How do you play this game without cheating?

[Kjertesvein]

Am I the only one who find the AI's ability to set you up 10 to 1 in army strength spread over all your holdings at the same time a tiny bit crazy?
I've now killed more than many of 1000s of men in defensive siege circumstances and constantly teleporting around the map to recruit units. I have about 10 breweries around the world. I have 2 towns, I am the Marshall of Northumbria. All my holdings get sieged at once. As I'm about to kill of one 250 stack army with my dwindling 150 men accompanied by vassals reduced to 25 - 100 men each I suddenly get the message that my last remaining town is once again attacked by an army of 500 men.

I am at day 250 with a Poor Campaign AI ( If I remember correct, the AI replenishes more slowly with Poor AI). The newest patch. When I captured these 2 Welsh towns I had 150 000 gold and 250 men (80% heavy armored), now I have 7000 gold and 100 men (20% heavy armored). I started as Marshall of the strongest faction with the best vassals following me of minimum 250 men each. I've not used gold cheats, only teleport during the last couple of intense sieges so far. How do you honestly play this game without cheating?

In order be able to defend my self, as I see it, I would have a war chest of 300 000, 10 full stacked vassals and a 500 army of only heavy armor while I only sit inside Dorestad while the rest of my Lowland kingdom produces gold. At that point, the 7 or so kingdoms of the north can come at once like they do now. With their 50x (250 - 500) stack armies each. That would be power gaming. How do you make things easier?

edit: BTW, dont get me wrong though, it's a thing I face in most of the mods I've played as well (topping 1000 hours now )

Thanks for a cool game otherwise.

Edit 2: Back into the game I defeated the 250 army and the 500 army I mentioned. On the horizon before anything can be done a new army of 322 men arrive to continue the siege fest. I mean, if anyone can honestly tell me how they play a game without a single cheat at any point and still able to hold their own then I would be ecstatic to be told what I'm doing wrong and how I can improve. Right now it feels as though I do anything I legitimately can to prepare: Marshall (with many followers), 150 000 gold, 2 towns and 10 brewery for persistent income, the character has top equipment/ level. After all that all my allies are crushed, all the friendly forts are gone, I'm down to my last town, I have no gold, no decent units, regular income is void. From my point of view, there are no obstacles to cross between or some counter mechanics that you can tell yourself "Oh man, I messed that up, I'll try again! ", it's more like "I did everything I possibly could." I'm reminded of this video: http://youtu.be/ea6UuRTjkKs?t=2m3s

 

[Ivan Khan]

I played on high difficulty and was able to do it. One thing I did was make sure once you take a town or castle you have the men for a garrison. I have even left bait in a weakly defended castle near my town with my field army. You also want to make sure you destroy an enemy's field armies before you can take his castles and towns. If you are the marshal you should be able to get other vassals to do most of the work for you. 

 

[Kjertesvein]

I don't mean to rage at you. It's just, I want to enjoy this game. I really want to enjoy this game, but when I'm punished out of the blue with 0 tips, advice or warnings of what's to come on the horizon, then #¤%"#¤. :/

Garrison my holdings. That may be the solution, thanks. The thing I did was keep my army mobile (on me) to keep the cost down, while my holdings had >50 men each. I was under the impression my entire force was the indicator for the AI to attack or not, but counting by your advice it is about the individual holding's strength. Are you saying that the likelihood of being attacked solely depend on once garrison strength? Does the AI just care about numbers, or do I have to put in decent units?

I did destroy the previews faction that held the settlements. I also vanquished all invading armies to the ground. The intelligence of the AI is limited so the loss of units for me and my allies are over a long time of constantly fighting and being chipped down little by little. The other vassals have done an amazing job in assisting me. Too bad I lost Marshallship and due to high controversy, I can no longer reclaim my 2nd town under my personal control again. :/

 

[kalarhan]

ask yourself this: why is the AI soo offensive against your holdings?

Check your relations with factions and lords. If they dislike you then you are in trouble. Raider, killer of monks and villagers, pagan demon that decided to join a faction near christians? Good luck then  . Consider converting.

If you are pagan you should start a faction/join one in a good defensive position, so you will have the chance to defend and conquer more territory.

And while on war always keep a eye for invasions. You are the marshal/king and you control the faction army. Gather them and attack the invading army. Even better if you do that from inside a castle/town.

 

[florinteal]

The problem is that the Warband AI will go to war with another faction simply for being too successful, which means that in VC, where factions are numerous and in close proximity to one another, you're going to reach a point where you get dogpiled by everyone no matter what you do. Best way I've found to deal with it is to set up very large garrisons, sell loot and slaves for large amounts of cash (always choose to pick loot over yourself before letting your men take any, carry a priest/gothi in your party to fix morale on the spot), and just generally err on the side of having thousands of men at your disposal. Also, once you start taking over the world, don't expect to be able to take a breather at any point; you'll get no rest until there's no longer anyone around to war with you to "curb your growing power".

 

[Ivan Khan]

Where and who AI attacks is based on several things as the above posters have said. Garrison size is key though. AI will generally pass by a well defended castle or town and seek out less defended ones.  Distance, relations with faction, relations with you personally, and if the faction has a claim on the property from the code are all taken into consideration. Castles (sometimes towns) that are designated in the code are often seen in the faction comments as a reason for war. If you take one of these even from another faction expect the first to go to war with you to take it.

As for garrison the AI will not attack a castle or town if it does not have superiority. If your garrison is big enough generally they will not attack. Just as an example, the Dyn Bych defense I found particularly hard in the storyline. I eventually succeeded by taking Caer Meguaidd and Caer Sws. I left Caer Sws lightly defended (less than 100), while Dyn Bych had over 200. Being closer and less well defended Gwynedd would attack Caer Sws. My army in Caer Meguaidd could then come down and defend often before they were even at full force, since they would base the number of assaulting troops on the poor garrison.

 

[oppai]

Have not played VC, thinking of buying soon, but generally on Warband the AI attacks those towns who have really weak garrisons, having 50 men Garrisons won't cut it. From what i've read if each Lord is running around with 200+ troops then you need at least that many in your garrisons