500 lords execution, could be avoided

[McKannister]

I was playing as an elected king of northern empire, i recruited all the lords from western and southern empire, sturgians and some khuzait. Prices they were asking to join me were sicc, like 1,7 millions and later the option to start the dialouge dissapeared at all, even thou they were very poor, they had no fiefs, they had relations 100 with me they still prefered to stay with their sinking faction. It wouldnt be bad if those fiefles lords werent attacking villages and caravans especially around capital cities. To achieve world peace i grinded scouting and riding to 225 and picekd keen eyes and mounted patrols perks to decrease prisoner escape chance to zero and i was hunting and buying enemy lords from my vassals. I had enough fiefs for every clan but even when all Vlandian lords were in my prison they still prefered to screw me and and not join so i had to execute them. It tok me like 20 hours of gameplay, now everyone hates me and i feel like a douchebag after decapitating 18yo kids and old friends because this stupid game forced me to because there is no such thing like faction destroy mechanic. And all i wanted was just freakin peace at the end of the game

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

Yeah they goofed up bad. It makes no sense anyway you look at it:
If X amount of clans existed with X amount of fiefs already, why would they not join you just because yo have too many clans? That's the way the world already was.

If you can't (by design choice) recruit them all, then they need to go away. If they can only go away by execution then why does everyone get mad? Shouldn't they know as part of this world that the enemy won't join you and won't leave and keeps commiting crimes (they are not landed lords anymore) nad have to killed?

And the 225 keen sight/mounted patrols prison forever: Your own dum vassals will keep trying to make peace and letting them all out. Sure, you can get enough influence to waste it just saying no over and over, but it's really annoying and stupid. Shouldn't they know that the enemy will just go recruit your own troops from your own land and attack you again? It's happened 20 times already why don't they know?

It's so blatantly bad and brings the game down a lot.

 

[Sir Frederic]

There's still a nail missing from your coffin. If it doesn't happen to you anymore, it will happen shortly. You eliminated Vladia right? Get ready because soon your vassals will vote, go to war with Vladia, yes, declare war on a dead faction.

 

[Zatokito]

Yeah they goofed up bad. It makes no sense anyway you look at it:
If X amount of clans existed with X amount of fiefs already, why would they not join you just because yo have too many clans? That's the way the world already was.

If you can't (by design choice) recruit them all, then they need to go away. If they can only go away by execution then why does everyone get mad? Shouldn't they know as part of this world that the enemy won't join you and won't leave and keeps commiting crimes (they are not landed lords anymore) nad have to killed?

And the 225 keen sight/mounted patrols prison forever: Your own dum vassals will keep trying to make peace and letting them all out. Sure, you can get enough influence to waste it just saying no over and over, but it's really annoying and stupid. Shouldn't they know that the enemy will just go recruit your own troops from your own land and attack you again? It's happened 20 times already why don't they know?

It's so blatantly bad and brings the game down a lot.

Regarding lords letting them all out again, it's kinda realistic, nobility back then was a big deal, rival lords would routinely be prisoner swapped, ransomed or just let go with oaths not to fight again, which they'd always break, over and over.

 

[McKannister]

No its not realistic, they had no fiefs for few years, they looted and pillaged my teritories hundred times and when i catched and decapitated those bandits everyone gets mad all of a sudden. If i let them be, in the long run they would take countless number of lifes by looting villages and attacking caravans. Dont wanna play joker and batman, bullet in the head, or rather guillotine, would solve the problem

 

[Zatokito]

No its not realistic, they had no fiefs for few years, they looted and pillaged my teritories hundred times and when i catched and decapitated those bandits everyone gets mad all of a sudden. If i let them be, in the long run they would take countless number of lifes by looting villages and attacking caravans. Dont wanna play joker and batman, bullet in the head, or rather guillotine, would solve the problem

Noble bloodlines in history have faced little consequence for much worse than a village raid by virtue of that bloodline. Hell, some would say the modern politician is a good allegory today 😁

 

[Emperor1997]

Noble bloodlines in history have faced little consequence for much worse than a village raid by virtue of that bloodline. Hell, some would say the modern politician is a good allegory today 😁

Absolutly wrong, Nobles in the most cases was executed or enslaved, the first time they have commited a Crime, because they were always dangerous for the Ruler.

The Romans as an Example have executed or enslaved every Barbarian Noble, because the Romans have not recognized any Barbarian Noble as an Noble.
The Byzantine Empire has castrated their own Nobles, if they have plotted against the Emperor.

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

There's still a nail missing from your coffin. If it doesn't happen to you anymore, it will happen shortly. You eliminated Vladia right? Get ready because soon your vassals will vote, go to war with Vladia, yes, declare war on a dead faction.

Ironically, this is actually a good thing; if you're in perpetual war with a landless faction they will never be able to gather enough strength to actually take a fief except maybe one thousands of miles away at the front lines where they're conveniently cooped up in one place. Giving them peace--for any length of time--just gives them an opportunity to not only recruit fresh blood but potentially take a city or castle in the rear.

However, the mechanic is pretty crappy as it stands; the factions ought to disappear after a predetermined period of time and only reappear via the independent cities or secessions/rebellions. As it is, they're a perpetual annoyance that drive down the property values of their former capitals and the best you can say is that they make good XP/loot/money grinds compared to normal bandits.

 

[McKannister]

Ironically, this is actually a good thing; if you're in perpetual war with a landless faction they will never be able to gather enough strength to actually take a fief except maybe one thousands of miles away at the front lines where they're conveniently cooped up in one place. Giving them peace--for any length of time--just gives them an opportunity to not only recruit fresh blood but potentially take a city or castle in the rear.

However, the mechanic is pretty crappy as it stands; the factions ought to disappear after a predetermined period of time and only reappear via the independent cities or secessions/rebellions. As it is, they're a perpetual annoyance that drive down the property values of their former capitals and the best you can say is that they make good XP/loot/money grinds compared to normal bandits.

Southern empire (The ruler clan, because rest of their faction was on my side already) once tried to besiege one of my castles like that 3 times and at best they had 600 troops, anihilated badly every time. For me its sad view, poor lords running around wasting themselves with no chance of dignity life, because they refusing to join and potentialy gain a fief

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

Southern empire (The ruler clan, because rest of their faction was on my side already) once tried to besiege one of my castles like that 3 times and at best they had 600 troops, anihilated badly every time. For me its sad view, poor lords running around wasting themselves with no chance of dignity life, because they refusing to join and potentialy gain a fief

Sure--it's sad, but, on the upside, they'll inevitably die out in the woods and all Calradia will know peace for once so, in the long run, you've likely made the world a better place. I find it much more sad for the poor people being terrorized by them; I had Senala with 10,000+ Prosperity reduced to merely 2,000 due to Aserai terrorists and they never had an army or siege force with more than 100 guys asking to be auto-beaten without me even knowing they were trying something. The villagers themselves could fend them off for a while because of how many Hearths had grown! But poor Senala was devestated during the decade I spent away from my capital all thanks to the evil Aserai bandits lol.

I prefer not to exterminate them all (especially since I prefer the strategy of having numerous vassals gradually overwhelm the continent), but you're not a bad guy for doing so when you consider all the lives you're saving, all the future wars you're nipping in the bud, and the victims you're avenging.

 

[Sir Frederic]

Ironically, this is actually a good thing

I think you didn't understand me. you kill all the nobles of vlandia, the game announces that vlandia no longer exists, your peace-weary nobles vote to declare war on vlandia, now you are at war with a nation that does not exist. In the war window the gray face of the last ruler of Vlandia appears. TW never fixed this, they didn't program what to do with the game when you destroy the enemy kingdoms, because they don't expect you to, I guess.

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

I think you didn't understand me. you kill all the nobles of vlandia, the game announces that vlandia no longer exists, your peace-weary nobles vote to declare war on vlandia, now you are at war with a nation that does not exist. In the war window the gray face of the last ruler of Vlandia appears. TW never fixed this, they didn't program what to do with the game when you destroy the enemy kingdoms, because they don't expect you to, I guess.

Oh. Well, that's obviously a bug lol. Here's hoping TW notices players would like to destroy NPC factions and actually implements that as a feature. I distinctly remember the post-release plans including taking a look at "the lifecycles of clans and kingdoms."

 

[Sir Frederic]

I share my recent frustration and what will be my last game, after this the truth is that I uninstall and forget about this game.

Mr. Chicken launched a campaign of only using family and companions in campaign mode and I decided to emulate it. It is a game that has been waiting for a long time, because you need to have many children and nephews, then wait for them to grow up.

In that wait I see how 5 kingdoms devour battania, Vlandia ends up conquering all battania, but having the law of currency devaluation, its stability is zero. the 5 cities of battania are revealed, I independent with 16 characters conquered the 5 cities. Now yes, I dedicate myself to waiting for years, meanwhile I dedicate myself to restoring the disaster they made in Battania, Marunath mainly, totally devastated.

By the time my oldest nephew was almost 18 years old, I decided to take sides. Vlandia, w. empire and kusait are dominant powers. sturgia dying, battania dead, n empire with a castle, s. empire dying, aserai resisting with difficulty.

I join vlandia, between wars and peace treaties, we end up with sturgia, southern empire ends up defeated by w empire and kusait. Northern Empire remains peaceful with its only castle. I dedicate my fortune to recruit nobles from battania and sturgia, I end up creating the old alliance that fought against the empire in the battle of pendriac, quite ironic.

But then the ****ty whirlpool starts, the AI mechanics, the stronger I make my kingdom, the more difficult it throws at me. I couldn't recruit all those from Battania and Sturgia because they are comfortable with their current king, they should change that dialogue to "at this moment you are already very strong, TW does not allow me that you can be stronger than the enemy".

Kusait, northern empire and aserai at direct war with us. kusait attacking eastern sturgia. aserai attacking the west of their territory and the western empire from the center. 3 front lines for me to defend, or hopefully my allies get something done. Hrs of game losing and conquering the same lands. Also, the AI not happy with the high difficulty starts making the nobles I recruited and made rich switch sides, so I was constantly saving and reloading. The funny thing is that this happens when a mercenary clan decides to unite, the AI is like "oh no, a lot of power, have a clan leave the kingdom with the properties".

I got tired of all that ****, now I am at war with aserai and kusait at the same time, it is worth mentioning that I should be at war with the western empire to achieve the barbarian victory, but the AI does not want to give me a truce. So I started the executions, now I'm in aserai, where I cut off a lot of heads and I intend to cut off more, leaving them with a minimum of clans. And later I intend to do the same kusait walk, destroy a couple of clans to be left with no ability to fight, whatever it takes to have a calm and slow conquest of the empire.

The path of diplomacy is idiotic, the best I can do in my game is to finish destroying the barbarian kingdoms by executing everyone and wait for the barbarian victory, the clans of the empire finally being defeated have no choice but to ally themselves with the only one kingdom that would remain standing, which would be Vlandia. Hopefully I will only need to destroy a clan of battania and sturgia, aserai and kusait I will have to exterminate them completely.

Considering the roleplay, a Battanian chief uniting the old alliance to subjugate the empire by exterminating the kusait and aserai traitors looks good. In the game, you are a criminal hated by most for executing "friends" of your "friends" or for executing "honest" nobles.

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

Considering the roleplay, a Battanian chief uniting the old alliance to subjugate the empire by exterminating the kusait and aserai traitors looks good. In the game, you are a criminal hated by most for executing "friends" of your "friends" or for executing "honest" nobles.

Well, yeah, would you love a guy who killed your parents, children, and siblings? Of course you're hated by the survivors of your purges lol.

While I sympathize with your struggles, I can vouch from personal experience that overall victory is very possible and I'd be happy to give advice if you want it and will withhold it if you don't.

 

[Sir Frederic]

While I sympathize with your struggles, I can vouch from personal experience that overall victory is very possible and I'd be happy to give advice if you want it and will withhold it if you don't.

enlighten me please because I hardly see any way out. have 100% chance of not escaping and drag 300 nobles in my inventory around the map? It would take hours only for eventually all progress to be lost because my allies want us to declare peace.

Without wanting to insult, but I think I know much more about how the game works than you, I'm just too hard-headed to accept that I should have abandoned this a long time ago, even though I like a lot of things about it.

