Tips -- Forging a strong Kingdom

[JohnT]

Getting closer to starting my own Kingdom, I have been browsing the forum for tips and the tips below is what I already know.

Would love to see more tips from experienced 1257AD players please?

Thanks in advance!

[list type=decimal]
[*]FUTURE LORDS (COMPANIONS) - Gather as many companions as possible. One can ennoble companions: It costs a relationship hit with other nobles, but apparently this penalty is not game killing
[*]FUTURE LORDS (NON-COMPANIONS) - Try to sign up as many 'noble lord's as possible, total number of lords, assuming each  can field a full party, increases the new Kingdom's total military capacity. One can increase the chances of signing up other nobles with the points listed below.
[*]RENOWN - Increase your renown as much as possible - it helps when enlisting other nobles to your cause
[*]RIGHT TO RULE (RtR) - The higher RtR one has, the better chances of being 'accepted' as another royal court throughout the world. Increasing this also helps for signing up other nobles
[*]TROOPS - Create an elite army, small in numbers due to limited 'storage' capacity one has BEFORE becoming a lord under another king. When one breaks off from current lord, before he has a chance to increase army size, fight might begin too early. So be ready.
[*]MONEY - Having loads of money helps in any war, but initially a new King will have relatively small income for huge expenses of maintaining an army and increasing its capacity
[*]GEAR- As one man man, King himself fighting in the battle should not matter too much, but especially for the first few initial battles it might make a difference due to limited army when breaking off. If the former master (King) comes after the breaking off Player, he will need to fight very difficult few battles.
[*]EARLY EXPANSION planning - Find a weak Kingdom which is fighting on several fronts and losing fiefs quick, and attack them.
[*]DIPLOMATS* - Train one or more companions to be your future diplomats. They will need high levels of persuasion skill to be effective. Note: This tip is from in-game conversation. Anyone know if this REALLY affects the success of diplomacy tasks?[/list]
* Looks like companion Ivailo Bardokva comes with Persuasion Skill 4.

Edit - added diplomats

 

[Othienka]

Why do you imply one cannot increase the stored army size exponentially while being a vassal? As long as you can take the wages hit, its fair game. So you might not be prepared but with enough fiefs, you could stand a chance of surviving the initial onslaught. Also, if the kingdom you are reblling from is too strong, remember to send a peace messenger [companion] right after rebelling, there have been many times when i haven't even fought with factions after rebelling from them and taking my fiefs with me.

 

[JohnT]

Not sure why did I imply one cannot increase stored army size, I will try that. Just to clarify, I did no try rebelling yet, this is all theoretical knowledge, uneducated guess actually...

One question then;

Now I am a vassal of England in this is new game again, and if this AI-cannot-take-city-and-castles bug gets fixed soon, I assume in a year they will have the whole Great Britain again, being the only local power (and also a global super power). If I rebel in these circumstances and send a companion as peace messenger;

Question 1) What are the chances of this being accepted? Is it simply a matter of trying again and again until they accept (which will happen relatively quick) ?

2) Assuming peace is obtained before they obliterate me, what are the chances they will attack again soon?
(Again in theory I would be the ideal target being so close and so weak)

Thanks a lot.

 

[Dynastia]

They'll probably grant peace in exchange for 15-20k gold. Less than a good set of armour.

Peace comes with a 20-day truce, after which they'll probably attack again soon unless you they're already swamped in wars, or unless you've raised your RtR and relations with the king. Consider waiting until England's at war with one or more factions before you rebel, and consider making a trek east and provoking a war with the Golden Horde before you rebel.

 

[JohnT]

They'll probably grant peace in exchange for 15-20k gold. Less than a good set of armour.

Peace comes with a 20-day truce, after which they'll probably attack again soon unless you they're already swamped in wars, or unless you've raised your RtR and relations with the king. Consider waiting until England's at war with one or more factions before you rebel, and consider making a trek east and provoking a war with the Golden Horde before you rebel.

Thanks for the tips, I will follow them. I'm in build up phase yet...

 

[JohnT]

anyone knows about the diplomats really? (see 1st post)

 

[Dudeski]

As a king stock up on ale and wine like there is no tomorrow. When you get a few vassals hold a feast and start spamming wine/ale presents to your lords. You can buy ale for under 95 gold and can get 3 points relations boost per present. A nice little trick to counter reputation drains for awarding fiefs.

Work your butt off to get one married lord as your vassal and send a present to his wife. With her around you can pay to fix any negative relations that you might experience during fief awarding.

I haven't tested it in this mod but in native and other mods lords lose relations with you if they are fiefless.  Easy way to avoid this is to not talk to the lords that come to you castle until you have a fief to give them.

Do not shy away from accepting lords that have up to a -5 relations with you. Feasts + present spamming can get that up quick and if you have a married lord you can get that lord to a 0 instantly for 5k.

 

[JohnT]

Thanks to all the information on these forums, my first attempt at kingship isn't going too bad. Managed to break away from England keeping fiefs while they were fighting against basically all neighbours Europe (France, Scotland, Wales, Gauls).

