A Misguided Year in and Need Some Help!

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I'm currently in no faction on day 430, I have 5 workshops + 7 caravans, netting around 3-4k per day with 200k in the bank and an army of around 130 (30 infantry/archers/horsemen/horse archers respectively.) I'm trying to court Arwa but need to raise my charm with my primary skills being trade, leadership, and medicine.

My question; what the heck do I do now? I've read all the Steam guides explaining how to gain my first castle but then read that this is stupid and I should join a faction and revolt. I know this is a broad question but I'm trying to determine if I need to hunker down and raise a larger army, join a faction and gain reputation, or try to strike out on my own right now. The map isn't dominated by any specific faction and still fairly standard.

Appreciate the help and let me know if you need further details from me.

Thanks,
 
If you haven't played bannerlord before you should certainly join a faction and focus on learning to defeat much larger forces and building wealth and only later consider breaking off and starting you own faction. Basically being vassals first is intended route and the way you can learn the game.

I'm trying to court Arwa but need to raise my charm
You don't and even if you do it will only help a tiny bit so you will still have re-load and try the dialogue to marry her multiple times. If you are playing on ironman mode you need be less picky and arrange a marriage by talking to a clan leader, any young woman of the culture you want you kids to be is good enough!

Basically the question of should you start out on your own comes down to can you beat down an entire faction yourself? Not all at once, but can you beat larger parties and small armies? Can win with little or no losses of troops and go on and on the many more battles? Can you siege a town yourself?
If the answer isn't "Of course I can" then you should be a vassal take the game more slowly in the intended route.
 
If you haven't played bannerlord before you should certainly join a faction and focus on learning to defeat much larger forces and building wealth and only later consider breaking off and starting you own faction. Basically being vassals first is intended route and the way you can learn the game.


You don't and even if you do it will only help a tiny bit so you will still have re-load and try the dialogue to marry her multiple times. If you are playing on ironman mode you need be less picky and arrange a marriage by talking to a clan leader, any young woman of the culture you want you kids to be is good enough!

Basically the question of should you start out on your own comes down to can you beat down an entire faction yourself? Not all at once, but can you beat larger parties and small armies? Can win with little or no losses of troops and go on and on the many more battles? Can you siege a town yourself?
If the answer isn't "Of course I can" then you should be a vassal take the game more slowly in the intended route.
Thanks. For background, I've played Warband for years but always on Multiplayer.

I've tried restarting and I get to the last question in the chain with 13% success and continue to fail. I'm playing on hard (I think that's the mode where you can still save) but will talk to clan leader.

Regarding the last point, that's what I figured. Most of my workshops are in Aserai and Sturgia so will probably team up with Aserai due to trade bonus. Is it too late in the game for me to right-the-ship or should I start over? First step I need to fix is get my brother back into my party as he is running a caravan for me right now, but need to go track him down.

Thanks,
 
Thanks. For background, I've played Warband for years but always on Multiplayer.

I've tried restarting and I get to the last question in the chain with 13% success and continue to fail. I'm playing on hard (I think that's the mode where you can still save) but will talk to clan leader.

Regarding the last point, that's what I figured. Most of my workshops are in Aserai and Sturgia so will probably team up with Aserai due to trade bonus. Is it too late in the game for me to right-the-ship or should I start over? First step I need to fix is get my brother back into my party as he is running a caravan for me right now, but need to go track him down.

Thanks,
You don't need to start over, everything's fine.

probably team up with Aserai due to trade bonus.

Keep in mind the culture bonus applies to what you chose in character creation, so joining a faction won't change it. A good idea as a vassal is to join a faction that fight against the faction of the culture you chose, so that you might get fiefs that match your culture, making it easier to maintain loyalty.
 
Ok so revisiting this and could use some more help please!
1. Currently a vassal of the Aserai, holding 2 cities + 4 castles (all garrisoned to the max), pretty much infinite money, 100 relation with Sultan and around 50 with all the other nobles. We were tearing into Vlandia but then got attacked by Western Empire. Map has pretty much stayed the same except we stole some cities on the bottom left coast of the map.
(My initial thought was to ride it out with Aserai, wait until Sultan died, and use that as my vehicle for conquest but not sure if that is reasonable or not?)
2. I'm getting really sick of Istiana's Plan and am around 1700/2000. What happens when this hits 2000? It's not ideal at all being at war on one side of the map and running to the other for a one-off quest.
3. Originally I was thinking of getting 4 cities and another handful of castles before rebelling. However, after reading some posts about Istiana's Conspiracy quests, all of the Empire ganging up on you, and constant wars, I am unsure what to do? I know a lot has to do with recruiting nobles and mercenaries ASAP, which is why I've been trying to keep my relations up with all other nations (i.e. releasing after a battle, helping in random acts, or gifting to them).