Something that I did not clarify is that now that I am executing enemies, reducing the difficulty power of the AI, there began to be more frequent rebellions in my kingdom.

I have played many hours and many games to be able to visualize the real problem that the game has, which is what clarifies so many times, the AI seeks to level the difficulty towards the player, always causing, due to the inability to be everywhere at once or control allies, at a total disadvantage.

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

enlighten me please because I hardly see any way out. have 100% chance of not escaping and drag 300 nobles in my inventory around the map? It would take hours only for eventually all progress to be lost because my allies want us to declare peace.

Without wanting to insult, but I think I know much more about how the game works than you, I'm just too hard-headed to accept that I should have abandoned this a long time ago, even though I like a lot of things about it.

I'm sure you do know a lot more about much of the game than me given the difference in experience and time put in, but you said you save-scummed when setbacks happened and threw your hands up as your imperial enterprise started to contract and resorted to some, I guess you might call them, "hardcore tactics?" Not exploits or cheese but stuff you either need a lot of preparation for or stuff that very experienced players can do well but most can't or shouldn't, and yet you're only losing more rather than consolidating and expanding. Considering I've united Calradia without save-scumming at any point (except to get married to a woman in the beginning) and have dealt with and overcome the strategic hurdles that come with trying to unite the world, I think this is an aspect of gameplay where I know more than you. Granted, I wasn't doing any kind of self-imposed challenge, but if you're not above using armies and other people's soldiers than what I advise should still be doable. It wouldn't surprise me if Calradia is virtually impossible to unite with only extended family members for soldiers simply due to attrition if nothing else.

Something that I did not clarify is that now that I am executing enemies, reducing the difficulty power of the AI, there began to be more frequent rebellions in my kingdom.

I have played many hours and many games to be able to visualize the real problem that the game has, which is what clarifies so many times, the AI seeks to level the difficulty towards the player, always causing, due to the inability to be everywhere at once or control allies, at a total disadvantage.

I'm not surprised that becoming an internationally hated and controversial figure has caused rebellions lol. Although I do think the particulars should be reworked so that there are times where it's socially justified to execute noble prisoners (and other things), I do think it makes sense within the limited logic of the universe for the killer of incalculable loved ones and distant family members to be a pariah.

Yes, one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) strategic hurdles is having to deal with the "can't be everywhere at once" problem. The solution is fairly simple; don't. Narrow the amount of angles you can be attacked from so that there are fewer places you or your NPC vassals need to be at once. The way you set about doing this is where it gets complicated but the essence of it is to secure a corner and then continually secure more corners.

For example, if I had to deal with being the ruler of Strugia, I'd most likely forsake either the west or the east (that's to say, let whatever happens to that region happen) while giving full focus to the other. Since Vlandia occupies what is arguably the best real estate of the game, I'd push towards conquering them and Battania, starting with a drive towards Ostican, and ignore issues that might crop up around Sibir, Varnovopol, or even Marunath and Omor and just focus on conquering the northwestern corner. Once that's done, I'd focus on taking the southern half of Western Calradia before circling back to retake lost lands in Battania and western Strugia before inspecting the new border (which should be relatively small, going from Epicrotea to Ortyisa) and then determining if I want the A.I. to handle the center while I take care of eastern Sturgia (before looping back around) or if I want to focus on the center while letting the A.I. do as they will with the Omor/Balgard area. Either way, the hard part's over since you'd have secured effectively half the continent and reduced the angles of attack to only Ortysia, Lageta, Epicrotea, and Omor/Balgard (all along an eastern line) rather than having to deal with Tyal, Omor, several Battanian cities, and possibly Vercheg as well, with very little hinterland to draw wealth from.

If I were to jump into your shoes with the problems you currently have, I'd probably fall back to the safe corners and grind out capture/releases until the important people like me again, buy (re-buy if necessary) their loyalty, and then set about, in broad terms, to do what I proposed above.

 

[Sir Frederic]

I'm not surprised that becoming an internationally hated and controversial figure has caused rebellions lol

It is that you do not understand, that DOES NOT EXIST in bannerlord, that mechanic does not exist, as well as in another post that we talked about, there is no such thing as merciful nobles being better people than those who are not. The only mechanic that exists is the balance of strength, I did not start having rebellions because that, I am only a vassal in a kingdom of 20 clans, the rebellions appear because the AI needs to balance the level of difficulty. Now as soon as you kill a few more people, the northern empire will declare war on me again.

