a town that has rebelled you arent at war yet, so you can go in and buy all their food first. then attack a bound village. they will be starving and losing people while you are building the siege camp. makes it that much easier when you attack and you wont have to wait for them to run out of food.
I've only ever played as a vassal for various kingdoms, and last night thought to myself "Huh, I wonder if Strat has a guide for starting out on your own." Thanks for the video Strat!
I am unsure if how much they like you affect who they will vote. I one case, I only helped with a few troops because I was a noob and didn't know about quartermaster, but even the opposing guy who would otherwise get it voted for me, and the other one the leader took it first, then a short time later I got 89% vote yet again with the opposing guy voted for me again.
An alternative cheesy combat tactic for the 1st and 2nd ways (rebellions and nations distracted by war) is to get bare minimum soldiers, quality whatever, to get the AI to hold out in the siege instead of attacking your force. Assault as soon as possible, no siege equipment necessary, and put all your forces far back and have them retreat. This will cause the AI to march out the gates to try to kill you, which you will avoid on horseback and run straight into the open gates, closing them behind you so you can go around and whittle down the ranged garrison inside.
@@Strat-Guides I do like taking the time to build quality troops. More often than not, I find that the majority of enemy armies are tier 2 and under with maybe a handful of high tier. So, one the high tier are taken care of, it's an instant defeat for whoever I'm fighting.
When part of a kingdom, one way I found to give yourself a better chance at getting the fief is to call together an army and use it to whittle down the defenders of a fief, then, when the defenders are low (usually less than 100 defenders left) I retreat from the battle, disband the army and then besiege and immediately attack the fief with just my party (and maybe companion parties from my clan). That way I am the only clan that took part in the final capture of the fief so I get full credit.
One thing I've noticed is that if the friendly garrison is really small and you see the enemy begin a siege, they won't build any siege engines and will just use ladders. If you break in you can easily defend the walls against overwhelming odds. I managed to win a hopeless war against vlandia by defending Nevyansk against 2 1000+ armies, capturing like 20 nobles in each battle
Surprised you didn't mention rushing the outer gate. Once you get your siege camp built you can attack the Town/Castle, but instead of using the ladders you can order a formation to start hacking the outer gate in a tight formation like shield wall or square. It is a slow process, takes several minutes, but it can save you a lot of casualties since enemy archers generally can fire on troops right next to the outer gate in most scenes. Very useful if time is of the essence on the campaign map or you are facing a well defended Town/Castle.
Interesting, I've never thought of doing that before! It would be great with a small group of highly skilled troops (like for a companion only campaign)!
Destroying a wall will generally mean you take much less causalities, since your troops can easily get in. One or two doesn't make much of a difference, since they tend to focus one anyway, but it's better than using a siege tower. Build your siege engines than promptly remove them. Wait for the garrison to starve out, then place them again- this assures that it takes the most time for them to build new siege engines, minimizes the amount of time they can hit your troops with siege engines, and also ensures that you can have 4 siege engines out at once (to quickly destroy their siege engines/defenses). Trebuchets aren't great at hitting siege engines, but are great for destroying walls- I like to make a single catapult to compliment them. The trebuchets have a lot of health and will tank hits for the catapult, which will promptly destroy their catapults/balistae. Trebuchets are also pretty bad in mission. Catapults, especially the single shot exploding variant, do a much better job at killing enemies en masse... that being said, if you're just fighting 100 militia, it's probably not worth the time to switch out all your trebuchet with catapults for the mission portion.
Last time I tried to take the castle he is talking about at the end of the video, a sturgian army of 1000+ showed up. I swear my luck with trying to take castles is so bad. I’ll be about ready to start the assault then boom an army twice my size or more comes to stomp me out.
Also great and sneaky is to walk with an big Army and wait for them to siege a Castle or Town and after they are down wait till they are gone and besiege it yourself, way less troops, cause Armys often don't leave Garrision back
Thing with defensive mangonels is that now they can now fire at a closer range, meaning its a bit more risky now to use the “rush and hug the wall to avoid mangonel fire” tactic. It still works and i still use it, but you will take more casualties so keep that in mind. As always, great vid buddy !!
