A little garison advice please!

[MoridinUK]

Ok so i'm about day 400 and I'm a vassal of Swabia.  Sorry for Spelling all the names wrong...

I have a village, a town (thir) and 2 castles, ribgilett and Hras.

My max party size is 109.

So I have about 110 people garisoned in the town, and 70 in the first castle, and a big none in the second (Hras)

Now Swabia has been kicking arse, we've taken, Revgilet, Curow, Surgoth, and few couple more castles.  the nords are down to just one city and two castles.  BUT everyone is now at war with Swabia, and I've not idea how we are going to hold our gains.

Is there anyway to raise troops other than from villages?  Apart from the Tavern Merc's?

I have enough trainers in my party to level recruits to skirmishers or footmen in about a day or two, at abotu 20 at a time.

Should I concentrate on raising them up to level 2-4 and drop them at a castle and go get more, or try to raise them to 3-5 which is a lot harder, as the bandits run so much faster!?

I'm raising nord troops from villages too, but I simply don't seem to be able to raise enough to hold my castles, which the AI correctly identify as teh easiest to take.

Also in everyone's opinion is it better to start each battle with your best troops first or last?  I've been plying by sending in the fodder first,as they are easier to replace but i'm nto sure this works so well for sieges?

I'm sure there are threads like this one, but I wanted some Advice on my extreme lack of garrisons rather than in general.

Thanks guys!

 

[Yamchu]

Depends

I would aim for a bunch of high tier infantry and lots of middle-high archers for garrison 1:3 ratio
For your warpartie lots of mid-high calvary only. Dont waste them for sieges and defends. Take them for intercepting your enemies before they can besiege you.
Being an Archer Hero helps also, 3 stacks of arrows, a good bow and you can easily kill 100+ attackers on your own, and if your lucky you find some spare ammo 
Always pick those guys who are attacking your melees, they let their guard down and you need to keep your blockers alive as long as possible

 

[Velax]

To be honest, if you're at war with all five other factions, you're probably not going to be able to hold all your fiefs.

High tier infantry, especially Nord, is what you need for siege battles. Yamchu said to intercept enemy lords before they get to your castles, but I don't know how you'd do that with a party size of 109, given the other factions are probably coming over with war parties of 1000+. You're probably best waiting for them to siege one of your castles/towns and defending it, as you can usually beat much higher odds in a siege defense than you can in a field battle.

 

[Stildawn]

Might wanna start thinking about going out by yourself... You'll get to keep all your towns/castles that way lol and wont get rapped along with the rest of Swadia... You could even pick up a few more Swadian cities yourself while they struggle to fight the whole world (think Sargoth lol right next door to your Thir)

 

[MoridinUK]

Might wanna start thinking about going out by yourself... You'll get to keep all your towns/castles that way lol and wont get rapped along with the rest of Swadia... You could even pick up a few more Swadian cities yourself while they struggle to fight the whole world (think Sargoth lol right next door to your Thir)

SO If I rebel, this will reset my faction relations with all the other faction to zero?  I so wish I hadn't built all my dye works in swabian cities though lol... although getting peace rom swabia would be easy as they are at war with everyone... hmm...

Other's yes, I've been trying to work out if archers do the dead on sieges, seems to me that go given how much better the rhodoks do in sieges than in field battles.

so I want archers and infantry in sieges and lots mroe archers than infantry...  and my knights in battles... all right...  thanks for the advice

 

[Rigor]

Before you call for a peace with swadia, send out your companions for recognision from the other fractions. Each fraction that recognise you as a lord/king will give you +10 right to rule. And they will prob. only recognise you as a ruler if you're both at war with the same enemy. This could be a golden opertunity to gain a lot of RtR.

 

[MoridinUK]

hmm ok,

But I'm currently at war with everyone because Swabia is....  If that wont reset I think I'm in trouble if I rebel no?

 

[MoridinUK]

Also how do I rebel?

I read in a topic i got from searching that I need to capture castles and ask for them to be given to me and if they are not then I can rebel.

When I'm not how do I rebel?  Do I need to go talk to the king, or do I just take the castle, garrison it, when it is given to someone else I get an option to rebel?

I'm on really good terms with the king, I'm the only thing defending his empire...

 

[iffy]

As far as recruiting, try to recruit from the same villages all the time.  If there are bandits there, kill them and take nothing.  This should give +8 relations each time.  I have a village that gives me up to 25 or so men if it's been a while since I recruited.  (I have 30+ relations with them).  The ones I've killed bandits for just once will give me up to 10 recruits. 

You should be able to keep your businesses, you just have to stop being at war with whichever faction owns that city at the moment.

If you rebel you become your own faction and war is reset.

 

[Velax]

That's the only way to rebel, Moridin. Unless you start a claimant quest.

Only other way to start your own faction is to renounce vassalage and then take a fief, but that way you lose all your old ones.

 

[MoridinUK]

darn it...


ok then sowhatworks best for winning siege assults (i.e i'm attacking) elite archers/crossbows or elite knights?  also thinking ofletting the enemy take some stuff and then take it back while it's still weak!  A good idea or bad?

