Kingdom in Sandbox Mode

[AngryPanCake]

Hello,

I searched for how to create your own Kingdom and found post mostly about Campaign Mode, where one has to complete some major Quests...etc.
Can you create your own kingdom in Sandbox mode? if so, what are the requirements?

I am very amazed with people posting here how they conquered the whole map!
I'm only currently "selling" my services as a Mercenary to a Kingdom and don't think it is going to be easy for me to acquire any land with barely 190-200 troops. I said barely because at my current level of play/skills I feel I need hundreds of men to conquer anything! As soon as I try any operation, half a dozen armies come from out of nowhere.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
APC

 

[D0c1]

• Implemented Sandbox Kingdom Creation, which is possible through the clan screen and not dependent on the main storyline. Players need to have at least 1 settlement and a tier 4 clan. Then players can select their kingdom's culture (consisting of their settlements' culture or their own clan's culture), select their initial policies (up to 4) and, finally, select the name for their new Kingdom.

 

[AngryPanCake]

Does it mean you have to capture at least one settlement on your own? Settlement meaning town or Castle or only town?
Meaning as an independent clan, not as a Mercenary or a Vassal?

 

[D0c1]

Does it mean you have to capture at least one settlement on your own? Settlement meaning town or Castle or only town?
Meaning as an independent clan, not as a Mercenary or a Vassal?

i've never tried it so i'm not sure. but i think the condition means you must have a fief (castle or town) to your name. vassal or independent. i don't think mercenaries can hold fiefs.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

• Implemented Sandbox Kingdom Creation, which is possible through the clan screen and not dependent on the main storyline. Players need to have at least 1 settlement and a tier 4 clan. Then players can select their kingdom's culture (consisting of their settlements' culture or their own clan's culture), select their initial policies (up to 4) and, finally, select the name for their new Kingdom.

You also now need to put clan member as governor of your fief and speak to them and use a dialogue option to start the kingdom.

Does it mean you have to capture at least one settlement on your own? Settlement meaning town or Castle or only town?
Meaning as an independent clan, not as a Mercenary or a Vassal?

You need to capture a fief(castle or town) as either a actual vassal (and be awarded the fief in election) or as an independent Clan (not a vassal or merc). If you capture a fief as a Merc it will go to the faction you are a merc for but will not be given to you. Once you own a fief you also cannot become a mercenary.

If you obtain a fief (or many) as a vassal, you will need to leave the kingdom and choose to keep all fiefs, which will start a war with you old faction.

As a solo independent Clan you can opportunistically take a fief that's weak or take one from rebels, just attack a lord to start a war (you can even leave after without actually fighting) and quickly siege the fief. You can then defeat the rebel parties and they go away and the fief is yours, OR if you took from a normal faction you can pay a lord for peace (only possible as solo clan), it may cost about 200k, but varies, trying to do this multiple times can jack up the price too.

Keep in mind as soon as you actually declare a kingdom, other factions can and will declare war on you! The location of you fiefs, who owned them and possibly other war actions you took (as solo clan) may effect how soon/ how many wars you get!

My preferred method is to actually attack a faction very early and begin fighting and weakening their parties, as a solo clan, this way they are not as powerful when I get rank 4, this lest me take the fief I want to start my kingdom in a good location (edge of map) with likely only 1 enemy for a good while.

Another fun way to do it is, rebels only semi-peaceful game, you only take rebel towns when they rebel and stay a solo clan so nobody declares war on you! Of course this can be a problem if you ever do create a kingdom as spread out fief can be hard to defend and and may cause multiple faction to attack early to get them back!

The easiest normal way is to just be a vassal, get some fiefs(you can even just defeat parties and not siege anything yourself), when good and ready leave and beat up your old faction. You can even do underhanded things like get them in multiple wars and/or use the army mechanic to separate many parties, either to kill them at you fief when you leave or drag them super far away and hope they starve lol.

To be a kindom you need to be able to constantly win battles with minimal losses, so really you need to use mostly ranged units (including horse archers) and now how to position them and move them to get the most kills and less losses. Infantry and Cavalry just die too much in current game versions.

 

[AngryPanCake]

@Ananda_The_Destroyer
Thank you for the detailed information.
At this stage, I will remain a vassal even though I just captured a castle on my own. The king decided to keep it to himself. When I tried the council/election option to give it to another person, I only had 8% chance of winning the election. So the king kept it.
I assume the way to get a fief from the king/queen is to "suck up to him/her"? what kinda sucking up do I need to do?

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

I assume the way to get a fief from the king/queen is to "suck up to him/her"? what kinda sucking up do I need to do?

When you have no fief you get extra priority for a new fief, what I do is just defeat parties for influence, no siege as vassal, let them do all the siege and don't worry about it. They will likely give yo a fief they take on the border, then when they take other fiefs near it, you will get priority point for having a fief near the new fief too. I don't ever raise relation with the king or anyone else out of my way and I can get many fiefs still. I don't really know the details of how much relation influences clans voting for you, but in general joining them in a battle they might lose give you relation, giving them small gift (money, items) in barter gives a little, sometimes they have quests for you, marrying someone in their clan gives a large boost, breaking them out of prison is a large boost, defeating them in battle and release them after is a decent boost but obviously won't work for faction mates.

 

[AngryPanCake]

@Ananda_The_Destroyer
Hey there, I wanted to give you some update about the discussion we had:
While a vassal, I pushed for peace and thought I might talk some noble lady to marry me. Started the courtship thing and was successful as she said I needed to talk to her father. My plan was maybe she would inherit the fief after the dad dies, but then I was not sure how long before he died (would be cool to have some new content that may allow "assassinations" or something and hasten the dad's demise so the daughter would inherit the fief, therefore me in charge...). Anyway, I then "bought" the King's daughter for $11,000 and lo and behold, I was granted the newly recaptured castle with 85% of the nobles in my favor few days later!

It is a border fief like you said earlier and now I'm rushing to build up a strong garrison. According to the posts I read, war usually restart pretty quickly.

Q: if your castle is besieged, how do you take charge of its defense?

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

My plan was maybe she would inherit the fief after the dad dies, but then I was not sure how long before he died

This stuff doesn't actually happen sadly, she becomes your clan when she marries you and the game treats it completely separate. Even if you marry a widow with children, the children stay in their old clan, even if that clan get wiped out and the children "get lost" even though their mother lives.

Q: if your castle is besieged, how do you take charge of its defense?

What I do is always stop them in the field and also to be aggressive and stop armies from becoming very large. If they ever do attack a fief I'm at I sally out to fight an open battle, I don't think the defensive siege battle is very good, although some people have made videos showing how you can exploit it. If it ever is a giant army like 1k+ I will just kills as many of them as I can with Horse archers and then retreat and do it again until I can finish them off.

Hopefully someone else can tell you about actually fighting a defensive siege.