Making the most of being marshall

[Katana_Geldar]

To my astonishment, I've been made marshall of Swadia. Maybe it's due to my high renown or the fact that I'm one of the few people who doesn't sit on their bum in Praven and do nothing while the kingdom is taken away from us.

So basically, I want to get back our old lands and start to expand. If you want to do it well, you need to do it yourself. 

So really, I want to get back Suno, Uxhaul and Dhirrim, as well as quite a few of the castles in the Suno-Uxhaul area. Most of them have been lost to the Rhodoks, with the exception of Dhirrim which fell to the Khergits just before we declared peace with them. I'm actually rather pissed off at losing Dhirrim, as I helped take it and King Fatty gave it to himself with a piss-poor garrison.

So, anyone have tips on being marshall and getting these Swadian lords of their lazy backsides? I had planned on making my own kingdom soon, but I don't want the Rhodoks to take over.

 

[Remedius]

Swadia lost all those core towns in my game too. I never accepted marshalcy because of the dreaded controversy rating you get if you fail to protect swadian territory ( stops you being given fiefs lowers chance of becoming marshal gain and takes ages to get rid of).

But as you know sometimes swadia needs leadership and after the long running staple marshal - haringoth was defeated the post was offered to me. Swadia at the time largely existed cos of my fiefs and if it got any worse I may as well start my own kingdom!

I have to be honest - I began and did really badly - this was because we were at war with three factions - swadian unity was really bad and only three lords joined the campaign.

We were destroyed near halmar my home and it was terrible but I had learned the importance of a world view when marshal - ie wait for a good time - like when swadia is at war with only one enemy - so that's what I did.

I rampaged through enemy territory winning back all the lost cities and taking a few of their castles too. I was so good after a nit of practice I could fight two factions at a time 

I'd recommend : --

keeping good relations with all the swadian lords as far as poss

Picking good muster points for start of campaign so attack flight are both possible

Ensure you have lots of money beforehand

Utilise the lord chat panel to instruct and give orders ie I'm going to x please stay and defend y

The king is a prime mover with 500 men or so but is slow - worth waiting if you have a big foe or castle to take

 

[Gerard Mulder]

Being marshal is a great feature of the game and is worth exploring a lot. You need to prepare though, make sure you have some friendly lords that will listen to your summons. Make sure you have lots of cash (emprisoned lords ans prisoners may be sufficient but not until you get the hang of it). Especially make sure the king loves you and follows you around like a puppydog. His huge army will be yours to command. The best thing is that all lords troops will follow your orders during sieges and battles, krank up the battlesize and enjoy the ride...
 


This is an old post I made:
There are some good reasons for being a marshall early game before you and your warband have reached god status...

1 It is fantastic to command all troops of your allies as well as your own in a big battle.
I once fought the entire Vaegir army of 1200 with about 600 combined nords, keeping my own guys alive was as big of a challenge as killing those enemies. One of my favorite warband experiences of all time!

2 Even though the fellow lords troops dilute your own elite band of companions and top tire troops the fellow counts or yarls swing a mean axe in sieges, early game it is a pleasure to take towns and castles with them as long as you gain a toehold on the wall in the first attack... you can do this if you provide some good fire cover for them to get up the ladder in one piece.  For example most Nord Jarls are infantry (hotkey 1) Make a heroes hotkey or a small band of sappers and send them up the ladder first, then send in the jarls holding they fire as they storm up the ladder killing all that oppose them....

3 There is nothing like bringing an enemy land to its knees by killing their main army first and then sending your lords deep into enemy lands to pillage villages crippling the rebuild of their main army while you take castle after castle. The lords that pillaged will reward you with +3 after you speak with them for your good advice.

4 There is very little like sending the lords that grumble against you (relations cannot be too negative) deep into enemy lands to pillage only to get captured by the enemy, realeasing them later gives you mayor pluses on relations and while locked up they are out of your hair.
 
5 When you are marshal you can command everyone to join your feasts

6  When you are marshal, there are many opportunities to join other lords in battle and have them love you for it.

7 When you are marshal the Kings huge warband is at your command and you can visit him a lot so he can compliment you on your achievements and give you many pluses on relations.

8 When marshal you can ask other lords for jobs and make their armies strong with your knights while earning lots of respect.

9 When Marshal you can expand your kingdom so you King gives you lots of land and money for the land he did not give you.

10 When marshal you do not have to ignore the marshal summonings or if you do show up, risk your relations by ignoring the annoying side quests that keep you out of the fighting and deprive you of the glory you deserve.

Being marshal rocks! the only problem is keeping your purse filled and the fact that you are creating a monster in building your kingdom up when later you will have to tear it all down again....

