One of my Vassals has hardly any men.

[TehAce]

I gave him a Castle and 1 village but he never seems to build any armies. His castle is always empty so I'am the one trying to protect his ass. The max amount of people I ever see him with is around 30. How do you get your vassals to recruit more people?

 

[Fb skillz]

Idk exactly how, through my experiences the vassals are dumbasses and rely entirely on the king. Have you ever talked to a vassal and clicked the give troops option (that way you can choose how powerful his/her armies are) otherwise if you would like your vassals to start out with more men (if they are a hero npc thats been in your party for a while now) increase their charisma/leadership skills

 

[NJSQRL]

Idk exactly how, through my experiences the vassals are dumbasses and rely entirely on the king. Have you ever talked to a vassal and clicked the give troops option (that way you can choose how powerful his/her armies are) otherwise if you would like your vassals to start out with more men (if they are a hero npc thats been in your party for a while now) increase their charisma/leadership skills

Leadership is greyed out for heroes.

That said I am unsure how this works exactly but I have noticed that the more lands I grant my vassels the larger their armies become (slowly).

My suggestions:
1. Make sure he has the land, my game would often glitch and despite my giving my vassal the fief when we took it when I went back to the town my court was in I would see that it was still unassigned.

2. Make sure that you do not currently have a campaign going... they will occasionally break off from you to go build their armies even in campaign but I believe it is only when their troops reach a critical % of what the game will allow them to carry, I also believe this is in part depending on their relations towards you. I saw Matheld get down to 25 troops and still join my campaign once (100 relation) yet other lords who had only lost a few from where I had seen them last would not join (10-20 relation).  If you release them from the campaign they will go do whatever it is they need to do.

3. Give them another fief... seems to me like the more fiefs they have the larger the army... if this does not work for you then follow #4

4. Give em the boot... some lords are just not worth the trouble they cause. You may lose some honor and maybe a few relation points with his friends but you will get the lands back and can then give them to a more deserving lord.

3.

 

[Fb skillz]

Idk exactly how, through my experiences the vassals are dumbasses and rely entirely on the king. Have you ever talked to a vassal and clicked the give troops option (that way you can choose how powerful his/her armies are) otherwise if you would like your vassals to start out with more men (if they are a hero npc thats been in your party for a while now) increase their charisma/leadership skills

Leadership is greyed out for heroes.

That said I am unsure how this works exactly but I have noticed that the more lands I grant my vassels the larger their armies become (slowly).

My suggestions:
1. Make sure he has the land, my game would often glitch and despite my giving my vassal the fief when we took it when I went back to the town my court was in I would see that it was still unassigned.

2. Make sure that you do not currently have a campaign going... they will occasionally break off from you to go build their armies even in campaign but I believe it is only when their troops reach a critical % of what the game will allow them to carry, I also believe this is in part depending on their relations towards you. I saw Matheld get down to 25 troops and still join my campaign once (100 relation) yet other lords who had only lost a few from where I had seen them last would not join (10-20 relation).  If you release them from the campaign they will go do whatever it is they need to do.

3. Give them another fief... seems to me like the more fiefs they have the larger the army... if this does not work for you then follow #4

4. Give em the boot... some lords are just not worth the trouble they cause. You may lose some honor and maybe a few relation points with his friends but you will get the lands back and can then give them to a more deserving lord.

3.

Sorry about that error im new to the game, but from some experience you can give the character some troops and if you give them better troops ( along with the relation he mentioned is needed ) hey will be kickass in bad situations

 

[Azrooh]

AI characters gain larger armies through renown. Leadership only gives 5 troops per point and morale doesn't effect AI, so it's not really worth it.
The higher level a companion is when you make him into a lord, the more renown he has off the bat. I think it's something like 15 or 25 per level.
The only other ways for a lord to gain renown is to win a tournament or host a feast. AI lords can gain renown by 'surviving' their marshalship without being kicked out, but that doesn't work for player lords.

 

[Handel]

The only other ways for a lord to gain renown is to win a tournament or host a feast. AI lords can gain renown by 'surviving' their marshalship without being kicked out, but that doesn't work for player lords.

If I change the marshal does the old marshal get renown or it counts as "kicked out"? Also do they (the existing AI lords) gain renown by wining tournaments too?

BTW - I am sure the number of troops as all don't depend on the number of fiefs the lord has but on the overall strength of the realm and towns are much more valuable then the castles.

 

[Aure]

The AI Lords party' receive a bonus to the max number of troops they have as follows:
Kings +100
Marshal +20
Every Town/Castle +20

Base size is 10, 5 units per leadership, 1 per 25 renown. (taken from TweakMB)

An AI lord increases his army on his own when he sits in his town/castle. He usually does this on his own when he is low on troops, and rarely if he has a decent army. If you order him around all the time he will not have time to build up his army. You can give him a direct order to go to his fief so that he can build up.

Also do they (the existing AI lords) gain renown by wining tournaments too?

IIRC they get 15 renown for tournament win. When having my own kingdom i start a lot of feast. During these you can play ~4 tournaments per day. When a decent number of lords get there you can start playing. If in the last round its me and one of my lords i let him win.