Fierdsvain always get annihilated?

[Horrux]

I've started a number of playthroughs now and the same thing ALWAYS happens: Fierdsvain lords don't follow their marshal, they go pillage instead of taking fiefs, then go have a feast when all their stacks are still full and the enemy is taking their fiefs.

I try to help them but they won't let me. What I mean is, there's only so much a single dude can do, especially early game. Now once again Fierdsvain are down to just Javiksholm and I can field only 125 men. What's a man supposed to do? In native I like to keep the balance between the factions in order to have an easier time when I start my own kingdom and also keep it more interesting than having one huge faction to fight.

Should I do a claimant quest in order to protect the Fierdvain? Should I start my own kingdom right away? The D'shar are already extremely powerful, nearly half the map...

Oh yeah I forgot to mention... Koningur Valdis often appoints a lord with a very low troop count as marshal. As a result, he spends most of his "campaign" resting...

 

[Khabal]

Well... if your right to rule is good, it looks like a good oportunity to start your own kingdom. If this doesn't suits you, either join them and take the fiefs back non-stop, or join another faction at war with vikings' enemies to weaken them.

If you join a clamaint, the quest won't tell you to get back the already lost fiefs, so I don't think that will help the Fiersvains at all

 

[sher]

Well, Fierds can be wiped out quite early in my games, but it's not rare that they can live for a long time. If I'd rate most "fragile" factions then:
1. Sarleon - can be attacked from all directions by all factions;
2. Fierdsvain - stretched out territory against 3 factions;
3. Empire - snakes + 2 factions ;
4. D'Sahar - inquisition + Empire + weak Fierds;
5. Ravenstern - very troublesome region for invasions but can crumble quickly after consolidated assault.

Quests to stop wars are available to help factions.

 

[Turean]

In my experience the Empire is by far the most hopeless faction. D'Shar take Rela Keep within the first week. Always. Without exception. Followed by another one or two castles. Then Sarleon jumps in and will take Seven Cross Keep and they never recover, at least not without very heavy intervention from the player.

Fierdsvain actually do fine in my games. They often take Senderfall shortly after the start of the game, which I find impressive. In general, it seems that my games always go the same way and the same factions always dominate. I have seen posts from devs saying that it's supposed to be random and balanced but that just hasn't been my experience.

 

[Khabal]

In my experience the Empire is by far the most hopeless faction. D'Shar take Rela Keep within the first week. Always. Without exception. Followed by another one or two castles. Then Sarleon jumps in and will take Seven Cross Keep and they never recover, at least not without very heavy intervention from the player.

Fierdsvain actually do fine in my games. They often take Senderfall shortly after the start of the game, which I find impressive. In general, it seems that my games always go the same way and the same factions always dominate. I have seen posts from devs saying that it's supposed to be random and balanced but that just hasn't been my experience.

Well, in my games D'Shar & Baccus use to be the strongest factions (without me interfering, of course), so I'd say it's pretty random if none of us think the same hehehe.

 

[Rail Tracer]

In my playthrough the D'shar were rolling early, Sarleon folds, Empire looks bad early on and Ravernstern pushes onto both Fierdsvann and Sarleon.

But now on the late game, I had founded my own kingdom, wiped Fierdsvann out, those lords for some reason mostly went to the Empire and now the Empire taken all of D'shar cities  (except Singal which is mine) leaving them with only Valonbray. So Empire is dominating in my playthrough now. I am now debating should I declare on the Empire before it gets worse or do I wait and see if Ravenstern and Empire go to war and I try to dogpile on

 

[Sarin]

I've been taking it very slow in this playthrough, and Ferdies have managed to thrive. I've spend 500 days hunting QGs, messing around and being a merc for Sarleon and Empire, helping then survive, while Ferdies managed to get Avendor, Marleons and bunch of castles on their own.

But yeah, Valdis has a weird way of choosing marshall. In my game, he is rotating three or four lords, and completely ignores me, even though I have by far highest renown, and I'm actively trying to persuade lords to support me.

 

[Rail Tracer]

I think the marshal thing is true of all faction, i was vassal for both the Empire and Ravernstern and I notice that you wont get the marshal unless you have good relationship with the ruler himself. I was experiencing the same thing with only 3-4 lord rotating the marshall until I started working on getting my relation up with the king, doing tasks for him and stuff.

