So I have a Kingdom. What next?

[Screwball]

Like the title says, I have a kingdom, acquired mostly by being an opportunistic so-and-so and stealing stuff left almost undefended as a result of changing hands in a war between Mercia and East Anglia. Two cities and a castle, in fact, with three vassals who have armies in the mid hundreds. My question is... what next? I spent about 250 days building up funds, renown, honour, right to rule and troops for securing a kingdom in the first place, but in what was, perhaps, a minor mistake, gave no thought to what I was going to do once I had it. I've endured the first set of 'kill the upstart!' wars and am now at peace with everybody, so I can afford to pick my targets. The problem is, everybody seems to either be stronger than me, or allied with somebody who is.

Is there an effective way to build up the economy of cities and villages, beyond just building a mill and a trade guild? I've worked out that you can raise troops quickly by hiring patrols and then cannibalising them for soldiers you want, but I'm going to need more money to support enough troops to go conquering (and I really want to conquer Mercia, since mine and their fiefs are horribly mixed up and it looks very ugly on the map), and I can't see any way to get a steady enough income to support enough troops to beat my neighbours without already having eaten one of them. Can you use supply wagons to set up automated traders and the like? I've not played around with those yet.

 

[Pundragon]

Well, first things first. Have you invested any money into buying acres of land in your towns? It costs a bit at first but it pays off in the end. Also, have you set up the most profitable businesses you can in said towns? If you can afford it take some high quality troops over near Cantware and do some Frank bandit hunting. With good looting/inv. management skills you can make good money selling off the loot they drop. Also keep upgrading all the towns, fiefs, etc you own. You'll also want to patrol regularly to keep away bandits to increase trade from other places. If you owned a sea side town you would get a good bit more income as well. I'm sure there are other things worth doing too.

 

[Makememove]

If you want to raise an army, I suggest you go out for hunting franks and recruit them to yor party by talking to them (or by camp menu) an pack them into your towns/castle. They are the best troops you can ever wish for: Though they are naked sometimes, they always deal a whole lot of damage; when fighting against them, I always have way more casualties than fighting against any other army.

Second tip, if you want to fight an enemy lord, only take your high-tier troops with you (if its a real fight and you don´t just want to train). Mixing them with mediocre units makes them weak - the mediocre troops break and you also have casualties among you quality troops. Better fight with 100 men less than taking peasants into a fight.

Use Dena Raiders. They are as expensive as the Duguth Seaxe/Angle/Whatever, but they ALWAYS wear armour, while the Duguths often are only wearing their strange combat bathrobes (and die off quickly)