lords of my kingdom

[Lord Duck]

so yeah i just started the my own kingdom (wiped out the nords ahh yeaaa) and well i got like 5 lords, of which 2 of them have like 30+ relationship and the rest around 0, and 1 has -50 or something. So i was wondering does it really matter if i keep my lords unhappy? And also, what is the best way apart from giving them fiefs and partying, to increase the relationship?


oh and also, i took all of the nords' lands and it doesnt say anything like theyre defeated, so i was wondering how do i defeat them?

 

[Caba`drin]

so yeah i just started the my own kingdom (wiped out the nords ahh yeaaa) and well i got like 5 lords, of which 2 of them have like 30+ relationship and the rest around 0, and 1 has -50 or something. So i was wondering does it really matter if i keep my lords unhappy?

Yes. If they get down below -50, they'll start to defect from your kingdom. If they have castles or towns, they'll take them with them when they go.

And also, what is the best way apart from giving them fiefs and partying, to increase the relationship?

The other way is to assist them in battles.

oh and also, i took all of the nords' lands and it doesnt say anything like theyre defeated, so i was wondering how do i defeat them?

There's a...quirk...(I'd say bug) in this as of the most recent versions. Lords can respawn even if their faction has no lands, so you'll have to capture every single lord for the faction to be defeated. Or, see the .TXT Tweak link in my sig and do the fix for defeated lords so they can't respawn if their faction no longer has any fiefs.

And, final note, these questions are perfect for the stickied Q&A thread.

 

[Lord Duck]

so yeah i just started the my own kingdom (wiped out the nords ahh yeaaa) and well i got like 5 lords, of which 2 of them have like 30+ relationship and the rest around 0, and 1 has -50 or something. So i was wondering does it really matter if i keep my lords unhappy?

Yes. If they get down below -50, they'll start to defect from your kingdom. If they have castles or towns, they'll take them with them when they go.

And also, what is the best way apart from giving them fiefs and partying, to increase the relationship?

The other way is to assist them in battles.

oh and also, i took all of the nords' lands and it doesnt say anything like theyre defeated, so i was wondering how do i defeat them?

There's a...quirk...(I'd say bug) in this as of the most recent versions. Lords can respawn even if their faction has no lands, so you'll have to capture every single lord for the faction to be defeated. Or, see the .TXT Tweak link in my sig and do the fix for defeated lords so they can't respawn if their faction no longer has any fiefs.

And, final note, these questions are perfect for the stickied Q&A thread.

So, should i just kick the lords who have like -40 to -50 relation? And i should also just drive around and capture all of them? but what if i have a good relationship with them? and also (i thought it was kinda weird) i wanted to get 2 nord vassals with whom i have like 20 relation, but when i ask them how they feel about king ragnar, they say long may he live!@!@!@ But, they dont even have any land :O so is there a way to get them to join me?


sorry for all these questions <3 warband

 

[tzlop]

For the kicking vassals one, if those -50relation lords own any castle/towns then kick them but if they own only villages keep them until they defect on their own as other vasals tends to question their position whenever you indicate a vassal for treason so not suggested unless needed.


For the two Nords vassal not joining you while they own no land is because of their personalities, they should be either upstanding or good-natured and should say something like "kingship and lordship are institued to keep peace..."  or  "you should keep in faith with..."    These lords are the best lords to recruit as their relation to you is based on your honour points and will stick to you forever once you have over 300 honour points (3 honour per 1 relation)  but can be a pain in the ass when trying to recruit them and often are the last lords still loyal to their king. 

 

[tzlop]

Probably didn't state the second one clear enough, but if your at war with them simply keep kicking their butt till they hate their king and then ask to join you (-1 relation with their king per 1 defeat)  and since they have no land there is no other way to recruit them honestly unless you cheat.

 

[Lord Duck]

OK that was really helpful thanks man!

 

[SkyChef]

For those Lords having negative relationship, I suggest to look at their character to see whether you can save them or not. Sometimes the fault is entirely yours because you accepted them when you have no unassigned fief left and that will drive the relationship down faster than anything. Once their relationship with you is negative, they won't come to your feast nor answer to your request of assembling army. Instead they will run around on their own with minimum troop and get killed all the time. That will drive the relationship even worse.  So this is my way to deal with lords:

1) Look at their name and find about their character, before talking to them. If they have high renown, low rivalries, recruit them and try to build relationship. Otherwise don't talk to them and let them rot waiting in my castle. The worst part of this strategy is they just wait there forever and occupy the room so my lords can't show up during a feast. Maybe I have to say no to them. Or maybe there is a waiting room.

