To Conquer your first town/city

[SinerAthin]

Hi there.

Does anyone have any suggestions for someone seeking to conquer their first settlement?


Lately I've been trying to do so.

I can handle the 3-4 armies(from 120-240 men) they throw at me when I besiege the castle, as well as the defenders when they sally forth, but when it comes to actually taking the castle itself I run into big problems.

The siege is simply too slow and grinding, and most of my guys, even elite ones, die so fast that halfway through the siege, it's always me 1 vs their 40+ defenders.

The problem is their archers & the tight corridor fights that just slowly grind my boys down, and I don't have room for any cannonfodder in my limited army.


I currently got an army size of 66 ish and I'd love some ideas on how to conquer a settlement without the aid of another faction!

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Firstly, you don't have enough soldiers. If you want to conquer a city with that many soldiers, you'll need to wait for another faction to take one, then take it from them before they can reinforce the garrison.

Once you've got more soldiers, get lots of crossbowmen/archers, and have your soldiers wait outside the walls. Once your crossbowmen/archers are out of ammo, have you whole army charge, and have them fall back when you get reinforcements. Repeat.

[SinerAthin]

Is there any other way to increase my soldier cap aside from going nutcase on Charisma & leadership? (Which I reckon would take ages)

[Claudius Gothicus]

You don't need that many soldiers as well. Having a good set of troopers can be enough... something along the lines of good infantry(Huscarls or Rhodok Sergeants), some nice archers(sharpshooters or marksmen) and maybe a little bit of heavy cavalry(like Mamelukes or Swads).

With a 100 or 120 troops you have enough for your first castle, what you do need though is that those 120 or 100 are top-notch elite.

So basically the formula is made up of:

At least 100 soldiers + Top-tiers + Timing(preferably when the faction attacked is away doing other stuff and the castle is lightly defended).

Also, another way to rise your troop cap is through renown... there's a direct relationship between the amount of renown you earn and troop slots(I believe it's something along the lines of a slot per 100 renown).

[Ishoss]

Is there any other way to increase my soldier cap aside from going nutcase on Charisma & leadership? (Which I reckon would take ages)

Renown, renown, renown.

Easiest way is to join a random faction, fight with them and win renown and xp and experienced soldiers at the same time. Just break your vow at some point.

[Londinium]

All of the above is true. What I call the 'early middle game' is the stage where you just need to grind the odd missions, fighting bandits, fighting alongside the Marshal or other nobles in your kingdom etc. Increase your renown and character stats, build up a core of top tier soldiers and a good number of them and build up some decent wealth. After a while of this you'll be able to start taking castles on your own but even then it's only small towns and fringe castles and half the time your king will give places you conquer to other undeserving bastards.

Over time it'll come to be easy, I can take a castle with about 60 men now but that's just because my character is high level with good gear and practically all my soldiers are top tier including a buttload of Swadian Knights and Rhodok Sharpshooters.

[SinerAthin]

Actually just took a castle with around 60 men.


Did a ladder rush with powerful Mamulaks & Sarrad Guards lead by my hero to overwhelm and decimate two castles.


The only bad side is that I'm going to have to evacuate & flee my newest castle as even after finishing the 300 man host that showed up to take it back, the Sultan is back with 700 men vs my 50 :<

Anyone got any good ideas on make peace with a faction? I used to be best friends with the Sarrid but now they won't even talk about peace.

[Claudius Gothicus]

Anyone got any good ideas on make peace with a faction? I used to be best friends with the Sarrid but now they won't even talk about peace.

1) That's the problem of believing that ''capturing a castle = keeping a castle''. In reality there's quite a difference, mostly determined by how many troops you can actually command and what value do they hold individually(50 peasants is not the same as 50 Huscarls). Try mustering a force of at least 100 top-tiers... for real.

2) The best way to make friends with a faction you've just attacked in vanilla(and taking a castle means they are not going to particularly like you at all) is through ''previous contacts'', do you know any lords in the kingdom that are particularly keen on you? something along the lines of very friendly? They can mediate between you and the king sometimes.

You could also try to modify the game as to get a pay for peace dialog between you and any lord. But that would imply modding and maybe having to restart.

[SinerAthin]

Actually, only the second castle belonged to the Sarrid.