@@Strat-Guides yea it help the defenders with them blind spots. A welcome addition imo, its not breaking the siege scenario (meaning not giving the defenders too much of an advantage). Plus now its a single projectile, not cluster ammunition (until updated with the fire engine perk i believe). A good balance imo.
You forgot the old trick of just buying your own settlement thanks to Trade perk 300. I've generally found it's best to buy from a lord who owns more than one fief and has one that isn't his culture (ex. Caladog owns Veron Castle). Can normally go for a few hundred thousand. Highest I've seen is 12 million.
Leveling trade up to 300 is only for the most dedicated grinders! Also, they changed the formula for purchasing fiefs and a lot of the time, the AI won't sell at any price. I added max denars (a little over 1 billion) and it still wasn't enough. That's the main reason I didn't cover it, but you're right that is another way to do it!
Let's be honest, if you grind Trade in current BL in an honest way without horse/metal exploit with caravans you'd conquer the world long before it hits 300 =) Even the exploit itself is effing tiring (yeah I did it in my current pacifist campaign)
@@Strat-Guides I think the A.I. basically won't sell a fief, if it is there only 1 fief left. Lords with multiple fiefs will usually sell Towns for like 2-5 million. I did encounter a Lord with some 9 fiefs and they were willing to sell some of their Castles for 400K. It makes sense from the A.I. perspective, but it's really not worth it as an actual human being to grind up that much Trade and money though.
Useless to me. I always struggle to get it up to 125 to gain renown perk. I would rather to commit suicide than having to haul all this cargo between cities until my trade skill is maxed out
I actually tried that this time and I think they patched it because they only deposited the first time you enter! I spammed it like 10 times lol Good point though, I used that trick a lot in the past :)
My way of getting a fief: "Oh, my emperor, your attacking this castle? Let me help!" Result: I only had 10 mens that has been hurt, with no casualties. Since i was following the emperor army and getting involved at the last minute for each battle he was getting into, he really liked me and I was winning renowns. During the election we were two lords at equal chance to get the castle.. So after putting my vote in the count they just say "Ok, we give it to you!" When i entered my new castle I already had an army of more than 150 men inside!
Just join empire factions, they'll literally force those new fiefs down your throat. Empire fiefs are all strong af, so the chance of capturing a new fiefs from outside empire factions are much higher. When I don't want that fief with -3 loyalty, yet I still got them. I vote others with my 100 influence and literally everyone else including the king voted me. Every Single Fucking Time.
One, semi-obvious, tip if you're attacking non-rebels to pick on a faction who is already at a disadvantage in war (such as two kingdoms otherwise unoccupied kingdoms at war with them), that way they have
I prefer to do it in this cowardly way: I work as mercenary for my preferred faction and wait till an acceptable fief is about to be captured, then I join the faction and usually get the fief without doing much for it. In my current playthrough, with Separatism mod installed, I even got a nice castle of my own faction/culture far away from the mean potential enemy factions, so I don't need many in the garrison. My party at that time was only 80 strong and mainly T1 to T3, so conquering a fief myself was out of reach.
I learned it hard way that auto resolve sieges is absurdly disadvantegous for my army :D Once i gathered even like 3000 trooops with various vassals, against 200 troops castle - and still lost....
Ouch! It's pretty crazy how big of an advantage defenders have in auto resolve. It's almost to the point where you can get better results as the player by auto resolving and avoid the fight in person.
So glad I found this! About 2 years in game now and after being granted my first castle the town nearby in Vlandia rebelled and it’s basically the exact same scenario here, will update tomorrow how it goes.
Yup, that's another way to do it! I generally don't cover it because getting to 300 trade takes literally tens of hours to do without using exploits and I don't want to be responsible for sending someone down that path hahaha Also, they changed things recently so not all fiefs can be bought - a lot of nobles will ask for a price higher than the game's max denar balance, meaning they won't sell at any price.
I guess if you don't make a kingdom, you can repeatedly ninja capture stuff and peace out. I would imagine influence farming and stealing a whole bunch from within is still the way to go, though I haven't played in a while now.