2) I only take lords when I have unassigned village. Give them village first. Only give them castle or town once the relationship passing over 50. You just can't imagine how fast relationship going down when you have large territory and start giving fiefs to many of your vassals, hence starting a huge chain of reactions. I have one guy above 30 and his relationship dropped like a rock once he also got a few beaten in battles, having his castle taken away by enemy while I have 2 front wars.

3) Contrary to the single manual's post, those with village & castle show up at your feast (my game patch 1.143) so you can build relationship at will with all having positive relationship during feast. Only those with negative relationship will not show up. To maximize time, talk to them once a day then get your new recruits to hunt bandits, sea raiders etc those are close to where you hold the feast so you don't have to travel far to go back to your feast.

4) I only try to save those having less rivalries in their character report by finding where they are and ask them to follow me. For those who has high rivalries and I made mistake taking them w/o looking at their character (mostly at the start of my empire), I don't bother. Even if you try to set up to save them in battle, in my game, the positive increment of those is very low (only 1 point) and they said vile things to me after saving their butts (unrealistically because that's how lords got their heads chopped off and their families sold into slave in historical experience for doing thing thousand times less severe than that) while with those having positive relationship having more than 2-3 points. It's definitely not worth it to save them once the relationship goes below -10 and it will keep going down. You can also expedite the defection process by setting them up to run into enemies and let them getting killed, then come in cleaning up the enemies. One stone killed 2 birds. Hey I didn't become an emperor just because I play nice with people who hated me, right? 

 

[Lord Duck]

For those Lords having negative relationship, I suggest to look at their character to see whether you can save them or not. Sometimes the fault is entirely yours because you accepted them when you have no unassigned fief left and that will drive the relationship down faster than anything. Once their relationship with you is negative, they won't come to your feast nor answer to your request of assembling army. Instead they will run around on their own with minimum troop and get killed all the time. That will drive the relationship even worse.  So this is my way to deal with lords:

1) Look at their name and find about their character, before talking to them. If they have high renown, low rivalries, recruit them and try to build relationship. Otherwise don't talk to them and let them rot waiting in my castle. The worst part of this strategy is they just wait there forever and occupy the room so my lords can't show up during a feast. Maybe I have to say no to them. Or maybe there is a waiting room.

2) I only take lords when I have unassigned village. Give them village first. Only give them castle or town once the relationship passing over 50. You just can't imagine how fast relationship going down when you have large territory and start giving fiefs to many of your vassals, hence starting a huge chain of reactions. I have one guy above 30 and his relationship dropped like a rock once he also got a few beaten in battles, having his castle taken away by enemy while I have 2 front wars.

3) Contrary to the single manual's post, those with village & castle show up at your feast (my game patch 1.143) so you can build relationship at will with all having positive relationship during feast. Only those with negative relationship will not show up. To maximize time, talk to them once a day then get your new recruits to hunt bandits, sea raiders etc those are close to where you hold the feast so you don't have to travel far to go back to your feast.

4) I only try to save those having less rivalries in their character report by finding where they are and ask them to follow me. For those who has high rivalries and I made mistake taking them w/o looking at their character (mostly at the start of my empire), I don't bother. Even if you try to set up to save them in battle, in my game, the positive increment of those is very low (only 1 point) and they said vile things to me after saving their butts (unrealistically because that's how lords got their heads chopped off and their families sold into slave in historical experience for doing thing thousand times less severe than that) while with those having positive relationship having more than 2-3 points. It's definitely not worth it to save them once the relationship goes below -10 and it will keep going down. You can also expedite the defection process by setting them up to run into enemies and let them getting killed, then come in cleaning up the enemies. One stone killed 2 birds. Hey I didn't become an emperor just because I play nice with people who hated me, right? 

Ok thanks so when i want to get a good lord, i need to check if they have high renown and low controversy? and i basically just wiped out the swadians in 1 run so i have like 5 castles 2 towns and 10 villages unassigned, but almost all of my lords (which are 6 i think) support themselves xD so what should i do with that?

