[TW Guide] M2TW: Vassals, Reputation, Guilds and City Management

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

Author: Silent Assassin
Original Thread: The great informative thread (Vassals, Reputation, Guilds and Tactics)

The great informative thread (Vassals, Reputation, Guilds and Tactics)

Information on Vassals:

The whole point of having vassals is to show your military might and that you completely own another faction. The major benefit of having a vassal is the that they automatically become you alliesr and will help in battles.

I struggled with making other factions my vassals until recently and once you get the hang of it's easy, 'cause I played as England and now have France, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, HRE, Milan, and Hungary as vassals and am working on the Mongols and the Byzantine Empire. For anyone who wants to know, how I'll explain (results may vary). As stated up top you need to reduce them to one territory but you don't need 5 armies, one will do. Capture their territory in such a way as to either completely enclose in territories owned by you or down to one coastal region. I've found coastal regions to be easier but its up to you.

The point is that they cant be just militarily weak but economically as well so if they're enclosed they have no one to trade to and if their's a coastal region all you have to do is blockade their port and cut off their trade. After that send in a diplomat (this should take multiple turns) and tell them that you want to be their new master. The first proposal will be rejected outright no matter what you offer. Try it again, you probably won't get them to except but rather a "not interested" message and negotiations will stop.

Continue to ask them to be your vassal and DO NOT stop blockading their port and DON'T let the war end but every now and again siege the city and then unsiege it and have your diplomat come in and ask again. Usually this method takes about 3 of 4 turns but Hungary held out on me for 9 turns until they gave into my demands. Ok, now to keep them you vassal just give them gifts. Money or even giving them back one of their old territories does wonders and solidifies your relationship and your control over them, also create a fort in each of their territories and keep it garrisoned at all times just to remind them that your always watching and ready to attack whenever you please. And that is how you create and keep vassals.

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Tips on reputation:

Having alliances and maintaining them increases your reputation.
Having good relations with a faction increases your reputation.
Having bad relations decreases it.

Having a high chivalry faction leader increases your reputation.
Having a high dread faction leader decreases it (So best to keep your main bloodline as high chivarly generals, and let some other line of the family be the bastard enforcers).

The best thing to do is to make alliances with EVERY faction in the game at the start, so that you have allies far off who you don't share a border with and who won't be tempted to attack you. Give gifts to any ally who your relations decline with IMMEDIATELY in order to keep your relations at so-so or better (Preferably better, because that increases your reputation faster). Pick a couple of factions to be super allies with, and push your relations with them to perfect, and KEEP them there.

Don't attack an ally ever (Ever). Don't attack a non-ally unless they attack you first. In fact, don't retaliate even, only break their forces in your territory (This is good strategy anyway, fighting them on your home territory gives you the advantage because you should be able to choose your battlefields). If you let them keep entering your territory a few times before retaliating and taking one of their territories, you are much less likely to take a reputation hit. See, if another faction has a BAD reputation, you can attack them freely without losing reputation (In fact you seem to gain reputation for attacking them, as long as you're at war with them and THEY started it). So let them attack you a few times before you retaliate, let their reputation fall and fall and then retaliate.

Additionally, the higher your reputation goes, the bigger hit the enemy will take if they attack you. I've seen factions go from mixed to despicable after attacking me just one time, when I had very high reputations.

High reputation does SO many good things for you in this game, it's worth doing the work to maintain it.

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Information on guilds:

From perusing the contents of export_descr_guilds.txt i have determined the following:

Each guild type has 3 levels, to get a guild at each level the player has to score a certain number of points for either their faction overall, or for that particular settlement.

Guild: 100 points
Masters Guild: 250 points
Guild HQ: 500 points

The player gains (and loses) points for each guild for each settlement, and for their entire faction, by performing certain deeds. In general, settlements will gain more per deed (typically 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 points) than the overall faction score (typically 2, 3, 4, 5 points per deed).

Not sure how the overall faction score works, presumably if your overall faction score exceeds the required amount you will get offered a guild even if none of your individual settlements qualify - thus you can still get guilds by, say, training lots of priests all over the place - but it will still be far quicker if you train them all in the same settlement.

