Carving out your little empire.

[NikkTheTrick]

While it is great to have friends, you often want to have that city for yourelf. And that castle, and that... At some point, you realize that merely being in a faction will not fulfil your ambition. So, it becomes necessary to find your way to power...

I did this in my game. It required some major planning and a bit of luck. I joined Nords early on, but kept good relations with Swadian villages to recruit their peasants - future knights. In fact, my army was very, very Swadian. However, being a nord was crucial to my plan. Of course, building up relations with nord villages was just as crucial.

I warred on Nord side, getting wealthier. By band of knights was fast and near-invincible. But I was patient, getting as much cash as I could. What I had to do in the future required wealth - and lots of it. When I had 150 000 denars reserve, I proceeded with my plan. I wanted it all. I wanted all those Nord lands for myself. I started collecting an army. I recruited every Swadian and Nord peasant I could find, took every battle I could take and eventuallygot my army: 150 knights. My maintenance costs skyrocketed, but my reserves could handle that. Then, I stormed Suno. King Ragnar was foolish enough to deny me the city, so I denounced the oath and took it for myself. So there I was: alone against the whole Nord horde. I took my knights and proceeded to hunt down every Nord army I could find - before they joined together and attacked me. Losses were big, but I survived. What worried me more is maintenance: my army had to keep growing and my income was limited. I prayed that my reserves would be enough since now it was race against time. I needed more land to sustain bigger army that will require more land...

I was fortunate I rebelled against Nords: their forces fare poorly against heavy cavalry. If I was up against a real army, such as Vaegirs or Swadians, chances are I'd be screwed. My knights mowed them down like grass on plains and I avoided mountains. I took every Nord peasant I could find, stashed them in Suno and trained them to be husclars. I trained every Swadian I got my hands on to be a knight. Once I got a force of 200 husclars, I stroke back and captured Tihr. What followed was months of carnage and the last nord castle fell. Rhodoks declared war, but that resulted in fall of Yalen and many of their troops: there is nothing Swadian knights will not handle on plains. And husclars take care of assaults.

And then... I joined Swadians. My empire consists of 5 cities and almost every castle and village Nords started with (I lost count of those). I control more than the rest of Swadia combined. I pay over 10000 in maintenance weekly, but I collect even more in taxes. If all my forces gather in one spot, they will equal force of any faction. While I am nominally under king Harlus, I wield more power than he could ever dream of. And I will unseat him eventually.


So, what are your methods of carving yourself an empire? Please share.

 

[Kalnia]

Well I love native expansion for this, because its by far the best mod for allowing you too create your own little empire, even buying peace or bribing leaders to go to war. Anyways;

Ol' Lord Joht went from a spearman, to sergeant to Lord under Graveth with the help of an all spearman army. The shieldwar of boardshields is pretty much invincible when properly managed, with some forest bandits and partisans hired everynow and then to give a little sting at range. Nothing like seeing a Knight charge in all gusto and get hemmed in by boardshields, shot and picked clean off his horse with a well times glaive-sweep! Anyways, I digress...

After a while of scraping a living off his little village near Veluca, Joht thought it was time to go up in the world. His band of about 50 men had been used as arrow-fodder against the Khergit castles duing the last campaign, and this had somewhat pissed him off with Graveth. To this end, he went down to Jelkala and asked the good King to follow him for a little ride. After about, oh, about 3 days ride from Jelkala, Dan turned around and denounced his oath and revealed his little army of 120 spearman, many of them sergeants, and 50 or so random mercenary bowmen who were their for the loot. After a day of fighting, I kicked Graveth off his horse and sent him walking back to Jelkala. I took all the veterans from the defeated King's army prisoner and offered them a chance to join me in the creation of a new Republic near our old village.

Two weeks later I was outside Veluca and, with the surrounding three castles under my command, took the city of fine wines for myself. I made it my capital, built a university and started to draw levies to garrison the three castles and the city that guarded the northern part of the Rhodok Valley. Now I have the city of Calradia's finest wines for a home and three castles protecting the northern-most part of the Rhodok valley, with Nizar and Aleyen patrolling said castles. I've bribed, bought and bartered pace from Swadia, the Nords and the Vaegirs, and due to a friendly connection with the powers that be in a couple of Kingdoms, I've set the Khergits and the Swadians agaisnt the Rhodoks. SO I have my own little Kingdom in a sunny valley with good wine and I have everyone else fighting for me!

 

[Hietala]

I had an army of 100 (!) huscarls, 70 Rhodok sharpshooters and 30 Swadian Knights. The maintainance costs were ridiculous high, i desperately needed cities and castles to gather taxes from. The Khergit empire by that time was the weakest empire, so i decided to go for them now most of their villages were still unharmed. I couldn't get the castles who were on the Rhodok border, but i took their major cities, at the same time gathering extra money by capturing lords and releasing them back again for good amounts of money. Their armies crumbeled in a fast rate, and their cities were mostly filled with recruits. Their last castle, however: Asugan was filled with lords who had armies that consisted of 0 men. Since i was not at war with anyone else, i decided to starve them out. After a few months, only their lords remained with few troops. I attacked the castle and emerged victorious.
Theni joined the nords, making war with the swadians. But they did not grant me Uxkhal and praven, i had given our king ragnar a lot of castles, now all i wanted were two mere cities. I renounced my oath, getting Praven, and reconquering Uxkhal for myself. That was the start of my great empire, i had more castles/cities then any other faction in Calradia, and my army was able to carry 350 soldiers.
The Swadian and Nord empire fell to my power, and then i thought i might consider to take over the other most powerfull empire: the Rhodoks. There could be only one empire! The Rhodoks were busy with the Vaegirs, so while they were off, i was taking their castles, and adding more recruits to other castles so they would get scared off if they considered taking one of my castles. The Rhodoks were defeated, their armies gained some sort of attrition damage from other attacks etc. The Rhodoks were annihilated. Time to set fire on the Vaegirs... My army consisted of 150 Huscarls, 100 Rhodok Sharpshooters and 70 Swadian knights.
I decided to attack from Wercheg, i went to Wercheg, got new armor and i set foot to conquer the last faction remaining. Reyvadin and Rivacheg (and the castles in between) were easy to get IMO... (Darn, why do they have such a big territory?) I went to Khudan, it could not resist my powerful army. However, I suffered heavy losses at Curaw, because my knights spawned before my Huscarls, and my knights got slaughtered due to their small shields and when they reached the walls, they were killed by Vaegir Guards. 50 Knights died. I ordered my Sharpshooters to pick the enemy off from the walls, they succeeded with few losses, and i decided attrition is the best way to conquer that city, so it resulted in exchanging archery volleys. They shot at a faster rate, but i had way more crossbowmen then they had archers. Now they suffered high losses and Curaw fell into my hands. I decided to pick some soldiers up from Wercheg (i garrisoned an extra army there, for if i might suffer high losses) Now my army was back in it's original state, i could go back on my conquering spree. The Vaegirs came to attack me with an army twice my size. Well, i did not worry, i placed my Huscarls on a hill, and i ordered my archers and cavalry to follow me. I placed my archers in that way, so they could attack the enemy from the flanks, while i would attack them in the rear with my cavalry and the huscarls to attack them in the front. Wave after wave was crushed with that tactic, and they fell every time for it. I was pretty much satisfied, and their last remaining castles were for the taking... The grey color had taken control of the map.