Assembled a big army (1000+) with 400 cavalry, trained for months, I can say it was a srong army although with hindsight I can say the cavalry ratio was a mistake (which was 100% of the army in the field). I am massively in debt now, with self-imposed method I borrowed from Italian bankers with yearly 20% interest rate, now I owe them 800.000 denars and don't know if I can repay. -26k monthly income right now with only 115k in purse.

So in summary, militarily fantastic campaign, economically bankrupt. Any tips on economy would be appreciated.

BTW it has been a blast, this mod is awesome!

 

[Dudeski]

THIS MOD HAS BANKS?!?!?!?!?

I haven't done anything in England yet but there are spectacular opportunities for trading furs, salt and iron in central Europe. If you travel with a small cavalry force and link up trade routes with tournaments you should dig yourself out of the hole your in. You need 1 tournament and a bit of trading a week to stay afloat. Building a dyeworks in Chernogorod, Smolensk, and Kiev will net you 7-10% weekly interest or 700-1000gold a week.

 

[JohnT]

As a king stock up on ale and wine like there is no tomorrow. When you get a few vassals hold a feast and start spamming wine/ale presents to your lords. You can buy ale for under 95 gold and can get 3 points relations boost per present. A nice little trick to counter reputation drains for awarding fiefs.

Work your butt off to get one married lord as your vassal and send a present to his wife. With her around you can pay to fix any negative relations that you might experience during fief awarding.

I haven't tested it in this mod but in native and other mods lords lose relations with you if they are fiefless.  Easy way to avoid this is to not talk to the lords that come to you castle until you have a fief to give them.

Do not shy away from accepting lords that have up to a -5 relations with you. Feasts + present spamming can get that up quick and if you have a married lord you can get that lord to a 0 instantly for 5k.

Thanks for the tip. Even though I do not have much money right now, I will definitely use this when I have. Just to test, I had a look at it now.

BTW, something wonderful happened the week I broke off from England, two lords from other factions defected to me. Both 50+ years old established nobleman with wife, son, nephew etc. So I am luck on lord with wife front.

However, wives of both of them don't like me, relation=0 and they don't need a champion now to improve my relations with the wives. What is to be done?

 

[JohnT]

Haha no banks in the mod AFAIK, it is a self added 'feature'.

to borrow = I export my char, add some money, re-import and notedown what is 'borrowed' at what date.
to pay back = I need to re export/import my char in a year with the borrrowed amount plus 20% removed.

Thank I will try to stop warring and make money as soon as Gauls surrender.

Since there are no banks, what do you exactly mean with 7/10% weekly 'interest'?

 

[Dudeski]

As a king stock up on ale and wine like there is no tomorrow. When you get a few vassals hold a feast and start spamming wine/ale presents to your lords. You can buy ale for under 95 gold and can get 3 points relations boost per present. A nice little trick to counter reputation drains for awarding fiefs.

Work your butt off to get one married lord as your vassal and send a present to his wife. With her around you can pay to fix any negative relations that you might experience during fief awarding.

I haven't tested it in this mod but in native and other mods lords lose relations with you if they are fiefless.  Easy way to avoid this is to not talk to the lords that come to you castle until you have a fief to give them.

Do not shy away from accepting lords that have up to a -5 relations with you. Feasts + present spamming can get that up quick and if you have a married lord you can get that lord to a 0 instantly for 5k.

Thanks for the tip. Even though I do not have much money right now, I will definitely use this when I have. Just to test, I had a look at it now.

BTW, something wonderful happened the week I broke off from England, two lords from other factions defected to me. Both 50+ years old established nobleman with wife, son, nephew etc. So I am luck on lord with wife front.

However, wives of both of them don't like me, relation=0 and they don't need a champion now to improve my relations with the wives. What is to be done?

Send their wifes a gift of silk or velvet. You need a chancellor b4 you can send gifts.

Haha no banks in the mod AFAIK, it is a self added 'feature'.

to borrow = I export my char, add some money, re-import and notedown what is 'borrowed' at what date.
to pay back = I need to re export/import my char in a year with the borrrowed amount plus 20% removed.

Thank I will try to stop warring and make money as soon as Gauls surrender.

Since there are no banks, what do you exactly mean with 7/10% weekly 'interest'?

You build a dyeworks for 10,000. You get 700-1000 profit from it per week. Thus it is 7-10% intrest. It just isn't compound interest . Thus you need 10-13 weeks b4 the  investment pays itself off and you start getting pure profit...without needing any underpants

Man you got me all exited with banks, I already started teleporting and scouting every Italian town b4 I got your message. 

 

[JohnT]

Man you got me all exited with banks, I already started teleporting and scouting every Italian town b4 I got your message.

lol sorry it's in my wishlist only...

BTW I think you can do that and it won't be a big cheat because I'm no history expert but it's a known fact that kings/princes borrowed huge sums of money for campaigns. It is very likely that they did this in 1257 too!