Need tips for starting my kingdom

[Kreigar]

I'm playing and loving this mod, but I need some guidance on how to start my own kingdom.  I've read that you can take a castle without being a vassal and start your kingdom that way.  I've also heard that it's best to be liked by the towns and lords that surround the castle you take.

Without playing that far into the mod, that sounds pretty difficult.  How can you take a castle in a faction that loves you?  If you're friendly with everyone, how can you even attack the castle?  Also, won't all the lords of that faction hate you once you attack one of their castles?  And do I need to take a castle in the faction I want to get most of my troops from?  What's the culture option I see on the kingdom management screen?

I just need some guidance on how to select a castle to start my kingdom and the exact methods I can use to go about attacking that castle.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[Atraphoenix]

first save a lot of money, more than 200k even 500k is advisable.
hire lots of pikemen or any infantry unit that has polearms.
and of course lots of archers.
and at the beginning collect 16 companion especially jeremus and artimener (I have not played for a long time one healer one engineer)
then train them to be a good archer and after their arrows finished give them a polearm as a secondary weapon.
and practice ctrl+H  the only cheat I use until somebody make an immortal potion or gear that I tried once but failed to add HP via armors or regenerate it. Chel did it but It is very hard to play his mod without cheating. plus fallen ones scares me 
if you want to be a hero put points into DEX if you like leading other than fighting put points into CHA to hire more troops.

 

[Earl of Swadia]

Well basically: [list type=decimal]
[*]Build up a force of soldiers. I especially like archers (try them out in the Overpopulation add-on: one of the pinned threads) but as Atraphoenix said, pikemen are also very useful in poking people on the walls.
[*]Save up a lot of money. Tournaments and scorchers are a good start, your peasants will soon turn to seasoned soldiers.
[*]Through all this time I recommend staying neutral. The third step would be to travel around inspecting different castles. You should be familiar with some already but take a look at their layout. Some castles have very steep ladders surrounded by towers (extremely difficult!) but others are quite open and have few major defense points (extremely easy).
[*]Then decrease your relations with the kingdom that owns that castle. Easiest way is to wait for one of their caravans at a town and simply take some of their money (I think it's the toll option). Then beseige the castle.
[*]While beseiging, make sure you participate as well. With a good bow, try shooting down as many archers as you can. It can make quite a difference!
[*]As soon as you've got the castle, go to the camp menu => kingdom management and recruit a lord. He'll arrive hopefully in a couple of days to help you defend.
[*]Voila! There's your kingdom. Rapid expansion is usually the next thing to do because you're now at war. Use your new lord to help you take over surrounding castles (order him to follow you). If you can survive to build up a strong defensive screen of castles then have a break and decide what you're goal is next. Calradia awaits your taking!
[/list]

This method works without cheats (though it is still difficult)

 

[Gunnar von Wippding]

- look at the start  who fights who. the best is all fight against all.
- find your heros and begin jobs for towns and villiges .
- Take all farmmen refugies and Villiger an train .
- if you have 5o men, so form a patol and hidden they. (i made a patol from english, french usw.) but never do to much diffent troops in one pat.
  made this if you have 1000 men ... is only one 3-4 hours.
- Look for a nice town or castle (fresh sieged). made the fraction angry and attack .
- thats is called blitzkrieg ... if you capture 4-5 castles or twons in short time, the frac call for peace .
-now you have a nice town an few castle  an peace 

 

[thrymangor25]

I have some question regarding player kingdoms in this mod:

1) How do I change the name of the kingdom? I captured the Nordic castle over in the top corner of the screen to give myself the best defensive position as possible, given only two bridges lead to it, and am now dubbed "The Nordic Empire." I would like to change the title.

2) Is it possible to change the color? Right now it is dark blue and gets hard to read information when put against castles or the terrain.

3) What is the terrain editor option for that appears next to camp in the lower left corner?

4) Will all of my vassals be called Knights instead of Lords? Just curious there really...

5) What does the culture option do from the kingdom management screen. The thread creator asked that I am pretty sure, but I did not ever see an answer.

Thank you everyone for any help!!

 

[Earl of Swadia]

1) I'm not sure. The usual tweaks don't work because Nick made it a script.

2) Not sure about that either

3) You've got edit mode on. When you start up Mount and Blade, click configure => Advanced => remove tick in edit mode

4) No. There are a few knights, then it goes to earls I think, then to dukes etc... (Not 100% sure as I havn't played for a while ).

5) It lets you choose what culture your kingdom uses. Default is Swadian. If you change the culture, your lords will use troops from that culture.

Hope this helps!

 

[thrymangor25]

Yes, thank you very much, 3/5 isn't too bad as far as first replies go!

 

[nath9091]

How can you take a castle in a faction that loves you?  If you're friendly with everyone, how can you even attack the castle? Also, won't all the lords of that faction hate you once you attack one of their castles?

I think that recommendation was that you try and take a castle that's close to the border of a faction that likes you. This reduces the amount of armies you'll be fighting later when you'll be under huge siege from the entire angry factions troops. So don't attack or annoy the friendly faction, just take a castle close to their border.

And do I need to take a castle in the faction I want to get most of my troops from?

This is unwise, because (I think) you'll lose the ability to recruit from that faction except from owned territory. As I said before it's easier to take castles close to the border of a friendly faction both because they are less likely to attack you and also because you can get replacement troops from them.

I just need some guidance on how to select a castle to start my kingdom and the exact methods I can use to go about attacking that castle.

Selecting a Castle:
1. Is it close to the border of a faction that you're friendly with and/or getting most of your army from? This is good.
2. Is the method of assault by ladder or siege tower? You really, really want to be fighting ladder battles.
3. Are there that many troops in it? The lower the better.
Attacking a Castle/Town:
1. It helps a lot if you can use a bow/crossbow. You're way more accurate than even the best NPC archers in siege battles.
2. Amass a lot of good archers. I personally like Rhodok Sharpshooters, but try others if you want.
3. Siege a castle with a ladder battle and attack!
4. On the map starting get everyone to hold position and then have your infantry run back to the back of the map (Retreat 10 paces or something multiple times). This avoids them taking casualties during the next phase.
5. Order your archers to spread out and start firing. If you have a bow or crossbow aim for the enemy archers first. If your archers kill rate is low consider moving them forward although if the enemy still has a lot of active archers it's usually not worth the casualties.
6. Once you or your archers run out of ammo retreat.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 with the same castle until there are very few enemies left (this is up to you depending on the size of your army)
8. Storm the place with your infantry! Good luck.
If you succeeded congrats you're got your first castle. Don't love it too much though, a 200+ war party is probably going to come your way very soon. 

In my game I use ctrl-h, ctrl-t (truesight and teleport;you can't really trust your lords to defend your territory that well) and ctrl-x (for money) liberally. You might also want to consider changing the amount of renown needed for an extra party slot. I am level 24, have a 151 party limit and own 17 settlements in Swadia and Vaegir territory. If you end up having to fight a siege tower battle then your troops do nothing until the siege tower is in place while being covered in arrows. This makes doing step 7 a lot harder. I would recommend avoiding them until they're the only resisting settlements left and then take along a big army and prepare for losses.

 

[lala]

how do i change my fuction color ??

 

[vinmikeson]

hello how to recruit a lords?in native because i want to have my own lords and i have castles and i have a lot  of money and sodiers i want swadians....
replay plz!!!!!

 

[Lord Filip the Mighty]

I have a question.
- When i start my own kingdom example '' Kingdom of Rhodok Rebels '' How can i get lords that will be my Vasals? Like they will work for me? Or can i rename the kingdom?

 

[Cormac250]

In native I don't think you can recruit any lords unless you work for a claimant in which case you persuade enemy lords to join your side.

 

[Argeus the Paladin]

On an entirely off-topic note, I'd rather serve King Harlaus loyally. It warms my heart every time my character meet His Majesty and gets a "If it isn't my brave champion [character name here" greeting.

But if I do have revoke my oath to start my own kingdom, then my 200+ Swadian Knights will certainly get me somewhere.

 

[nilloc93]

I have a question.
- When i start my own kingdom example '' Kingdom of Rhodok Rebels '' How can i get lords that will be my Vasals? Like they will work for me? Or can i rename the kingdom?

Camp, take an action(i think), Kingdom Leader Options

also another good way to start a kingdom is to revoke your oath when you don't have a town given to you

and Nath i have a 1 town 3 castle rebel kingdom and i DON"T cheat, cheats kill the game, tournys are for money and mousing over you castles every so often is how to stop attacks

 

[Alavaria]

The third step would be to travel around inspecting different castles. You should be familiar with some already but take a look at their layout. Some castles have very steep ladders surrounded by towers (extremely difficult!) but others are quite open and have few major defense points (extremely easy).

The ones with the very long, steep ladders along with two towers covering them are actually some of the best. Load up on a TON of archers, and about 20 heavy infantry. Make sure you have an INT companion with 10 engineering. You can thus build ladders very fast, allowing you to assault the castle several times in a day,

Once you've shot all your bolts, retreat, and reassault. Over and over. When you've taken said castle, you can see how easy it is to fight off even hundreds of enemies. Put, oh, 50 archers at the top of the garrison list, make sure you have 30+ heavy knights or such in your army. When the enemy assaults, they'll have to walk up said long steep ladder under heavy fire. Most of the time, quite a lot of them won't ever make it to the top and bodies will just keep on raining down off the ladder. (Tell infantry to charge, so they pack themselves at the ladder)

If you have a good (cross)bow, then cover the top of the ladder - anyone who makes it up will not be able to easily get onto the walls (jam packed with your infantry) should be quite weakened, just one headshot will down them. Polearm infantry are nice, but I usually rather leave foot archers in the garrison (and some random heavy infantry) while I myself carry a heavy cavalry force to stay fast. Ideally garrison 25-30 archers and 30+ heavy infantry, top up with 200+ peasants or something. The biggest trick is waiting for the enemy to be silly enough to assault.

50 archers, maybe 30-50 heavy infantry and knights, along with some fodder (for battle advantage) in the garrison and tactics for yourself (get 10 tactics on the character with engineering) and 10(+4) surgery on yourself, you'll be able to kill hundreds of heavy troops with very few losses. Even better, it'll be 300 of their dead for 20 wounded and 5 dead of yours (usually archers, sometimes the enemy shoots back). And then begin jailing enemy Lords in great numbers, the same castle is just fine, but make sure to add more infantry and stuff. With this way, you can crush an entire faction's campaign full of Lords, and shouldn't have to do it more than once or twice if you lock them securely in jail.