I agree the troops replenish way too fast. I also think that as some sort of balance mechanism, Taleworlds ramps up the difficulty the more it goes on. Thats good in the early & mid-stages, but in the late stages I still feel that its ramped up to the point where you can't win itt as a war game. Yes, you can use diplomacy to help, but I don't want it to be purely a diplomacy game over a war game. Yes, you can just execute all opposing nobles as you capture them, but since I try to play as myself in a different world, I don't want to be a homicidal maniac. I still feel you should be able to eliminate factions...at least to the point where they only come back periodically as rebels & you eliminate them again.
When you get 3/4ths of the world conquered there's just too many factions attacking you all at once on a front you can't cover all by yourself and you can't trust the other armies in your faction to help with. (I hate that they besiege something, have it to the point they are about to attack it, then decide they need more food and drop the siege. Unless they are about to be attacked by a larger army, just have them follow through with te siege, then take care of their food problems after that. They'll have less troops to feed then anyways and if its a town they may be able to buy food at the town they just took).
This is an issue that its "too benefical" to execute lords(I never do it tbh, as I'm a "White knight" player.)
Then again I do kill quite alot in sieges/battles tbh so there's that in culling the lords.
Tbh the death rate is also not ideal(I kind of dont see many lords in that time era being the first up the ladders in a siege tbh).
I cant spell it properly, but Fen Caernacth clan of Battania is typically killed of early, cause the first 2 in the clan is old, really old, so within 2-5 yrs tops they are dead by old age. Then you have Guaran or how you spell it, he dies to my lance/battle axe or arrow at times, and most of the time he's not married and have no heirs and poof gone.(I've also seen 1 of the Aserai die out on its own, both first 2 to old age, and they only had 1 kid, a daugther they married of early.. so no more heirs + old age - goodbye).
This is the problem though once you hit that "sweet spot I say" the 10-12 power rating, its war without end. Yes they've managed to make peace with 1 but declare on another or another declares.
This part just dont feel "fun" its too much when there is never ending, and again it dont cater to my type of player, and from the sound of you are similar.
The problem is that the lords dont defect fast enough from de facto defeated factions either.
I mean 5+ years without a holding of their own, should have made them leave.
I get that alot of theese mechancis is to prevent the snowballing effect that the faction the player joins happends, but it just isnt done in a "fun" way, it feels too forced, and or there is no "real way" to break out of the endless war-state.
(ok so there is 1 way - if you have alot of influence, like ALOT more than any other clan in the kingdome, you can just put out the vote for peace - spam it and you'll get it eventually as all the others run out of influence).
There should be some way for non-kings to "veto" peace or again like it was in Warband you could get quests by mayors in towns to bring peace by talking to 2 lords in the respective factions.
Biggest issue imo is the mercenary clans that mess the whole thing up tbh.
The games I've played where I tested with consoles for my own amusement(read I dont use it when I file bug reports etc, cause you never know) and removed the clans - then the other kingdomes will go for peace.
The problem is that the merc clans boost the kingdomes too much, so they can go on and on and on.
You have a decisive victory, and still no peace, then another.. another merc clan gets hired.
Should you be in a 1v1 in late stage you can have all the merc clans hired by the other, which tbh dont seem fair at all.
Given that each clan have 4 parties, and if they are rich enough can bring 100-150 units so 1 merc gives 400-600 units in the field.
And when they have like just 5 mercs thats an extra 2000-3000 units to that side..
So no wonder they wont have peace.
and it just keeps on dragging on.
They should have a minimum fix wage for the merc companies, so they are "really expensive" not the players, but the ai.
Thus they cant do this to prolong wars like they do - and must instead cave for peace instead.
Just be relentless and hunt down parties not in armies, or go for the armies they form, like be on them all the time, and imprison the lords - once they hit too high numbers they will eventually go for peace(imo this is way too high, typically 30-40 lords needs to be in dungeons, should be cut of at 20-30 tops).
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