Where to start my new kingdom....

[NJSQRL]

I have been running around deposing kings and putting their claimants on the throne... I did this as an experiment to see if it would make things easier to to conquer the world later by abusing the game mechanics to destabilize the kingdoms...

I give every fief with the exception of a town or castle here and there (I need someplace nearby to imprison lords that won't join the rebellion). Because of this when the faction is reborn or whatever you want to call it with the new ruler in place, and all the old lords... most of the lands are held by the king making lords grumpy and weak.

I am currently working on the Khergits, my last faction to overthrow and am having trouble deciding where I should start....

Swadia is a nice target, they are small yet hold decent lands. Their armies are weak and lords few, the problem is the locations of these lands, they are spread out which would make defending my new-found kingdom difficult.

The Rhodoks are out of the question, they were the second faction that I turned upside down and have not had a single war since... their lands are hardly extensive, they hold Shariz but other than that they hold nothing but their starting lands. Their number of lords (32) and size of their armies not to mention troop quality however make them a force not to be meddled with.

Nords are on the plate, but barely. Nearly as many lords as the Rhodoks (30) they are the second largest faction at the moment behind the Khergits by 1 castle (if you combine rebel and khergit lands) Despite their size they have been in constant wars with the Khergits, Swadians, and Vaegirs which have kept their armies to mostly tier 2-3 troops... still nothing to cough at when it comes to Nords.

Khergits, will be the largest faction, and have a good number of lords. One might consider them to be a good choice to start (no I will not abandon the claimant quest and keep the lands) as most of their lords are currently imprisoned making them weak when the quest is over. The problem here is dealing with Khergit armies no matter how small... I hate them... it is that simple, I hate them. I would much rather wait until I am left with the choice of either toppling them or the Rhodoks than go back to war with them right away.

Vaegirs are in the same boat as the Swadians, they hold important lands (Sargoth, Tihr, Reyvadin, and Dhirim to name a few) however all of those castles around those towns are Nord or Khergit... if I end up fighting a war on two fronts against either of those factions it will make things very difficult to defend.

Finally we have the Sarrinids...They are quite weak, mostly thanks to myself. When I was overthrowing their king I did so at a time that they were at war with the Khergits and Rhodoks, when the Khergits declared war on our rebellion I did not defend the towns or castles that we had conquered from them, nothing mattered except keeping them from falling back into Sultinate hands.

The Khergits did much the same when I was deposing Yargolek, they instead went after only the Vaegirs not the rebels but this lead them into taking a number of the Vaegir lands and I admit, I am likely the cause of them being as strong as they are.

My largest concerns here are again the lands... they are spread out and if I am at war with the Khergits there will be a massive amount of enemy territory between the lands and I. The other problem I have is if I choose to go to war with say the Vaegirs after the Sultinate has been eliminated... I have to traverse Khergit lands to get to my targets leaving me very far from home which is not something that is ideal for me. I prefer to expand my existing borders... not make new ones.

So now I ask you good people... where do you think I should go? Lezalit, Matheld, and Bahdeshur are ready to become lords, though the constant fighting they have risen to a respectable level (22,24, and 25) and have been groomed for leadership. I have deep pockets, despite the constant fighting now that I have medics with near max skill in surgery I lose very few troops meaning that 13k a week I get in income goes mostly to my coffers rather than to training new recruits...

 

[killer-blead]

Personally I would start with wercheg, It's pretty hidden from the open world so you only have the Nords and veagirs to worry about from the start. After that I would take alburq (I hope I wrote that right) castle so at least you'll get a warning beforehand when they are charging for Wercheg.

Starting a new kingdom is very risky on it's own no matter where you start. Because when you first start you will be easy bait for the rest of the kings and unless they're focused on other wars they will most likely try to beat you. So be prepared for some very hard months in the start. But taking a town is very much adviced because of the villages that the city owns. It will allow you to give each companion lord a village at the start and will keep them close to the town.

Fortify your position before thinking about expanding and waging wars.

Just my 2 cents I hope it's useful.

 

[NJSQRL]

I will have to wait and see how the tides of war go while I am finishing up on the Khergits for that plant to work. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a good plan just that Alburq Castle is held currently by the Vaegirs and Wercheg is held by the Nords, doing as you suggest would have me at war with two kingdoms... something I wish to avoid at first.

However Nords and Vaegirs are as usual going to war with each other every time the wind shifts so by the time I finish up the Khergits (about 1/2 done I would say another month maybe less) things may change in that area of the map.

 

[phoenixguard09]

Hey mate, you playing this with permanent death? 

Cause if you are, I'd be a bit worried about going up against anyone but Swadians.  The reason I say this is because any of the others can one-shot you with assorted pieces of nasty bladed instruments of death. 

As far as my contribution to the conversation, I'd go against the Nords.  Or try joining as a Vaegir Lord again and take over Nord lands.  Then, rebel and take your places with you.    The reason I say go after Nords is because it gives you quick and easy access to Huscarls, which you'll probably want considering the amount of sieges you're going to go into. 

Cheers,

 

[NJSQRL]

I dunno about that... got 1 hit a few times by Swadian Man at Arms when I was runnin around with Isolla...

But no I am not playing this one with the permanent death option... infact I am playing this one as 100% native with the exception of battle continuation and the new quests menu thingy from TweakMB.

Edit- I have re-assessed the Vaegirs... they are more powerful than I had thought.

While other kingdoms have most of their holdings only in the kings hands the Vaegirs have been evicted from the lands they held at the end of my rebellion and have taken entirely new lands meaning there is some division in the holdings... this means they will have more lords with fairly large parties.

 

[MasterCaruyn]

My advice is the same as Blead's: take Wercheg then Alburq. Like he said, it's tucked away and taking Alburq will give you a heads up. Also, when you attack a faction with a lot of lords, you have a better chance of recruiting a hefty amount of them. If you persuade lords from kingdoms that you are not at war with to join you, it will count as a "border incident" of sorts and there may be war.

But I think your best bet is to take Wercheg.

 

[NJSQRL]

Through some strange quirk in the game the old kings (Ragnar, Harlaus, and Sanjur) came back... but lead a faction called "Commoners"

These towns/castles simply had the garrisons that were left in them when I held them and no other army to speak of... I chose to conquer these first before focusing on other lands.

My experiment, despite the quirk was a success.

Lords from all factions flocked to me, despite starting with just myeself and 3 companions promoted to Lords I quickly grew to 15 lords before my first war and didn't even have to recruit anyone...

I took on the Nords first... took 2 castles and one town from them before we ran into any resistance... then Lethwin and his war party showed up... just as I had planned. Lethwin had a HUGE party (650) and the rest of the Nord lords were sub 100, mostly 60's. Once we crushed that army we took three more castles before accepting a peace treaty.

My only wish is that I was running battle sizer as I go to war with the Rhodoks (they just declared war on me) This would make for some epic battles... numerous lords with 200+ parties mostly tier 5 and their king with nearly 700....


That is of course assuming my PC dosen't suddenly gain sentience and kill me for overworking it