Accepted Too Many Castles; Need Help

[Kallic]

Before I get into my problem, I have some quick castle questions:

What's the point of owning a castle, besides being able to throw lords in the dungeon? I feel like it actually hurts me to have a castle, because you wind up paying so much in troop upkeep for such a small perk. I guess I can see the point in having 1, but is it dumb to have multiple castles?

Here's my situation:

Long story short, every faction is a rotating door of vassals, and Sanjar Khan apparently decided I was the only one worth trusting. He kept booting everyone out and then giving me their land. I accepted every one of them, and now I don't know what to do. Did I make a huge mistake accepting them all?

I have 13 properties, 6 of which are castles. I'm now losing 10,000 gold every week!

What am I supposed to do at this point? Is there any way for me to get rid of some of these properties besides starting my own faction or letting enemies take them? I don't want to screw Sanjar over; he's been very good to me  . Is my game just over now, because I got rewarded too heavily? 

Any advice or knowledge would be welcome, thanks!

 

[Occam]

I advise you not to be too loyal to Sanjar Khan, he's said some really nasty things to me about you behind your back.
Take as many castles as you can then rebel when he doesn't give you more. You'll start with quite a good sized kingdom it sounds like.

Other than that just disband your garrisons.
When the enemy takes them, take them back but turn them down as fiefs.
If your villages are attached to these castles you can get rid of them too this way but if not you are stuck with them.

 

[Kallic]

Ahh, I didn't even think of letting them take it and then taking it back. I just assumed they would sit there with a force of 600 and we'd never get it back, but I suppose sometimes they just leave until it has an owner and I could snake it back.

Funny thing is, this is THE perfect setup for a revolt. No one has land because the kings are hoarding it all for themselves or giving it to 1 or 2 people, everyone is getting kicked around and hates their kings, plus I have about 13 friends... With 13 properties. LoL. My guy isn't set up for sieges at allllll though. I just stand underneath the ladder and hope my guys win =P (I'm playing with normal damage across the board and the AI on Good, and I have a 6 STR with no ironflesh, so I die in 1-4 good hits).

Anyway, thanks for the reminder; I may have to just empty the garrisons and let them have it and then recapture it.

 

[Phoenix VII]

You could hang onto the castles and just knock their garrisons down to 150 Tier 1 or Tier 2 troops since the AI doesn't factor in the quality of the garrison when deciding whether to attack or not, just the numbers. On the other hand, I suppose there's not much value to castles if you don't plan to revolt.

 

[Filou]

The key to not losing money is having cheap garrisons.
Only the castles near enemy territory need to be strongly garrisoned, the rest can have much less troops, the AI favors going after stuff that is close to what they already hold.
Secondly, quantity over quality. You only need a small core of good troops, the rest can be low level troops, recruits or tier 2.

IIRC Khergit troops cost more because they're all mounted, so you might want to favor troops of other faction to use as garrison.

 

[sirballington]

...the AI favors going after stuff that is close to what they already hold.

*stares at Swadia-owned Bariyye in my game*

 

[Filou]

...the AI favors going after stuff that is close to what they already hold.

*stares at Swadia-owned Bariyye in my game*

I'm willing to bet that that Emir Atis switched sides, he's coded to have a ****ty personality.

 

[Yohan]

Distance is a factor, but the AI will also take garrison strength into account. I've seen campaign armies travel across the map to attack a weak garrison instead of attacking the town/castle closest to their territory.

Kallic IMO castles are a waste of resources (unless you have your own kingdom, then you can give them to your lords). They don't bring you much gold and need to be garrisoned, and even with cheap troops they will likely cost you more than you earn owning them.

Do you have elite troops in these castles ? If so, I suggest to empty the garrisons, let the enemy take them, and use these soldiers to take a town. You will have traded a few castles for a town, a much better situation I think  . Then you can help Sanjar retake the castles if you want.

 

[sirballington]

...the AI favors going after stuff that is close to what they already hold.

*stares at Swadia-owned Bariyye in my game*

I'm willing to bet that that Emir Atis switched sides, he's coded to have a ****ty personality.

Oddly enough, it was Count Grainwad, the marshall, who laid siege to that city. I saw the message and was like, "whaat?"