 

[Horrux]

Quests to stop wars are available to help factions.

Oh man. I had completely forgotten about these. I decided to not do too many city quests, but when I saw the Fierdsvain being at war with 3 other factions at the same time, I knew they were in trouble. Damn me.

 

[MitchyMatt]

Every major faction has been world-tested for balance and survival without player intervention. They all averaged about the same victory outcomes, even Fierdsvain. Everyone's game is different.

There is no one kingdom always beating another, because it varies with so many variables.

 

[Gorvex]

But yeah, Valdis has a weird way of choosing marshall. In my game, he is rotating three or four lords, and completely ignores me, even though I have by far highest renown, and I'm actively trying to persuade lords to support me.

Yep, as Rail Tracer said, all you need to do is to have decent relations with the king to be asked to be his marshall. You can even have the lowest renown rating in the whole kingdom, it doesn't matter.

 

[sher]

Quests to stop wars are available to help factions.

Oh man. I had completely forgotten about these. I decided to not do too many city quests, but when I saw the Fierdsvain being at war with 3 other factions at the same time, I knew they were in trouble. Damn me.

No wonder. Personally I did that quest maybe once or twice ever since it looks kinda troublesome and war is money but if you need to stop war you need to stop war.

High disposition with your king is a must for favors - fiefs and marshalship, just don't overdo it since you can talk to him after every victory to get +1 disposition and quests you can do for future lords of your kingdom (martial ones) to convert them faster.

 

[Pacific_Salmon]

One thing I noticed over dozens and dozens of games is that Ravenstern seems to have the least variance in empire size.

They mostly don't lose too much territory and mostly don't gain much

The other 4 factions seem kind of equal in terms of what they lose and how random it is.

 

[sher]

Yep. Ravenstern are rather weak but there's only one real way there and even that one is distant so they can raiding in peace and until other faction will be able to capture base in their inner territory they can easily defend themselves. It's all about map. Empire has nasty snakes until they're crushed, D'Shar has never ending inquisition but more fortified position, and Ravenstern has only weak tribes which can be crushed very fast since Wolfbode is one of the weakest large spawns.

 

[Horrux]

Quests to stop wars are available to help factions.

Oh man. I had completely forgotten about these. I decided to not do too many city quests, but when I saw the Fierdsvain being at war with 3 other factions at the same time, I knew they were in trouble. Damn me.

No wonder. Personally I did that quest maybe once or twice ever since it looks kinda troublesome and war is money but if you need to stop war you need to stop war.

High disposition with your king is a must for favors - fiefs and marshalship, just don't overdo it since you can talk to him after every victory to get +1 disposition and quests you can do for future lords of your kingdom (martial ones) to convert them faster.

... and because I wasn't focusing on city quests, I never went after persuasion, so I can't do these quests anyway.

 

[Rail Tracer]

doesn't need persuasion if you just give them money

 

[AngryJesus]

I went with a 2-handed sword + Arquebus build as a Fiersvain, I played on hardest difficulty, we shrekted all Dshar first, then Sarleon. Only thing Fiersvain are weak imho is siege, both def/off. They have no bows, or crossbows(a little), it's really hard to get something done, but their melee is very good + Valkyrie are amazin

 

[Horrux]

I went with a 2-handed sword + Arquebus build as a Fiersvain, I played on hardest difficulty, we shrekted all Dshar first, then Sarleon. Only thing Fiersvain are weak imho is siege, both def/off. They have no bows, or crossbows(a little), it's really hard to get something done, but their melee is very good + Valkyrie are amazin

Well yeah, that's why they lose all their fiefs in record time I guess. In my current playthrough, the marshal ONLY raids villages. He does not go after fiefs AT ALL. For the last 300 days! And *I* never get to be marshall of course. When I tell Koningur, with whom I have over 70 positive relationship "...my brave champion Horus..." hey, how about taking this castle, it's easy... He SIEGES it. No assault at all. It went on for 6 days until the enemy army arrived. And then he left, calling a feast at Javiksholm, the last fief of Fierdsvain. Well, not anymore because I took a castle BY MYSELF and 180 troops. Pretty good against 240+. These Fierdsvain are really getting on my nerves.

 

[sher]

You can ask sieging lord to begin assault immediately.

 

[Rail Tracer]

unfortunately that seems to be all of the factions tho, they wont assault unless they get to a certain threshold I guess.