relations with a lot of lords for doing this quest, and lost even more with most enemy lords since I've taken them prisoner (I needed money, have 100k now). The lord (excluding my vassals) with whom I've got the best relations is at only 11...

Yeah, I know, I've made things very difficult by doing this. I'll probably have to wait some time before making peace with someone, D'shar still don't want even after I crushed their 1k5 armies twice in a row during a siege. Maybe the AI won't accept peace if they know the player won't threat their lands?

 

[Shadow-Seeker]

Nope, they will work in combinations to destroy all you know and love. 

And remember, in the realm of Pendor, NEVER bother getting dishonorable or quarrelsome vassals.

They whine when you give other people fiefs.

And you can get your honor back, just let all of the lords ago when you trounce them all.

For future games always remember the following.
for the selection of who to pick as future vassals and to build up relations with
In this priority from first to least

1.Honorable lords with household troops
2.Honorable lords
3.Martial lords with household troops
4.Martial lords

But try to get as many honorable lords as you can.

 

[azxcvbnm321]

I've been in your situation before and all is NOT lost!  It depends on how well you've prepared for independence, for me, I would have 1000 top tier quality troops stocked up in that castle which means you can decimate any opposing siege army.  Even if you don't have that many troops, you have two lords with you, I assume that you have 500 troops between you and your lords? 

Your strategy will be to destroy the combined armies of all factions by dividing and conquering.  Try and pick off portions of the enemy armies by luring enemies away from the main group until they are isolated and then attack and defeat them.  Eventually whatever forces are left will give up the siege because they will not have enough troops left in their army.  A new army from a new faction will attack and you repeat the process. 

Now you will deplete your army under your direct command with this method and will have to give troops to your lords since they have no fiefs.  That's why it is important to prepare for independence and have a good sized reserve of top quality troops you can draw upon.  You can still recruit from enemy fiefs, some fiefs will have no recruit option because their own lords are using these fiefs for recruits (to increase numbers in the corresponding castle or town).  There will be villages that are not being recruit though, but going around and recruiting takes time, which again, is why it's crucial you have a reserve of troops already stocked away.

Because you are so weak, it is unlikely any faction will offer you peace until you have completely destroyed their armies several times and have captured many towns and castles.  What you're going to have to hope for is that the factions start declaring war on each other, which should happen since factions like to attack each other as soon as they detect weakness or have some hope of capturing a place. 

Finally, the last and maybe best strategy is to allow the enemy to attack your castle and join the siege.  You should deliver crushing losses to the enemy army after the siege and be able to pick off lords.  This is perhaps my favorite strategy, defend then counterattack.  Switch out your injured troops for fresh new troops in the castle after the defense, then attack and try to destroy the opposing army by isolating weak lords until you've driven away the army.  This is probably your best strategy, however it all depends on whether you have enough forces in reserve stocked away in that castle to survive attack after attack.  Good luck and prepare better next time!

 

[InfinityAtEnd]

From my experience with this mode I noticed that every empire change's the relationship with others each 20 game days ... and NEVER keeps the same type of relation after a 20 game days period.

So if D'Shar have Peace with The Empire .. the peace will last 20 days.. after that.. they will either have trade agreement or war directly. Same.. if they are at war... after 20 days they stop the war entering in Non-Agressive-Pact wich last a few days then declaring trading or even peace agreement ...

So all you have to do is hold on for at least 20 days...

I play on Fierd's side .. and they are always at war with Ravens, D'Shar or Sarleon ... one after another .. and since sometime we get 2 periods(1 period=20 game days) of peace.. then declaring war we sometimes have to fight 2 of them at the same time .... and once in a while ... the DARK DAYS !!!! ... we get to be at war with all of them ... what a mess ... is great ...since I get to fight and capture many lords etc.... even kings and ask for their equipment for freedom didn't tried this yet since I'm always going for the gold


I'm also trying to build as many buildings as possible before I declare my own Kingdom.... is good since I will get more and better troops, more income...

 

[HunterAlpha1]

one thing i like to do is get 100 relations with as many lords as possible while i'm still a merc.  if you have 100 relations with a lord they will almost never lose relations with you and you can do pretty much whatever you want. 

another advantage of having all your lords with 100 relations is that they will follow you longer when you're on campaign and will be more likely to follow your orders.  yeah, it makes for a long midgame, but it's worth it in the end.

 

[aguds]

one thing i like to do is get 100 relations with as many lords as possible while i'm still a merc.  if you have 100 relations with a lord they will almost never lose relations with you and you can do pretty much whatever you want. 

another advantage of having all your lords with 100 relations is that they will follow you longer when you're on campaign and will be more likely to follow your orders.  yeah, it makes for a long midgame, but it's worth it in the end.

