building new settlements?

[godfather_77]

I did not come across this when reading the manual but am I able to build a new settlement in a region without one? In other words do I have the ability to ultimately "upgrade" a region with a new castle or city if there wasn't one there initially?

[Cyprian2]

Welcome to the forums, godfather_77.

I did not come across this when reading the manual but am I able to build a new settlement in a region without one? In other words do I have the ability to ultimately "upgrade" a region with a new castle or city if there wasn't one there initially?

Short answer: no.
The closest thing is the buildable permanent stone forts from the Kingdoms expansion. These are not proper "settlements," however, and won't allow you to recruit units, etc. There's an upcoming mod called Dominion of the Sword, though, that will make them generate income and have names and titles –– so, that's something.

[Maklodes]

I believe all regions have settlements: the settlement might be a small village of little value, and the region might be somewhat unreasonably huge, but it's there. (with ownership of the settlement determining ownership of the region)

[godfather_77]

thank you!!

[Sitalkes]

On the coast you will see fishing villages, these will become ports when you build ports in the nearby city/castle (or sometimes they are villages you can control). Also as previously mentioned some regions have villages in them that start with no fortifications or buildings and little income, so you have to build them up from scratch. You can also build forts in other campaigns (eg the Crusades campaign and mods like TATW) as well as watch towers - both can only be built in your own terrirtory by a family member and the option will be greyed out if you don't have enough money. It is important to build watch towers on your borders, but you only need to build a few forts if you are an attacking player. The exception is when Troops in those forts may get free upkeep which means you build forts roughly a turn's march from one another and save heaps of money.