Very good, I like some of your ideas. One idea of my own that has been bouncing around...
You go to a certain Count/Duke/King, and he informs you that the Vaegir/Swadians are gathering forces for an attack on a certain city. You go there to join in the defense, and the battle begins. Defenders have archers and whatnot posted on the rooftops, etc. And you fight it out inside the city, you and your party and your nation's defenders vs The Attackers.
And vice versa, with you and your party assaulting a city. And if you win, you get loot, and you become the Count of that City, getting taxes every so often and the cream of the hiring, as well as the ability to dispatch raiding parties, scouts, war parties, and caravans. If you controlled enough, you could quite possibly assault the other nation's Capital. (Rivacheg and Sargoth, I think.)