That is what I do too. The real game-changer in this, is that come endgame and during one of those 10 vs 10 lords battles, you may get not only new vassals when you win - but maybe even castles and cities if you capture the right lords. I took half of both the Empire and the Ravenstern estates by capturing their lords in open battle. That makes for a real shift in power, and you don't have to fill the fiefs with troops before you give them away, since they are allready full.

 

[noosers]

Order two truckloads of vaseline and try to enjoy it.

Lose the castle and fight your way back. If you´re lucky enough you´ll get enough resuced prisoners to resupply your losses. And if you´re really, really lucky on top of it, two or three nations who are coming after you´re at war with each other, so they´ll kill themselves leaving you the spoils the and prisoners to take you need so desperately.

If you lose your single location, your kingdom won´t be destroyed. Just don´t swear vasselage anymore and try to go independent again. That used to cause weird side effects though they may be covered ever since noticed.

So, lay low, bid your time, ensure you make more than enough profit by selling the stuff in the town you´re least hostile with or which houses a friendly lord and kill, crush and maim.

Btw stuff kept in a castles chest isn´t lost upon losing the castle. It simply stays there till you reconquer the castle and take it out.

 

[D311]

"They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes, drums... drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow lurks in the dark. We can not get out... they are coming."

 

[thrashrat]

"They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes, drums... drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow lurks in the dark. We can not get out... they are coming."

Feel the Might of Moria.

 

[Deathwhisper]

Hi guys!

First off, I'd like to precise I founded my kingdom at about day 90, so I didn't have an exceptional army (some adventurers, empire units, in fact your usual merc army with 30 different units). No knighthood units. However, my character has got very good combat stats (7 PS), already 250+ WPF on melee weapons & crossbows, ebony platemail and lordly gauntlets with pendor king's helm (which gives me about 60 head armor and 80 body) and balanced runed bastard sword. I got so good stats mainly by using 2 qualis gems for stats. Yes, I know, it's usually better to use them for knighthood orders, but I can't even found one yet since I don't have any fief atm (I gave them to companions since I needed more lords).

There's been a lot of fighting since my first post. I stopped 3 sarleon, 2 empire and 2 D'shar armies, each between 1k1 and 1k6 men. D'shar stopped attacking after getting their asses kicked twice, but sarleon & empire kept rotating their attacks (3 days after a sarleon siege, I had 10 empire lords near my castle, and Sarleon came back again about 3-4 days after I repelled the Empire's attack), so I could barely refill my troops in the few villages with positive relations and didn't have time to attack anything. I couldn't even defend Buvran (Almerra castle's village), since it was regularly attacked by some nasty sarleon or empire lords with crazy household troops (50 immortals or pendor grey archers) which you can't even counter in village battles (no horse), so the village was looted at least 5 times.

Eventually, sarleon attacked with 1k2 men while lord deodatus and I were outside the castle, and they didn't let us go in (Could've tried to fight their armies 1 by 1, but I didn't have enough men and deodatus would run as soon as he saw an enemy army, the coward). So, since I couldn't defend the castle, I asked my vassal to follow me and we attacked valorshield castle, which was luckily undefended since most Sarleon lords were occupied sieging my own castle. The garrison was rather weak (no knight, only a few top tier troops like armored longbowmen and halberdiers), so we managed to take the castle, although we had heavy losses, just before Sarleon took Almerra castle.

I then immediately gave the castle and the village to Frederick & donavan, in order to get 2 more lords. Only 1 or 2 days after I took the castle, the Empire sent a 600-700 men army to retake it. Sadly, Frederick & donavan hadn't spawned yet (It seems new lords don't spawn immediately, and can't at all when their castle is under siege), so I only had my depleted troops and the small garrison (About 200 men) to defend this BAD castle (2 ladders, lack of protection for archers, which makes it very easy to attack but hard to defend). During the siege, I finally managed to make peace with Sarleon though, looks like they were happy with Almerra castle, although they had lost Valorshield.

I then got extremely lucky and got saved by.... K'juda the Ravager! His 800 men army came close to my castle, which made all the empire lords flee through the bridge near my castle. K'juda followed them a bit, and they didn't have time to come back before the siege was lifted. Frederick, Donavan & boadice (She somehow managed to escape after having lost at Almerra castle) immediately spawned, the first 2 with a 100 men army each, including pendor knights, mettenheim great swords & forlorn hope, barclay sappers & conquistadors. I guess I'm going to leave the Jatu in peace this game 

So, I recruited a little bit in the sarleon lands nearby, sold stuff in Laria, and let my lords refill their army and the castle's garrison. At the same time, Sarleon declared war against ravenstern. A few days after, Ravenstern sent a big part of it's army (about 1k5 men) to siege my castle, while fierdsvain lords were raiding my village. Once more, I thought it was my end, until Baron Cadeyrn from Sarleon sieged Evasolde castle, which made the ravenstern army retreat in order to defend it. Yeah, this time I got saved by Sarleon, 1 week after making peace with them and taking one of their castle...