Agents can also gain points. Assume that this is once per agent, and that these points add to the overall faction score.

General
Upgrade a guild (+20 settlement bonus for that guild type, +10 faction)
Destroy a guild building (huge penalty for that guild type, -100 settlement, -20 faction)
Upgrade a settlement (+10 settlement bonus for all guild types)
Every 25 turns every settlement loses 1 point for all guilds

Missions
Bonuses are also given for successfully completing a guild mission, but failing to complete the guild mission will incur a penalty for that guild type.

The following guilds offer missions:
Assassin's Guild
Merchant's Guild
Explorer's Guild
Theologian's Guild
Thieves Guild

Assassin's Guild
Train assassins: +10 settlement
Succesful Assassinations: +20 agent bonus
Governor with dread >4: +4 settlement bonus (per turn?)
Build brothel series buildings: +10/15/20/25/30 settlement, +0/0/0/2/5 faction
Succeed/Fail Assassin guild mission: +/-10 agent

Alchemist's Guild
Train Cannons etc: +10/15/20 settlement
Train handgunners etc: +15 settlement
Build cannon maker series: +10/15/20/25/30 settlement, +1/2/3/4/5 faction

Explorer's Guild
Train merchants: +10 settlement
Build shipbuilding buildings: +15/20/25/30 settlement, +0/0/2/5 faction
Build merchants wharf series: +20/25/30 settlement, +0/2/5 faction
Fleet distance from capital 50-99: +3 agent
Fleet distance from capital >100 : +5 agent
Succeed/Fail Explorer guild mission: +/-30 agent

Horse Breeder's Guild
Train cavalry: +10 settlement, +1 faction
Build stables series: +10/15/20/25/30 settlement, +1/2/3/4/5 faction
Build racetrack/sultan's ractrack +50/75 settlement, +5 faction
Governor throws races: +5 settlement

Mason's Guild
Build Stone wall series: +10/15/20 settlement, +2/2/3 faction
Build mustering halls series: +10/15/20/25/30 settlement, +2/2/2/2/3 faction
Build town watch series: +10/15/20/25/30 settlement +2/2/2/2/3 faction
Build armourer series: +10/15/15/20/25/30 settlement +2/2/2/2/2/3 faction
Build bowyer series: +10/15/20/30 settlement +2/2/2/3 faction

Merchant's Guild
Train merchants: +10 settlement
Build merchants wharf series: +20/25/30 settlement, +0/2/5 faction
Build market series: +10/15/20/25 settlement, +0/0/2/5 faction
Make trade agreement: +10 agent
Successful aquisition: +10 agent
Income > 1000/2000/5000/10000: +1/2/3/4 agent (per turn?)
Succeed/Fail merchant's guild mission: +/- 10/20 agent (depending on difficulty?)

Swordsmith's Guild
Build armourer series: +10/15/15/20/25/30 settlement, +0/0/0/1/2/5 faction
Train sword unit: +15 settlement
Units: Sword and Buckler Men, Sudanese Tribesmen, Swordsmen Militia, Armored Swordsmen, Highland Nobles, Zweihander, Noble Swordsmen, Forlorn Hope, Byzantine Infantry, Battlefield Assassins, Norse Swordsmen, Dismounted Feudal Knights, Dismounted Chivalric Knights, Dismounted Gothic Knights, Dismounted Conquistadores, Dismounted Italian MAA, Dismounted Broken Lances, Dismounted Norman Knights, Dismounted Polish Knights, Dismounted E Chivalric Knights, Dismounted Byzantine Lancers, Dismounted Latinkon, Hashishim, Urban Militia, Dismounted Christian Guard

Theologian's Guild
Train Priests: +10 settlement
Build church/masjid series: +10/15/20/25/30 settlement, +0/0/1/2/5 faction
Get your cardinal elected pope: +30 agent
Governor's piety >5: +5 settlement (per turn?)
Succeed/Fail theologian's guild mission: +/-10 agent
Priest becomes a heretic: -5 agent

Thieves Guild
Train spies: +10 settlement
Build brothel series: +10/15/20/25/30 settlement
Governor with dread >4: +2 settlement (per turn?)
Spy in a settlement: +2 agent (per turn?)
Succeed/Fail theives guild mission: +/-10 agent

Woodsman's Guild
Recruit archers (England only!): +10/15/20 settlement (depending on unit)
Build brother seri >4: +5 settlement (per turn?)

Various Knight's Chapter Houses
General joins crusade: +25 agent
General abandons crusade: -25 agent
Recruit Specialist Knight: +10 settlement, +1 faction (knight type tied to guild type)
Governor Chivalry >4: +5 settlement

St. John's guild get a +10 settlement, +1 faction bonus when the settlement has muslim neighbours
St. John's guild get a +10 agent bonus when you declare war on a muslim faction.
Teutonic guild get a +10 settlement, +1 faction bonus when the settlement has muslim neighbours

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How to manage your settlements:

Some of my advice:

- Don't build everything you can, not all buildings are necessary in every settlement; Having a blacksmith in a rear area city is pointless.

- Aim for a ratio of 4:1 cities to castles (depending on whether you use Vanilla or a mod map, this could change)

- Disband military units you will not use within the next 5 turns (except militia garrisoned for free). A 600FL DFK unit costs 250FL/turn to maintain. Unless they're veteran or at the front, disband them. Especially artillery at 350FL/turn. I only keep really high valour units, and tend to send them to the front.

- Build land improvements because they are the quickest way to getting big cities, which produce higher level buildings and more tax revenues from a larger population; squalor isn't as big an issue as it was in RTW

- AFAIK farming is taxed; mouseover all the elements on the Settlement screen and the Trade Summary

- DON'T sack a Christian settlement unless that faction is excomm'd and you really need the cash immediately; otherwise the settlement takes a long time to recover and you lose standing with other factions. NEVER exterminate Christian settlements if you are a Christian faction, and if you are an Islamic faction, that's a great way to get a Crusade called against you.

- Always upgrade settlements ASAP (otherwise you'll have an irreversible squalor problem which affects future growth)

- Watch your governors' traits. Some of them can get cumulative tax, squalor and unrest penalties that can practically destroy your economy in a big city

- Always have the tax rate set to at least "high" (where possible) otherwise your governors get tax penalty traits; you don't need 100% public order in all cities.

- Only build brothels/taverns/inns in cities with older governors who already have fathered children, or else you may get the "Adultress" retinue character which can devstate a family line if a young governor gets it

- Only build militia buildings in cities where you have an unrest issue, unless those cities may be open to attack

- Kill off Rebels/Brigands/Pirates ASAP as they affect happiness. Rebels/Brigands also cause Devastation which is an issue

- In the Trade Summary screen, flashing income items mean you are not getting the most out of your trade potential. Improving roads and ports is vital.

- Turn down the Thieves Guild for high income settlements and work towards the Merchants or Explorers Guild; only build Thieves Guilds in lower income cities where you'll train most of your spies. Most of the AI settlements you capture will have Thieves Guilds anyway.

- Don't ever destroy a Guild building, even in a captured settlement, as that destroys your ratings with all Guilds.

- On VH, make sure your good generals are pious or they'll get killed by Inquisitors. Building Churches early on makes it easier to get 100% Catholic regions that don't fall to Heresy, which is a mid game problem.

- Merchants can be powerful so use them wisely and move them off a resource if you spot a high valour AI merchant closing in. The AI doesn't buy out merchants who are not trading. Build up a merchant's experience close to home and only move them away when they have 3 coins rating. They'll usually die just when they're getting good; nothing you can do about that.

- Only execute captured troops when you are absolutely certain they would defeat you in an ensuing battle. Otherwise your reputation suffers and a chivalrous general loses points. Likewise, if you want a dreaded general, execute when you have a small number of troops. It also seems like the AI doesn't pay the smaller ransoms, only for larger numbers of troops.