I just worked for nothing...

[yellowpaco]

Okay heres the deal, I captured this one castle called Telhrog. It took me a lot of work to capture it and I worked my arse for it.
I heard that could also get the village(s)? near the castle you capture.
Well after some tactics on killing those endless Nords. It didn't belong to anyone and I assumed it would be after awhile.
This part I hate.... MY castle which I worked for got taken by some jackass out of nowhere called Meltor.
So I'm feeling pretty pissed off.

 

[miclee1]

If you get a castle or not depends on your renown.

 

[DSparil]

Astarsis has already explained in detail how the system works.

 

[yellowpaco]

Astarsis has already explained in detail how the system works.

How much renown will I need then? I have something around 250 renown.

 

[Darian]

How much renown will I need then? I have something around 250 renown.

There's no easy answer. Read this post for one explanation of the calculations used. To cut a long story short, the way fief grants are calculated is surprisingly complicated, so much so that it can't be easily predicted. Having a lot of renown will raise your chances somewhat, but it still doesn't guarantee anything and is by no means a requirement.

Luck is still a huge factor--in my first playthrough I got three fiefs (two castles and one village) and that was just before I passed 300 renown; one of the three I got when I had about 150 renown, so if there is a minimum level it's relatively easy to achieve. In order to get those fiefs I captured about four castles for which I got no properties in return, but I still got some fiefs despite having lower renown (at the time) than many of the faction's other lords. Some players have tested saving and loading and have found that the fief will rotate between being a castle and being a village, so random selection is always an element. Unfortunately, Mount&Blade doesn't have a Luck attribute.

Each castle has a village associated with it (conquering the castle converts the village to your faction as well), but the castle and the village are given out separately (which means there's two "chances" of getting a fief after conquering each castle). If you get your renown up to something like 300 and then focus on conquering most or all enemy castles on the map that should hopefully be enough to tilt the calculations in your favour to get you at least one fiefdom.

 

[Cleaning agent]

I don't think Meltor actually owns your castle, he's probably just resting there for the moment. If you don't get offered you captured castle by your king, it remains empty as far as I've seen, excluding nobles having a rest there of course.

 

[Darian]

Once someone properly owns a castle their flag will fly above it (this doesn't happen with villages), and the wiki database thing will also be updated to show which vassal it is associated with. No flag flying means there's still a chance of you getting it.

 

[yellowpaco]

Hmm...thank you Darian, explained it to me a lot better. Well I am pretty sure its owned by Meltor since the flag is up and I checked the village in the quest log. Oh well thanks everyone and I'll guess I have to reach 300 to get more chance of a fief. 

 

[Mizari]

Note: It is usually a large flag that flies above the castle and when you hover your cursor of the castle, it should say who owns it and all that jazz.