So, now, I've got a few questions :

-Lord Deodatus was losing lots of relation points very regularly, since he lost his castle (and I promised him land). So, I decided to marry him, but he keeps losing as many relation points. Can your husband defect? Do bad relations with him change anything?

-Valorshield castle is very hard to defend. My men on the wall get headshotted by enemy archers, and the two ladders make things even more difficult. Has someone ever defended that castle, and knows a more defendable place inside the castle?

-In case I couldn't defend Valorshield castle, does somebody know a ravenstern / fierdsvain castle that can easily be defended? I can travel a lot if needed, though a castle that's close to my lands would be better.

Also, kingdoms don't seem to change relations as easily as some of you say, at least not with hard campaign difficulty. I've remained at war with everyone for about 50 days, and they stayed at peace with each other for that time. The only way I could make peace with sarleon was by losing my castle, and only then they decided to attack someone else.

 

[MrQ]

(...) That could work, but I have as a house rule not to be the vassal of anyone (...)

Well... at the beginning, you're not lion, but the snake. You don't want to be a vassal, just see yourself as independent lord crusing through ocean of politics.

1. Start as mercenary as early as possible, build relations in kingdom and build decent party.
2. Become a vassal and convince lords to support you for a castle.
3. Keep building army and wait until enemy of your realm takes a castle (or preferably a town) from your king.
4. Attack it just after (should have weak garrison just after siege), demand to be awarded for you. If not, revoke your allegiance, proclaim a kingdom, take ownership of all villages and RUN for other king for protection. Preferably a kingdom which does not have a war with anyone at the moment, what gives you a time to build garrison.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 several times, this should finally make you a lord with at least one town and some castles.
6. When think you're ready, choose weakest realm and become their lord (most probably Sarleon, I played PoP several times and they seem to be weakest faction, they're typically badly beaten in mid-game). This realm will be the first enemy, when you finally start your kingdom.
7. Repeat step 4 for last time, revoke allegiance, give fiefs to your companions. Your newly-born kingdom will have a town, several castles and lords. Leave some villages to not belong to anyone (to attract lords from other realms to join you).
8. Convince eneymy lords to join you. Immediately grant them fiefs.

Now you can enjoy your kingdom. The game sucks at strategic level, but it still gives some fun.

(...)Lord Deodatus was losing lots of relation points very regularly, since he lost his castle (and I promised him land). So, I decided to marry him, but he keeps losing as many relation points. Can your husband defect? Do bad relations with him change anything?

Being a husband deas not mean anything when it comes to realtion with lord, it decreases fast when he doesn't have a fief. Finally he will switch to another faction. Yeah, that sucks.

At strategic level you will find two difficult things: realtion micro-management and garrison micro-management. Relations with your lords slowly degreade over time. Each time when he looses a battle at the other edge of the world, you're loosing relation points, even if you can't do anything about it. You can't have lords without fiefs, relation will fall down lightning-fast (but, it does make sense). They don't like each other, so relation will fall down when granting fiefs also. To keep good relations with your lords you need to click on each of them after each battle to have a short chat to improve relations. That's what I call relation micro-management. Expect a boring task when having 20 lords and many battles...

 

[felixng2011]

You should have a fairly high relation with your husband and he should have decent renown and you should give him many castles since they can help you store troops for free and give you free troops from garrison. All three of my husbands castles have 300+ troops. One has 1000 with many elite troops, one has 600 with some elite troops, and one has 300s with many elite troops. The one with 1000 troops is right next to Laria which only has about 300-400 troops.

 

[MrQ]

Agreed. I preferr to play female characters, game is much easier at late stage, mostly because having access to husband's garrisons. You can store and produce elite troops for free. And marriage is easier also, you don't need to learn nursery rhymes.

Don't hurry selecting husband for your queen. It should be some lord with good renown, devoted to you of course.

 

[noosers]

Looks like you´re far better off than you originally thought. Another of PoP´s pleasures. However hopeless you reckon your situation may be, something totally random like a Jatu Invasion may save your hide.

Cakey Awesome, ain´t it?

And now, since you had your turn to take breath, go for revenge and call out a bloody requonquista. Start with Rela Keep. Why? Because I like it and you can have much fun in the Empire/D´Shar border region. Espeically if both are at war with each other and yourself.

Relations aren´t changing that often on hard campaign mode. It needs dire consequences to get a truce or peace treaty. Either large sums of money or the loss of a vast part of your empire to keep up their losses. 1/1 is very major to me.

Keep up the good work. Now go and crush the dratted Empire and have the horselovers taste true steel.

 

[felixng2011]

I like conquering Laria and all the two castles nearby. It is a great place. Jatu armies and that Noldor lord always scare the enemy armies away. I help the Noldor lord beat the crap out of an army of 1000+ troops.  Also easy troops gained from Jatu prisoners.