Long story short, I'm on year 4 now, have a son, 2 cities, 4 castles, and 1700/2000 conspiracy. What should my next steps be?

As always, appreciate all the help! Let me know if you need any further info from me.

Thanks,
 
1. Currently a vassal of the Aserai, holding 2 cities + 4 castles (all garrisoned to the max), pretty much infinite money, 100 relation with Sultan and around 50 with all the other nobles. We were tearing into Vlandia but then got attacked by Western Empire. Map has pretty much stayed the same except we stole some cities on the bottom left coast of the map.
Yeah you can get elected the new ruler when he dies, it's probably a good way to play the game. You should be able to raise clans from wanderers once you're ruler.

2. I'm getting really sick of Istiana's Plan and am around 1700/2000. What happens when this hits 2000? It's not ideal at all being at war on one side of the map and running to the other for a one-off quest.
I believe that multiple factions will declare war on you if you fail this quest, but I don't ever do the Dragon banner quest so I'm not sure, it's just based on other people's complaints. I would say having multiple wars is a normal part of the game anyways though.

3. Originally I was thinking of getting 4 cities and another handful of castles before rebelling. However, after reading some posts about Istiana's Conspiracy quests, all of the Empire ganging up on you, and constant wars, I am unsure what to do? I know a lot has to do with recruiting nobles and mercenaries ASAP, which is why I've been trying to keep my relations up with all other nations (i.e. releasing after a battle, helping in random acts, or gifting to them).
Did you give the banner to Aserai ruler? If so I don't think that quest can effect you if you leave the kingdom and start a new one. I don't know though.
I think the most important part of making your own new kingdom is you parties combat ability, no matter what you do there is a window where you must defeat the bulk of the enemies yourself while taking minimal losses. I do this by using heavy ranged power (HA and foot archers or sometimes just HA) and using the retreat function to refill arrows (and remove partial damage) if I have to fight a force so large I can't beat it at once. If you know a mercenary leader that's free or a clan with no fief and good relations with you it can be good track them down ASAP and hire/recruit them, but you won't know for sure if you can get the clan leader until you try. Making sure to begin dealing with enemies (when you leave and keep fiefs you old faction will be at war with you) is the most important.

What I do when I make a faction is focus on defeating enemies in the field ASAP for more influence gain ASAP, I do this with dropping my army and using 1 powerful party of Horse archers to be fast and powerful. Now first I want to pass policies ASAP to help security and loyalty, they're 100 each but I can pass them at will without vassals, I want forgiveness of debts, tribunals, grazing rights and trial by jury, then royal guards too for party size! Then I want to get 500 influence so I can start making new clans from wanderers! SO I just keep beating up my enemies nad racking up influence, make a wanderer into a new clan every 500, using any extra castles I have or unwanted town too, then starting to siege nearby ones as needed too! For awhile you're having to do everything yourself but once you have about 4 clans you will notice them being more helpful. I preferer to just use my own party or army of clan parties still and let the AI lords do their own thing.
 
@Ananda_The_Destroyer or anyone else, one other question; since I just started a new campaign, do you what happens if I simply let Neretzes Folly run out? I believe the timer on it is around 4 years or so...

Thanks,
The quest fails (takes about 10 years IIRC) and you cannot do the quest lines with Istiana or ...the other npcs. However you can still make a kingdom (or be elected ruler of one when the ruler dies). You need to be clan rank 4, own at least 1 fief and be a free clan (not vassal or merc) then speak to a governor you've' set for you fief and they will have the option to start a kingdom. TBC you can make a kingdom whenever you meet these requirements, you don't have to wait for the dragonbanner quest to time out. I only rescue brother/sister and then completely ignore the rest of the quest.
 