 

[Katana_Geldar]

So, in short, being marshall is a great path to my own kingdom? Thanks for the advice! 

 

[Remedius]

No no - beware

Controversy cripples your chances of getting fiefs

Dumbass lords take ages to garrison fiefs meaning you have to babysit

Takes loads of resources - men to supply core garrisons at the places you take - money to hire and upkeep an army as big as you can field

You have to make runs home to drop off captured lords and head off attacks on your own fiefs

You can recruit from local villages but those troops will hate fighting their own kind

 

[Velax]

Controversy is not that big a deal. It goes away fast, and even faster if you reverse whatever you did to get the controversy. Ie, if you lose a town and get controversy, take it back and your controversy goes down again.

 

[nikosierra125]

i loved beign marshal but as mentioned above i destroyed rohodoks , the nords and vaegirs so that by the time i wanted to start my own kingdom i had 3 monster factions that kept masacering me andmy little army lol

 

[A_Dane]

I've just had to abandon the Swadians. 3/4 of the lords are sitting on their asses doing nothing, we've lost uxkhal 3 times, suno been besieged 2, and dhirim has been cut off.
Also, i lost my only fief, and when i managed to take back uxkhal i was awarded nothing.
Time to serve no one again!

 

[Velax]

I've just had to abandon the Swadians. 3/4 of the lords are sitting on their asses doing nothing...

The advantage of being marshal. People will actually follow you and do stuff. Even Swadians.

 

[A_Dane]

forgot to add to my post lol: I was Marshall for a while, (when we took back uxkhal the first time), but then they all disbanded, we lost more territory, and lord clais (may his soul burn eternally in the calradian equivelant to hell), was made Marshall.

He went on to charge deep into Rhodok territory with the 1/4 of the lords that actually fight, I've got no idea what happened to them. Meanwhile i was left to do hit n runs on roughly 2500 enemies on my own. (Rhodoks, Sarranids and Nords.
It's a sad, sad day.

 

[Falcon Critical]

Being a marshall is hard if you have wars on multiple fronts, it was frustrating for me as Nord marshall when we were fighting both Vaegir and Swadia. Luckily however, Ragnar made peace with the Vaegir and with our war reduced to one front it was very easy.

If you have a large battlesize you can wipe out large chunks of the enemy army during siege defenses.  When you kill over a thousand of them and then lead a marshalled army into their lands, there's really not much they can do as you steamroll the faction out of existence.

But yeah, as Swadia this would be hard since its rare to have a war with just a single faction.

 

[The Dominator]

I have noticed somthing. Whenever Dhirrim is lost ANOTHER faction declears war on Swadia ive tested this 6 times ALWAYS happends.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Well, currently we're at peace. I took Suno (took me a few goes) and now we're at peace and I'm still marshall!  I resigned so I could have some time to rebuild my troops in the peace time and have a feast, and then I was offered it again.

You ever been in one of those clubs where nobody ever does anything but you because you want to be part of that club? That's what swadia is like.

 

[Falcon Critical]

Swadia actually turned their lives around in my game, they were donwn to just Praven and one castle, suddenly they had sieges Suno, then Uxhal, then one of the little castles by Dhirim.  Someone gave them the talk of their lives because they were campaigning like their lives were depending on it.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

I want to give them that talk, and big stick.

 

[Puritan]

I've just had to abandon the Swadians. 3/4 of the lords are sitting on their asses doing nothing...

The advantage of being marshal. People will actually follow you and do stuff. Even Swadians.

I never have trouble with this when I have 1,000+ re-known


I've never been Marshall where I wasn't also the ruler of a faction, and in that case all the lords are with me because they like me.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Problem is, I haven't had the chance to rebel yet. I have three castle and a city, all freely given to mae as I was leading the army when I conquered them. The last castle I wanted to go someone else, but ended up coming back to me anyway because of hy high renown. 

 

[Velax]

Swadia actually turned their lives around in my game, they were donwn to just Praven and one castle, suddenly they had sieges Suno, then Uxhal, then one of the little castles by Dhirim.  Someone gave them the talk of their lives because they were campaigning like their lives were depending on it.

Similar thing in my game. They were down to just Haringoth castle and for months kept sending 1000+ armies over to siege Praven. I didn't want to wipe them out and finally managed to make peace with them. They immediately declared war on the Rhodoks and within a couple of weeks have taken Yalen and Maras castle.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Strange activties of the AI, me thinks.

 

[nikosierra125]

i used to be too  scared to go off and make my own faction (i went bankrupts after a while and i could NEVER take my own castle)

but now that you can invest in buisness its a lot easyer!!!