Antaeus
Squire
As an experiment, I decided to see how many cities I could obtain without declaring a kingdom, or going to war, or joining a faction, as a way to flesh out a trade focused play through.
It took 700 game days for me to spot the first rebellion. By that stage the Khuzaits and Asari had split most of the Southern Empire.
Onira rebelled, and with only 80 defenders and me being quick, I could declare my intentions and capture the city with my 180 party. I put an Empire wife in command of the city, loaded up the garrison with recruits and mercenaries, set the fairgrounds playing and went back to my trading.
Myzea rebelled, and with only 50 defenders, I quickly pounced. Placed one of my companions as governor, set my brother up with a party nearby to improve security, set the fairgrounds playing, did a couple of quests, and went back to trading.
Phycaon rebelled. Hey there... now things are going well. I had to dump a companion to get another Empire one, sorry Blah of the two swords, you've outlasted your usefulness. My sister gets a party to work the looters and I'm back to trading.
The Asari have just taken Danustica. I'll be "trading" in that vicinity for a while I think. As the three way war between the Khuzaits Southern Empire and Asari bounces back and forth, I'm setting up a non-aligned trade focussed empire in between them, and there's nothing they can do. It's much better for the people anyway - uninterupted growth and prosperity for ever - only I can provide for them like this, they love me, flags and parades etc... Eventually I'm going to run out of family members and companions to govern my new empire, so it will reach a natural limit of expansion unless I pick up a few Asari cities that I can leave governorless (my character is Asari)
By the time I feel like declaring a kingdom, I'm going to have close to 300 trade, and already own as many cities as I can find in the time it takes for the last 50 trade points grind. I'll already have thousands of influence points from all those cities and their forums going unused. I'll already have a full army's worth of family parties patrolling and questing as they see fit. Unfortunately, I wont have subverted any castles yet.
Two questions come to mind:
It took 700 game days for me to spot the first rebellion. By that stage the Khuzaits and Asari had split most of the Southern Empire.
Onira rebelled, and with only 80 defenders and me being quick, I could declare my intentions and capture the city with my 180 party. I put an Empire wife in command of the city, loaded up the garrison with recruits and mercenaries, set the fairgrounds playing and went back to my trading.
Myzea rebelled, and with only 50 defenders, I quickly pounced. Placed one of my companions as governor, set my brother up with a party nearby to improve security, set the fairgrounds playing, did a couple of quests, and went back to trading.
Phycaon rebelled. Hey there... now things are going well. I had to dump a companion to get another Empire one, sorry Blah of the two swords, you've outlasted your usefulness. My sister gets a party to work the looters and I'm back to trading.
The Asari have just taken Danustica. I'll be "trading" in that vicinity for a while I think. As the three way war between the Khuzaits Southern Empire and Asari bounces back and forth, I'm setting up a non-aligned trade focussed empire in between them, and there's nothing they can do. It's much better for the people anyway - uninterupted growth and prosperity for ever - only I can provide for them like this, they love me, flags and parades etc... Eventually I'm going to run out of family members and companions to govern my new empire, so it will reach a natural limit of expansion unless I pick up a few Asari cities that I can leave governorless (my character is Asari)
By the time I feel like declaring a kingdom, I'm going to have close to 300 trade, and already own as many cities as I can find in the time it takes for the last 50 trade points grind. I'll already have thousands of influence points from all those cities and their forums going unused. I'll already have a full army's worth of family parties patrolling and questing as they see fit. Unfortunately, I wont have subverted any castles yet.
Two questions come to mind:
- Now that I can conquer cities without fighting any factions other than battle hardened rebels in fancy robes, has anyone thought of a way to subvert castles without becoming a kingdom and trading for them?
- Is there any point to me becoming a kingdom other than being able to develop policy, take on pesky nobles and form armies?
- A third question for free... this kind of subversion isn't really legit. Is it something the devs should nerf in some way? or will the natural limits of my companion size ensure rebellions will prevent me slowly taking much of the map?
- A fourth question edited in because I thought of it... will anything happen to all my pointless influence points if I declare kingdom or join a faction?
- A 5th question... what happens to my cities if I become a mercenary?
Last edited: