Best Starting Castle

[MountainBladesMan]

Before venturing to conquer Pendor in earnest, I want to establish a staging ground to gather forces in and establish a Knighthood Order. Which castle do you think would be best for this?

I was thinking that castle high up on the mountain owned by the Viking guys that has a village in the Arab guys' territory.

 

[Gorvex]

This is the thread for you, which had a deep conversation on the subject:
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=361639.0
The majority of scenes is the same as in v3.8. I can't really recommend a castle as there are quite a lot good alternatives and it all comes down to whether you prefer a castle with ladders or a siege tower to defend, or which area in general you'd like to be at. And I simply can't remember all of those names with their allocation and siege layout. I have to play the game to recognize each castle's layout.

 

[ttl]

As my base of power, I try to got with a town and at least 2 castles. It can take awhile for your renown and relations to grow enough for the king to give you a few walled fiefs, but it will be there soon enough.

I've not seen much difference between castles per se. Perhaps if you plan for a trap fort to siege defend to death attacks on your budding kingdom?

So I'd rather think in terms of the town.
First is the faction you want to join, if you have one of their original cities, it can help avoid a two-front war against your old king, and the king whose culture your city belongs to.
Second are KOs. If you want to use one of the non-qualis orders that are tied to a city as your "spam order", pick that city or next to it.

Other considerations:
Singal has slave trader, which is nice.
Holding a fief near the Noldor Woods causes friendly parties to occasionally dump noldor prisoners for you for free. Also when you are friendly with Noldor, their patrols can help drive off raiders.
Holding a central town can help a lot in the mid-game, where going off to do stuff (like hunting for a Qualis army) sees you going there and back again faster.

But in the end, any will do without too much difference.

 

[MountainBladesMan]

I wish there was some sort of "hideout" that you could establish with enough money that would act like a castle without flagging you as an independent king. It would make sense to have a place to prepare in secret before you went to face down the world.

 

[ttl]

I wish there was some sort of "hideout" that you could establish with enough money that would act like a castle without flagging you as an independent king. It would make sense to have a place to prepare in secret before you went to face down the world.

I'd say it's by design you can only have a garrison when you are lord (or king), and for good reason. Otherwise the option to stay a mercenary is just too good.

Note that you can use any of your enterprises as an item stash.

 

[MitchyMatt]

Slow down on all the topics.