I achieved almost a triple alliance between battania, vlandia and sturgia. the West is ours. but simply the game, the AI, coordinating all the other kingdoms, they don't let me advance. Do you understand what a city with 800 prosperity is, which passes from hand to hand every 5 minutes of my game, because my allies can't spend 5 minutes taking care of it, or that I can't at least put policies to increase loyalty because nobody He supports me and the militia has not fought for years unless the city rebels.

I see the same thing recurring in your comments, you assume mechanics that are not implemented in the game. In fact, with the executions, we managed to reconquer cities and castles, and with a -100 relationship with a clan, which did not want an alliance before, I managed to convince them to join vlandia, a clan that recently executed a nobleman (it was a battanio clan with 2 women, I killed one and was about to kill the other when I saw that she got married and had 3 children, I asked her if she wanted to change sides, I convinced her, it cost a million denars, for a clan with two nobles, a million It's not because he hates me, it's because they ask for more and more, the next one will be 1.2 million). Now the more Aserai and Kusait I execute and the more territory we take in our possession, the more clans will be available to change sides, that they hate me only makes it difficult, not impossible, and they only accept the change of sides up to a certain number of clans, then they will They will deny again with the classic phrase that they are comfortable in their kingdom. Of course, as soon as the enemies take our territories, or we destroy the enemy force a lot, these clans change sides, but it is not due to a mechanic of interests or loyalty, it is a balance of force, the only mechanic of the AI.

The only smart thing I can do now, as I said before, is to destroy the other barbarian kingdoms to consolidate that only the empire can be my enemy, if people change sides at this stage it doesn't matter, they will go to the empire that will eventually come back to us in the end. Then I'll be the best guy in the world, defeating nobles of the empire and letting them go so that everyone will love me again, as if nothing had happened *hides his bloody executioner's ax with subtlety*

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

It is that you do not understand, that DOES NOT EXIST in bannerlord, that mechanic does not exist, as well as in another post that we talked about, there is no such thing as merciful nobles being better people than those who are not. The only mechanic that exists is the balance of strength, I did not start having rebellions because that, I am only a vassal in a kingdom of 20 clans, the rebellions appear because the AI needs to balance the level of difficulty. Now as soon as you kill a few more people, the northern empire will declare war on me again.

If that's the case, why are you having far more trouble with A.I. behaviors than me? RNG is a plausible answer but I've never had anyone defect on me (and yes I've bought the loyalty of a man whose son I've executed so I know relations mechanic not important enough to prevent this from happening) and have benefitted considerably by switching from being a purger to a nice guy when I realized all these executions were getting me nowhere unless I fully committed to them, not just regionally but internationally.

I don't think the A.I. is programmed to have nobles defect or cities rebel based on hidden thresholds of faction power. It's possible, but the only defections I witnessed in my 40 year playtrhough were fen Gruffendoc betraying a weak Battania to join the Sturgians and then eventually leaving the Sturgians to go back to the Battanians (while both were weak).

I see the same thing recurring in your comments, you assume mechanics that are not implemented in the game. In fact, with the executions, we managed to reconquer cities and castles, and with a -100 relationship with a clan, which did not want an alliance before, I managed to convince them to join vlandia, a clan that recently executed a nobleman (it was a battanio clan with 2 women, I killed one and was about to kill the other when I saw that she got married and had 3 children, I asked her if she wanted to change sides, I convinced her, it cost a million denars, for a clan with two nobles, a million It's not because he hates me, it's because they ask for more and more, the next one will be 1.2 million). Now the more Aserai and Kusait I execute and the more territory we take in our possession, the more clans will be available to change sides, that they hate me only makes it difficult, not impossible, and they only accept the change of sides up to a certain number of clans, then they will They will deny again with the classic phrase that they are comfortable in their kingdom. Of course, as soon as the enemies take our territories, or we destroy the enemy force a lot, these clans change sides, but it is not due to a mechanic of interests or loyalty, it is a balance of force, the only mechanic of the AI.