 

[Geroro]

lots of huscarls for both attack and defense.you can let them take it and then immediately besiege and talk to defenders,tell them to run away and in return you wont kill them.but you must outnumber them greatly.

 

[MoridinUK]

I cna'tclik my fingers and make house carls!!1 *sulk* so swabian knights or sharpshooters?

 

[HannibalTheCannibal]

Also in everyone's opinion is it better to start each battle with your best troops first or last?  I've been plying by sending in the fodder first,as they are easier to replace but i'm nto sure this works so well for sieges?

I prefer to send my good troops first. Recruits just die needlessly and take barely anyone with them, and with good trainer skill it doesn't take too long to get them upgraded.

That's the only way to rebel, Moridin. Unless you start a claimant quest.

Only other way to start your own faction is to renounce vassalage and then take a fief, but that way you lose all your old ones.

But if you empty the garrison right before hand then it's pretty easy to take back. Or you could start the claimant quest and then quit the quest, that way you don't need to wait to be denied a fief, though you lose honor.

 

[MoridinUK]

too many bad guys....
I took reyvain and drugand castle and asked for the fiefs... the castle gottaken back but he gave me the city.. i was away trying torelieve my other castle Hrus, now I killed 800 enemy there and near by, I ride back to reyavin cos it'sunder siege and get an nnouncement.. hrus castle is under siege... I can't be everywhere, and wimp swabian parties of 130 ormorejust sit in thir and do nothing...

I have no idea how the nords keep sendign armies at me... they have2 castles adn wercheg left and still they raise armies of 1000...

soin the last eek I've killed 500 odd saranid, 500 khergits, about 1000 nords and afew hundred rhodoksand they still kepp coming... I can't be every where...   and I can't leave to go find the claimant either!

 

[obscure]

too many bad guys....
I took reyvain and drugand castle and asked for the fiefs... the castle gottaken back but he gave me the city.. i was away trying torelieve my other castle Hrus, now I killed 800 enemy there and near by, I ride back to reyavin cos it'sunder siege and get an nnouncement.. hrus castle is under siege... I can't be everywhere, and wimp swabian parties of 130 ormorejust sit in thir and do nothing...

I have no idea how the nords keep sendign armies at me... they have2 castles adn wercheg left and still they raise armies of 1000...

soin the last eek I've killed 500 odd saranid, 500 khergits, about 1000 nords and afew hundred rhodoksand they still kepp coming... I can't be every where...   and I can't leave to go find the claimant either!

Then just let something go...
There's no reason to torture yourself by rushing or having too many fiefs: if you can't hold three fortresses let the enemy take one, if you can't hold two, let them take another. One is easy to hold (and IMO it's all you really need)

Just a note... most tend to suggest making your own kingdom or doing the claimant quest, but as I see it, if you have trouble holding three castles then that path just might be more frustrating than fun. My personal approach is to take it slow and remain a humble vassal until I really feel that I'm too powerful to keep following someone else around. It's what you find more fun really (some like the 'frustrating' challenge).

 

[Velax]

Yeah, just find one easy to defend fortress/town and hold them off till they accept a peace offer or sue for peace themselves. I held Uxkhal for months in-game while thousand-strong Rhodok and Nord armies bounced off my walls.

 

[luca5371]

This is almost the exact situation that I started my own kingdom in and it worked well. Pick one of you cities that the original owners keep trying to get and drop it's garrison way down. Then go find the swadian king and tell him you want to be released from your oath. By this point your town has been taken or soon after this. Simply retake it once they leave the small garrisons. Woolah, you have your own faction and are only at war with the faction you took the town from. This means all your swadian dyeworks are making money for you. You just lose all your relationship with their king. Rebelling you lose it all and go to war with them.

Now you can recruit a ton of guys (~300) for your city and start working the faction you're at war with. Try to pick a weaker faction. I don't like fighting the Nords so I'd probably not do this with Tihr but that's just me.

 

[luca5371]

Oh yeah and for sieges I almost always use Swadian Knights and Mammlukes exclusively for my personal party. They're just tanks whether in siege or not. Only weak on mountains. But I keep infantry and archers in garrison.

In battle, no matter what type, always use your strongest troupe first. You'd hate to lose cause your weak units got slaughtered and you were surrounded before your reinforcements could get there.

 

[MoridinUK]

Ok so.. after a few weeks of murdering them all... they all finally accepted peace.. I have kept two cites and four castles! No one will recognise me though, and swabia only gave me a 40 day truce!  my four castels are in vassals hands, twoof which were companions, I don't want to make more companions vasals as I like the massive training they contribute!  so I need lords...

1 have two that got kicked out of other factions, but I don't trust em, greedy gits...

I have 5 or six village fiefs not assigned... I'm keepign that for a while.

So I helda feast... how do I stop it? Or does it just run for a week?

desperately visiting villages forrecruits, but most of my villages hate me as I've burnt them quite a efw times over teh last 18 months... opps worst one is at -64!

I'm sending compainions off for right to rule and pickign up the others that don'tfit my gropus likes etc to send off adn then ditiching them again.. I could make them vvasals but lvl 1 vasals? :S