They've been at war with me ever since I raided the Khergite Khanate :o (which was funny because before I waged war on them I had a LOT of goodwill with the Sarrid)

Seems like I got to wage war on them in that case.

Is it possible to wear their army down by destroying their armies one by one or do they replenish too fast?

[SinerAthin]

Now I took a city, and the Khergite Khannate, Rhoduks, the Vaergis AND the Sarrid have all laid siege to it.

I always thought those guys were furious rivals :O

[Claudius Gothicus]

Actually, only the second castle belonged to the Sarrid.

They've been at war with me ever since I raided the Khergite Khanate :o (which was funny because before I waged war on them I had a LOT of goodwill with the Sarrid)

Well maybe you should stick to one enemy at the time lol.

Seems like I got to wage war on them in that case.

Most likely, just try to keep it cool, let lords be if you capture them and try to gain some good rep.

Is it possible to wear their army down by destroying their armies one by one or do they replenish too fast?

It's possible, actually it's the only way of wining a war if you are alone and without Lords to help you out. Just catch one individually, beat him and let him go(it adds to your good rep.)... do until pretty much half their lords have been beaten. And then look for the King and offer some peace treaty of some sort.

[SinerAthin]

How fast do they reqruit new soldiers, and do they instantly get high ranks or do they need to train them?


Actually did a new game with Swadia, and having fun conquering the poor Rhoduks with the rest of Swadia keeping their armies off my tail xD


I guess what really messed up my old game was that my main provider(The Sarrids) suddenly waged war on me(add ontop of that the whole rest of the world also hated me for helping a certain sarrid emir create a few new wars).

[NotYetRegistered]

If you have Huscarls, you should be fine.

Oh, if you have archers, wait before attacking. If you have enough archers, you can easily score 20-40 kills.

[SinerAthin]

I actually don't need a special army setup anymore.

I just head over to my friends in Swadia and say:

''Oi, I found a nice castle to pillage and burn, wanna join?!''
''Heck yeah!''
''Count me in!''

TO WAR


It's so easy when you have big friends with even bigger armies xD

[Londinium]

I actually don't need a special army setup anymore.

I just head over to my friends in Swadia and say:

''Oi, I found a nice castle to pillage and burn, wanna join?!''
''Heck yeah!''
''Count me in!''

TO WAR


It's so easy when you have big friends with even bigger armies xD

Yeah but then the problem with that is the Swadian King will 9/10 times give the castle or town to another one of his vassals. I got so fed up of that happening and myself conquering places for other vassals who hate me that I just declared independence once I had a decent income and enough cites/castles to maintain a viable independent Kingdom.

[SinerAthin]

Doesn't really concern me as I'm currently going for the achievement to help my kingdom to glory


Plus, is it possible to usurp the king in this game?

[Londinium]

Doesn't really concern me as I'm currently going for the achievement to help my kingdom to glory


Plus, is it possible to usurp the king in this game?

Not as far as I'm aware, the only thing you can do is to split away and create your own kingdom. It was a bit annoying as I'd helped the Swadians totally destroy the Rhodoks and give the Nords a kicking and then had to leave Swadia but I was sick of other lords getting what I'd conquered.

[SinerAthin]

That's a shame.


Being able to usurp/betray your own king would've been a really cool addition to the game and encourage people to stick to a larger faction more. It would've also opened a whole new scenario of political intrigue & deceit.

What's a medieval game without some dirty political play and ambitious lords?!


They should definately include the possibility to usurp the king in the next game. Maybe the option convince the other lords to support you instead, or just murder/remove them all xD

[Double A]

Needs more politics, and parties need banter and more politics.

[StormHawk]

lol I was able to get my first city with only 100 and so men. First campaign as well. It just depends on what units you have and what level they are at. if your going to siege I personally always carry nord warriors with me for sieges they will kick butt even high level calvary would be good on foot. or even nord calv on foot. But you want to attack a city with low men and no one annoying near by. and in all honesty if it has high amount of man and your able to get through the first wave you can actually take over the city or castle without having to kill everyone.

But too many factors to take into account,

-what men are you using
-how many are there
-what level are the men that you are using
- How many men ( or lords) are in the the targeted place
- what place are you attacking ( this makesss a big different when it comes to attacking and defending)
- is it in a location where they will try to resiege you afterwards.
- Will the king even give you the city
-How good are you as a fighter. ( you need to live until the end to do a fast siege)