The quest fails (takes about 10 years IIRC) and you cannot do the quest lines with Istiana or ...the other npcs. However you can still make a kingdom (or be elected ruler of one when the ruler dies). You need to be clan rank 4, own at least 1 fief and be a free clan (not vassal or merc) then speak to a governor you've' set for you fief and they will have the option to start a kingdom. TBC you can make a kingdom whenever you meet these requirements, you don't have to wait for the dragonbanner quest to time out. I only rescue brother/sister and then completely ignore the rest of the quest.
Killer, that's what I was hoping was the case. Storyline seems unnecessary as the purpose of the game is the same?
 
Killer, that's what I was hoping was the case. Storyline seems unnecessary as the purpose of the game is the same?
Yeah I don't think it adds anything (after you rescue family), from what I hear most people find the conspiracy quests annoying and buggy, if anyone has a good reason to do it I've yet to hear it. I think making a kingdom is endless busy work for a very long time, so I don't think trying to do anything other extra stuff is going to be annoying.
 
@Ananda_The_Destroyer and anyone else, first of all, thank you very much for the help, it has been invaluable.

Update: I restarted and skipped the main quest, am a vassal of the Aserai and currently own 5 cities and 8 castles, close to wiping out the Vlandias and Western Empire.

My question is; how do I know when to break away and form my own kingdom? I'm paying $8k/day now as I've stocked every garrison to be impenetrable (yes I recognize that I shouldn't do this but the thought process was when I break off no one can reclaim my land) and have 100 relationship with everyone in Aserai. My thought is to finish off Vlandia/Western Empire, take as many of their settlements as I can while biting the bullet to stock those garrisons, then poach all the lords from Aserai as a starting point.

My biggest problem is how much this is costing me. I have roughly $1M in the bank but it's a lot to maintain due to the thousands of troops I'm employing. Any guidance on next steps?

As always, appreciate the help.

Cheers
 
My question is; how do I know when to break away and form my own kingdom?
I feel like it's when they can't offer you anything any more and you're also confident in being able to defeat their parties. You will be at war with them a will lose some of those relations when you leave, but you can easily get them back by defeating their parties. Now, clans with fiefs still aren't going to join you even with high relations though. What I do is make clans from wanderers, so I'm goin to start the war when I leave and make a kingdom I want to defeat all the enemy parties and get influence for myself, first I pass policies I need (trial by jury, forgiveness of debts, tribunals, grazing rights) then every 500 influence I make new clan from a wanderer, giving up my own fiefs around a central base fief, then expanding out. It's also a good idea, before you leave to use the influence you have to gather a large army just to milk leadership skill and possibly to weaken faction too, I like to kick them out of army outside my town right before I leave faction and immediately beat them up and get an oversized prisoner haul into town.

It's important to know that it takes awhile for you clans to get going and become helpful, so be prepared to do all the fighting for a good while.
 
I feel like it's when they can't offer you anything any more and you're also confident in being able to defeat their parties. You will be at war with them a will lose some of those relations when you leave, but you can easily get them back by defeating their parties. Now, clans with fiefs still aren't going to join you even with high relations though. What I do is make clans from wanderers, so I'm goin to start the war when I leave and make a kingdom I want to defeat all the enemy parties and get influence for myself, first I pass policies I need (trial by jury, forgiveness of debts, tribunals, grazing rights) then every 500 influence I make new clan from a wanderer, giving up my own fiefs around a central base fief, then expanding out. It's also a good idea, before you leave to use the influence you have to gather a large army just to milk leadership skill and possibly to weaken faction too, I like to kick them out of army outside my town right before I leave faction and immediately beat them up and get an oversized prisoner haul into town.

It's important to know that it takes awhile for you clans to get going and become helpful, so be prepared to do all the fighting for a good while.
Appreciate it. To date, I don't even have to try to be awarded fiefs anymore, they just hand them to me whether I am involved in the siege or not so...

@Ananda_The_Destroyer My worry is that money making isn't as easy due to employing so many garrisons and my standing army is small, just cav to move quickly. I plan on making my companions vassals as well as it seems a bit easier.

Also, when you kick them out, do they auto-siege your city and you win or do you just attack their armies outright?

Thanks,
 
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I feel like it's when they can't offer you anything any more and you're also confident in being able to defeat their parties. You will be at war with them a will lose some of those relations when you leave, but you can easily get them back by defeating their parties. Now, clans with fiefs still aren't going to join you even with high relations though. What I do is make clans from wanderers, so I'm goin to start the war when I leave and make a kingdom I want to defeat all the enemy parties and get influence for myself, first I pass policies I need (trial by jury, forgiveness of debts, tribunals, grazing rights) then every 500 influence I make new clan from a wanderer, giving up my own fiefs around a central base fief, then expanding out. It's also a good idea, before you leave to use the influence you have to gather a large army just to milk leadership skill and possibly to weaken faction too, I like to kick them out of army outside my town right before I leave faction and immediately beat them up and get an oversized prisoner haul into town.

It's important to know that it takes awhile for you clans to get going and become helpful, so be prepared to do all the fighting for a good while.
@Ananda_The_Destroyer Thanks again for all the help, I finally rebelled after taking over all of Vlandia and being gifted pretty much every town plus about 25% of the Southern Empire. I guess last question before I really get rolling; you mentioned I can make my companions (wanderers) vassals, how do I do this so they can form their own clans (*edit* I saw how to do this in the party menu, should have searched it first)? Also, for the influence gain, I'm thinking of calling an army right in front of my heavily defended town, dumping it, then rebelling so I can have a few easy victories and rack up influence, does this seem reasonable?

Again, appreciate all the help!
 
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Yeah I don't think it adds anything (after you rescue family), from what I hear most people find the conspiracy quests annoying and buggy, if anyone has a good reason to do it I've yet to hear it. I think making a kingdom is endless busy work for a very long time, so I don't think trying to do anything other extra stuff is going to be annoying.
I've done once that quest... you can destroy kingdoms for good (there will be a message that king x has give up fighting for calradia and goes as vassal)
conspiracy quest is nonsens, even if you cheat (jump to party/caravan etc) you can lower points by 75 (same day done) or less (done in couple days), so it's never ends
btw. if you want to do main quest, never go with Istiana, as all non imperial kingdoms turn on you, fighting imperial is much easy as they always fight with neighbours and usually lost

imo. the best way to get a kingdom is wait till rebellion happens, take a town and grow in power, but you need to be independent with couple parties roaming a land - what I do is send all my family with caravans to get stuart, scouting and trade experience, then give them troops just to level them up and be ready to defend freshly made kingdom of my own
 
I'm thinking of calling an army right in front of my heavily defended town, dumping it, then rebelling so I can have a few easy victories and rack up influence, does this seem reasonable?
Yes, that's what I do too!

you mentioned I can make my companions (wanderers) vassals, how do I do this so they can form their own clans
I'll answer even if you already figured out: 1 You need be a Ruler (so after you make a kingdom/are elected ruler of existing one) , can't as vassal or "solo clan". 2 You must have 500 influence, 20K and 1 or more fiefs, then talk to a wanderer of your clan (not family) and choose "I'd like to reward you...." and you choose which fief you will give them and name their clan, they then spawn with a small party and 2 extra clan members spawn in the fief.
Also: If they're in their default gear or striped (no gear) they will re-spawn in lord quality gear of their culture, but if you've given them gear yourself (and not taken it back) they will keep using that.
 
@Ananda_The_Destroyer Well, now finally in endgame but struggling for sure. In short, Vlandia is gone, Battania/Sturgia I'm picking away at, Khuzait are doing nothing, while Southern Empire/Aserai dominate the other 2/3 of the map.

The Southern Empire keeps declaring war on me, I've given away all my fiefs to pick up vassals from wanderers and don't have much more to offer to keep picking up new parties. Granted, I'm winning towns but it's taking forever and the AI keeps throwing army after army of 700-1000k soldiers that seemingly spawn out of nowhere.

I know others have commented on this ad nauseum but wanted to get some feedback on how to best proceed. Thoughts?

Thanks,
 
@Phantom Lamb raid like you've never raided before. It seems a lot of people who complain about AI throwing armies at them havent taken the step to stop the flow of troops by raiding villages. I highly recommend raiding villages around your siege target as it will impact that town/castle as well and make it even easier to take. You'll ruin your relationships with those villages but hopefully its not an area you plan to recruit much from.
 
@Phantom Lamb raid like you've never raided before. It seems a lot of people who complain about AI throwing armies at them havent taken the step to stop the flow of troops by raiding villages. I highly recommend raiding villages around your siege target as it will impact that town/castle as well and make it even easier to take. You'll ruin your relationships with those villages but hopefully its not an area you plan to recruit much from.
Thanks Blood, but doesn't that ruin my honor and generally make my companions and other lords hate me?

The other challenge I'm facing is racking up influence. While convenient to recruit wanderers, 500 a pop is kind of steep.

Thanks,
 
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