 

[SkyChef]

1) Yes, high renown, low controversy, and number of rivalries (shown under character). My criterion is, in order of priority: low number of rivalries, high relationship, high renown and last low controversy.
Ex1: Lord 1 has 1000 renown, 7 relationship, 3 rivalries, 0 controversy against Lord 2: 700 renown, 0 relationship, 7 rivalries, 0 controversy, I take Lord 1
Ex2: Lord 1 has 1000 renown, 5 relationship, 8 rivalries, 0 controversy against Lord 2: 700 renown, 0 relationship, 2 rivalries, 0 controversy, I might take Lord 2 if I plan a feast but mostly pass on both if I suspect that I'm going to be hit soon (peace with many nations too long).
And I notice that those guys have highest negative relationship with me always have the longest rivalry list in their character. All the lords have high relationship with me mostly have very low number of rivalries. Beware of those have rivalries with all kings (6) plus a bunch of lords. Those guys are the Lords you just don't want to deal with. Of course, these numbers  are just a rough guide so you have to tune to your liking.

2) No, you don't have to give them anything if you don't want to as long as each of them has one village under their belt. Keep the castle, town to your name and only give it to those have high relationship with you. But also be aware, high tax inefficiency with hit with a big club on your head when you have a lot of fiefs under your name. The more unassigned fiefs (villages) you have, the more you will attract flies over (and maybe a couple good looking birds)

 

[tzlop]

I'd like to add a little about the lords.  What Skychef said basically covered up all but what you can do is simply ignore their requests.  What I'm trying to say is that if a lord wishes to defect to your side, then you have to accept their request in order for them to serve under you and if you don't they simply sit in your castle waiting for as long as you want. ( I sometimes do that to get rid of certain lords or prevent them from going to another faction while I improve me relation with my other lords.) 

When one of your lords is the marshall then often the lord who has the highest renown that has a castle/town will host feast everytime unless you do (If your the marshall all the lords will simply be expecting your campaign call and no one will host feast even if your at peace with everyone.)  And if you can manage peace from time to time even if that high renown lord is a bad-tempered or quarrel-some type of lord they will gradually increase their relation with all your lords who goes to his feast. 

Also check with your wife( husband if your playing female) every once a while for ways to improve your standing and often you would get resolve dispute among your lords( If you succeed you not only gain renown + honour but the 2 lords will gain 20 relation with eachother which can be crucial sometimes as lords with -1 relation with eachother will not go to eachother's feasts).  And that is usually results high controversy on both sides and will not be voted for the next fief assigning and thus lowering their relation with you more ( cause you would always want to assign fiefs to the one with most vote for maximum relation bonus unless otherwise).

 

[SkyChef]

...
Also check with your wife( husband if your playing female) every once a while for ways to improve your standing and often you would get resolve dispute among your lords( If you succeed you not only gain renown + honour but the 2 lords will gain 20 relation with eachother which can be crucial sometimes as lords with -1 relation with eachother will not go to eachother's feasts).  And that is usually results high controversy on both sides and will not be voted for the next fief assigning and thus lowering their relation with you more ( cause you would always want to assign fiefs to the one with most vote for maximum relation bonus unless otherwise).

Yes, I'm glad you pick up that part.

 

[Lord Duck]

...
Also check with your wife( husband if your playing female) every once a while for ways to improve your standing and often you would get resolve dispute among your lords( If you succeed you not only gain renown + honour but the 2 lords will gain 20 relation with eachother which can be crucial sometimes as lords with -1 relation with eachother will not go to eachother's feasts).  And that is usually results high controversy on both sides and will not be voted for the next fief assigning and thus lowering their relation with you more ( cause you would always want to assign fiefs to the one with most vote for maximum relation bonus unless otherwise).

Yes, I'm glad you pick up that part.

wow you everyone has been really helpful this far but i still got one question: if i give the a town and a castle to myself, wont all the lords get - relationship with me?

 

[SkyChef]

No, you don't get relationship penalty but you will get big time tax inefficiency penalty. You will find that out when time comes.

Updated: I also notice that the hall of your capital can only hold so many people (14 guests exclude yourself & minister) so when Lords showing at your feast, it seems to be first come first serve. However those with highest relationship always seems to get there first and those with lowest relationship show up latest. That mean once the total number of guests is more than 14, they have to wait and if no one move then they will never show up to see you, even though they are in the capital. Not only that, those uninvited Lords seeking vassalage has even higher priority to occupy a place and those under 20 relationship score is automatically kicked out to yield room for those & those lords having higher rel. score. And this defeats the purpose of building relationship with those having lowest relationship but last in the queue during a feast. So what I did is tell those Lords having highest relationship (80+ to 100 and I have a few guys like that) to follow me or to patrol the nearby villages. That will empty some seats to reserve room for those having low relationship and is waiting in line. And I can also said to those I don't to want to hire to get lost to reserve even more room. It works very well because it's pretty safe when Lords passed over 20 relationship score.