I make no assumptions--I'm describing what's going on. What do you call being hated by everybody? A pariah, an international war criminal, etc. Perhaps there's a hidden maximum for noble clans per faction I never noticed, some number in the dozens, or perhaps RNGesus willed I not recruit very many Sturgians or Khuzaits. All I can do is speculate.

As I've said, I've had people with negative relations score defect to my side (albeit with way more cost than people who liked me, not to mention a lower likelihood of succeeding the persuasion minigame) so I'm not surprised you could pull it off.

I'm pretty sure it's relationship score because the cost of loyalty was within a consistent range as I played and only went up as my reserves went up or the head I was asking hated me. I can't be certain of this, but it's irrelevant to your difficulties in uniting Calradia if you can still afford it and benefit from the transaction

The only smart thing I can do now, as I said before, is to destroy the other barbarian kingdoms to consolidate that only the empire can be my enemy, if people change sides at this stage it doesn't matter, they will go to the empire that will eventually come back to us in the end. Then I'll be the best guy in the world, defeating nobles of the empire and letting them go so that everyone will love me again, as if nothing had happened *hides his bloody executioner's ax with subtlety*

Sure. Go ahead and do that if you're confidant about it. Ultimately, I know I've managed to do something a lot of people have problems with so I must have some understanding they lack in order to accomplish what I've accomplished, regardless of misunderstandings and misconceptions I've developed along the way. In other words, what I know correctly must outweigh what I'm wrong about in order to unite the continent on the hardest difficulty without save scumming (except for my first character's marriage).

 

[Sir Frederic]

Sure. Go ahead and do that if you're confidant about it. Ultimately, I know I've managed to do something a lot of people have problems with so I must have some understanding they lack in order to accomplish what I've accomplished, regardless of misunderstandings and misconceptions I've developed along the way. In other words, what I know correctly must outweigh what I'm wrong about in order to unite the continent on the hardest difficulty without save scumming (except for my first character's marriage).

I don't know if you're talking about a recent or old game. I achieved a global conquest a long time ago, where I practically did the same thing, I did not execute many people and it lasted a great number of years. But you did not achieve anything if you should have executed someone, I'm sorry but if you executed people you took away the attack power of your enemies, you made the easy way! Also, a game of forty years, you didn't notice in 40 years the AI constantly hitting you hard

The AI is programmed yes to balance power thresholds. Play as a mercenary and help a kingdom become great, make sure you are strong. When they have 2-3 strong enemies at once with 0% peace will, leave the kingdom and wait. If not instantly, the next day they will make peace. Why does that happen? Because you have stepped out of that faction's equation and the game must balance the strength that faction is now dealing with. I did it for many games, play as a mercenary and leave to balance the power temporarily and be able to continue advancing.

After that last comment of mine, I entered the game, executed some aserai nobles, do you know what happened? what I described to you was going to happen, the Western Empire declared war on me, there were defections that were solved by reloading the game, in one of those reloads, simultaneously 3 women from my clan got pregnant (I hope not in an orgy). Then I executed more Aserai nobles, guess what happened? northern empire declared war on me. Now all that's missing is the southern empire, which will soon declare war on me, it's a matter of heads (you get it, heads haha). By the time there is no kingdom or clan left to declare war on us, desertions will begin with more force. I only hope that I have destroyed the other barbarian kingdoms so that they emigrate to the empire.

Another detail for the notorious lack of mechanics, I executed Corein, who married an aserai, her sister Merag, my sister-in-law, zero loss of relationship, even my friend, her father caladog, no loss of relationship, he is still my friend. The Kin are not friends with each other, therefore you only lose relationship according to the trait, I could execute the daughters of Caladog, Melindir, Garios (nobles without honor) and they would not care.

 

[Yoshioki Ouchi]

I don't know if you're talking about a recent or old game. I achieved a global conquest a long time ago, where I practically did the same thing, I did not execute many people and it lasted a great number of years. But you did not achieve anything if you should have executed someone, I'm sorry but if you executed people you took away the attack power of your enemies, you made the easy way! Also, a game of forty years, you didn't notice in 40 years the AI constantly hitting you hard

Why did I think you didn't? Gotta re-read... I guess I just inferred that lol, but since you have then unless there were significant changes since then you ought not have had issues enough to be livid about. Well... I say that, but it's not like you can't be mad that something that bothered you in the past remains in the game despite the beta phase or something new bothering you, so I guess I just made a mental conclusion without sufficient evidence to back it up.

