Help me. Options on how to start your own faction?

[aivarioha]

As I see it on how to establish my kingdom:

#1 option. So first thing on my mind is to do it on my own while having an allied faction (D'Shar) nearby for the future with which I have good relations. Let's say I am 0 on relations with Noldor (which should make it easier) and I want to start at the corner of the map and take some Empire territories. Sounds good, right? Well, question here is how do I take a town guarded with 600 or so elite troops on my own? Is that possible or only option I have is to start with castles?

#2. Back in a day I used to do it differently. Get some fiefs and then betray the kingdom and keep the fiefs, however that makes me more enemies and if I am correct even if I have good relations with that factions lords they won't be willing to join me if their faction is still strong. Lords might also drop relations with me for betraying their faction, correct? So I don't know about this. Easy fief grab but then it's a dark corner.

#3? Feel free to share your options and discuss mine. Need some guidance on how should I approach and safely settle myself.

 

[Wankershin]

Recently started on this mod myself, found it difficult at first to take cities with the 600+ troops they could field.
One thing you have to do for sure is catch lords outside of the towns/castles and take them down. Nothing is more annoying when there all stacked in with 100 troops each.
Once you have all the lords captured/neutered your going to have to have a sally fight outside the gates. If you have the troop count at 500, there is no way your going to win. However if you set it to 50, it's now a 60 V 40 if you have decent enough tactics. With good infantry just rush them. Once you take out the sally force, just keep whittling down the forces with archers. Rush them when they have less than 200, you should be able to take over a city.

If you have good relations with whatever kingdom your with, I find it hard to be given the chance to leave with your towns/castles/cities. They like you too much to NOT give you everything you take. The only way I found was to become the marshal, gain some controversy, take a castle with all the lords troops you have, and renounce when they give it to someone else. Bonus if you can gather them and send them into a minor factions army, I screwed my faction by sending them into the Jatu. Easy take over after they declared war on me when non of them had over 30 troops

 

[aivarioha]

Recently started on this mod myself, found it difficult at first to take cities with the 600+ troops they could field.
One thing you have to do for sure is catch lords outside of the towns/castles and take them down. Nothing is more annoying when there all stacked in with 100 troops each.
Once you have all the lords captured/neutered your going to have to have a sally fight outside the gates. If you have the troop count at 500, there is no way your going to win. However if you set it to 50, it's now a 60 V 40 if you have decent enough tactics. With good infantry just rush them. Once you take out the sally force, just keep whittling down the forces with archers. Rush them when they have less than 200, you should be able to take over a city.

You mean lower the battle size and occupy the walls with your archers before the reinforcements come?
I don't see that happening with 40 vs 60. Their reinforcements will be coming quite often and I won't be able to breakthrough like it's nothing. And even if it was doable I won't have enough archers to make a big difference at next scraps inside the base. The soldiers towns have are quite elite. No idea what I would need to have to crush them so bad.

 

[Wankershin]

Only drop the battle size for the sally fight, otherwise there going to send 250 of their top troops at you less than 50 feet away. I just send my 40 knights or heavy infantry for the sally fight, which I don't think gets reinforcements (least I have never had that happen). You alone should be able to sneak by during the sally fight and disrupt the archers/crossbows they send after, letting you win easily. Once the real fight begins, set the battle size back to 500, and let loose the archers you have to bring them down.

 

[aivarioha]

Only drop the battle size for the sally fight, otherwise there going to send 250 of their top troops at you less than 50 feet away. I just send my 40 knights or heavy infantry for the sally fight, which I don't think gets reinforcements (least I have never had that happen). You alone should be able to sneak by during the sally fight and disrupt the archers/crossbows they send after, letting you win easily. Once the real fight begins, set the battle size back to 500, and let loose the archers you have to bring them down.

Alone vs the archers? Some towns have a lot of towers and they are sometimes situated all over. They also target you when they see you.
If you could make a video of how you do it, that would be very helpful.

 

[Wankershin]

Sally fight: Instead of waiting for the force of 200ish guys to build ladders/ siege the town, they rush out of the gates to swamp you with the 600 they have. Your not fighting in the town, but outside right near the gate(sadly closed), and for whatever reason they don't man archers on the walls. Because of their number advantage they would swamp you, but if the battle counter is 100 then it turns into a fair brawl. The archers I mentioned before are at the base of the wall, where all of your units can attack.
So in order on what to do:
Take out all of the lords you can, use whatever army you want.
Gather a composition of 60% archers, 40% heavy infantry/knights for the actual siege
Before you go in to build ladders/ towers, set the battle counter to 100 (Or lowest)
When the ladders are done, they will sally out to attack you(Ground battle, no walls, no horses, hence why you want heavy infantry at the start)
Once the sally battle has been won, you can attack the walls (Such as normally)
Use the archers you brought to rain arrows on the walls. DON'T send in infantry,use them as a shield for the archers.
Retreat/repeat until their forces are at around 200, might want to refresh the siege for the final push
Use infantry/knights to rush, once they get on the walls rush your archers. If the wall has steps leading up to the wall, thats where the brawl will lead. Plant the archers to fire in that area.
Should be able to take towns that way, that's what I did for 5-6 of them. If you still have questions ask em

 

[aivarioha]

Sally fight: Instead of waiting for the force of 200ish guys to build ladders/ siege the town, they rush out of the gates to swamp you with the 600 they have. Your not fighting in the town, but outside right near the gate(sadly closed), and for whatever reason they don't man archers on the walls. Because of their number advantage they would swamp you, but if the battle counter is 100 then it turns into a fair brawl. The archers I mentioned before are at the base of the wall, where all of your units can attack.
So in order on what to do:
Take out all of the lords you can, use whatever army you want.
Gather a composition of 60% archers, 40% heavy infantry/knights for the actual siege
Before you go in to build ladders/ towers, set the battle counter to 100 (Or lowest)
When the ladders are done, they will sally out to attack you(Ground battle, no walls, no horses, hence why you want heavy infantry at the start)
Once the sally battle has been won, you can attack the walls (Such as normally)
Use the archers you brought to rain arrows on the walls. DON'T send in infantry,use them as a shield for the archers.
Retreat/repeat until their forces are at around 200, might want to refresh the siege for the final push
Use infantry/knights to rush, once they get on the walls rush your archers. If the wall has steps leading up to the wall, thats where the brawl will lead. Plant the archers to fire in that area.
Should be able to take towns that way, that's what I did for 5-6 of them. If you still have questions ask em

Cool, thanks for the information. How do I force those enemies to attack me outside? When does that event trigger?

 

[Wankershin]

It can happen when the enemy greatly outnumbers you, I find before I become my own king attacking with under 200 if they have 500 activates it. Once you get good enough at it, typically you don't need to use the sally trick. Just archer them at the ladders