My biggest issues towards the end was that it became too easy and it was taking me many hours, reloading through numerous crashes during sieges, and so I eventually just let my A.I. vassals unite the last tenth of the world for me before I felt inspired enough to finish off the Western Empire at Vostrum and the independent cities in Western Calradia that declared war on me. I enjoyed the "intense" period from ruling a region (Nahasa Desert) to conquering a second one (Western Vlandia, or the part of the game that's similar to Warband) but not the easy/repetitive period where victory was inevitable if I just suffered the crashes for longer. I'm thinking I should just call it a game at the halfway or 2/3rds point or something since I don't expect the cleanup phase to ever be made more interesting.

Not really, I didn't feel like the A.I. hit me hard after a certain point. To be precise, I noticed a pattern with every war where they'd be pretty tough at first but once you defeated their army or two, they kinda became rabble I could largely ignore as I went for their cities. I think the point was once I conquered Vlandia, or maybe during, but my favorite part was really when I was slowly pushing out from Ortysia and Husn Fulq, culminating if when I had to forsake one front to salvage the other, and slowly falling as I was taking Sturgia and the Western Empire kinda fell down as my vassals took care of it and I fought all the minis that migrated to the far east.

I don't have it in me to kill too many lol, besides, it'd be a pain the neck to track them all down and they might even breed more by the time I can round them up. Although my "brief purging period" was arguably the worst way of going about it since the fragmented clans ended up serving me (some of them, like Banu Qaraz being the clan where I executed the head's eldest son but another was basically just a woman and her child left) rather than really doing anything to put down the Aserai remnants.

The AI is programmed yes to balance power thresholds. Play as a mercenary and help a kingdom become great, make sure you are strong. When they have 2-3 strong enemies at once with 0% peace will, leave the kingdom and wait. If not instantly, the next day they will make peace. Why does that happen? Because you have stepped out of that faction's equation and the game must balance the strength that faction is now dealing with. I did it for many games, play as a mercenary and leave to balance the power temporarily and be able to continue advancing.

I remember when I was experimenting with how defections (for the player, as in YOU defecting) worked, that happened when I was seeing if I could just defect to Aserai quickly (like, talk to any random guy) or track down the ruler (and do the fealty ritual) and the first time Battania conveniently made peace with Aserai right as I was en route but the next time I tried it they were at war long enough for me to make it lol. It was the only glimpse I had of that possibility. I never played as a mercenary, but I did wonder what in RNGesus was going on when seeing what it'd be like to defect.

After that last comment of mine, I entered the game, executed some aserai nobles, do you know what happened? what I described to you was going to happen, the Western Empire declared war on me, there were defections that were solved by reloading the game, in one of those reloads, simultaneously 3 women from my clan got pregnant (I hope not in an orgy). Then I executed more Aserai nobles, guess what happened? northern empire declared war on me. Now all that's missing is the southern empire, which will soon declare war on me, it's a matter of heads (you get it, heads haha). By the time there is no kingdom or clan left to declare war on us, desertions will begin with more force. I only hope that I have destroyed the other barbarian kingdoms so that they emigrate to the empire.

Another detail for the notorious lack of mechanics, I executed Corein, who married an aserai, her sister Merag, my sister-in-law, zero loss of relationship, even my friend, her father caladog, no loss of relationship, he is still my friend. The Kin are not friends with each other, therefore you only lose relationship according to the trait, I could execute the daughters of Caladog, Melindir, Garios (nobles without honor) and they would not care.

Yeah, there ought to be a sworn enemy system for stuff like this lol, it's beyond silly that you can kill King Caladog's kids and him not really mind it lol. I'd assume Corein's new clan would have some kind of relationship with fen Gruffendoc (so that killing her would be -30 or something with them) but I guess not lol. Most obvious issue I can think of with having human relations be clan based rather than individual based.