@@Strat-Guides lol love it. The game is pretty fun honestly … just wish they had a multiplayer or co op campaign I don’t really like the mods they have rn for it
i think it has to do with kingdoms cant declare war on you unless youre in a kingdom, therefore you could take the entire map with your clan armies and keep making peace whenever you felt like it. im sure they could just fix the issue with declaring war on clans as well but..
@@kupiercerberus904 i can only imagine you have a terrible relation with some of them?? kingdoms have to pass a vote to declare war (on kingdoms). the only way they can go to war with you is that some of them are just indiscriminately attacking your settlements?? i’ve never had it happen myself so i’m not sure, how are they going to war with you
@@wateraffliction i had taken Ustokol castle off in the corner of the map in an area that was separated from the rest of Sturgia. I followed the video advice and made peace with them after doing it. My relation with them was probably around 20 at this point. I then proceeded to begin enjoying my conquest and BOOM, Raganvad of the Sturgians had declared war on you. I had no kingdom, and wasn’t attacked immediately, so Idk. I then made peace again and he started war again. Not only is the AI somehow declaring war on me, he’s practically trying to extort me. I don’t really understand how he kept his honorable trait while consistently breaking his peace agreement with me every two days. One thing total war unfortunately did better
These tactics will be good to adopt for my Barbarian story campaign, I plan on building my own Kingdom to bring back Palea. Their real name, language and customs may be gone but they can be honored.
And if you want to start your own kingdom you can capture a fief with a different kingdom, and leave their kingdom and take the fiefs with you, that causes them to declare war on you but if you go and talk to that one guy about starting your own kingdom right after, they’ll be peaceful again.
Important to note, the more troops you have in your party the higher the chance to be in the vote for ownership. Me running a companions only playthrough I've taken tens of fiefs and got NOTHING.
I'm usually worried, maybe too much, about the empire factions. It takes only a year or three, four, to see one eliminated and consolidate a lot of power in two factions, or sometimes even just one. The other factions are never able to hold on to any of the empire towns and such that they conquer. The AI is so consistently bad at holding fiefs that are not their culture, you can generally add rebelling cities from a losing faction as it gets wiped off the map. It's why I often end up in Khuzait territory, or Sturgia, or Battania. Sturgia and Khuzait because they consistently lose wars Battania because they've got the worst starting position ever, being next to or close enough to be declared war upon, 4 different faction including two empire cultures and Vlandia. Being a neighbour to Vlandia is bad. Unless you're a human player because shield wall beats cavalry charge. Anyway, the point I was trying to make with this is that I'm usually more worried about declaring my own kingdom than I am about capturing the first fief
I've currently got 7 fiefs on my current playthrough and am trying to build them up before declaring a kingdom. It's in campaign mode, so I'm holding off until the last few days left to complete the next story mission. I have two Battanian towns, three empire, one Khuzaite (forgive me if I spelled wrong), and an Aserai town.
@@LCInfantry Yes but battanian towns are closer to each other so it makes where they have higher prosperity in each town. They are small but compact and rich and the Fians champions are very strong.
Was that Discount Uhtred of Bebbanburg? Awesome book series (The Saxon Stories). I always think of them when I play Bannerlord. Thanks for the video, Strat!
In my recent experience, taking a fief at all is painful because the faction you make peace with almost always go to war with you again within a week regardless of whether you're a kingdom or not. I've been spending the last few days slaughtering nobles of the Vlandians and when I finally got them week the Western Empire also declared war. Everyone in game is solely opportunistic, there is no sense of borders or honor other than leaving nobles alive, which is useless unless you have a mod that keeps them in your dungeon without them escaping as they will just build a larger army and come back.
That's what I count on. I stack my fief with every troop i could find, I create a clan party with my brother as a general and incorporate him in my army, then I sit and wait for all the xp come to me. You can easily stack 500+ troops total in few days after taking a fief, which should be enough to defend it against any army
Today I learned, that you can put away your siege weapons. Now it actually makes sense to make them, before it seemed like a waste, the one will always get immediately slagged by the four waiting on the walls.
I took my first fief (in 1.1 experimental ["beta"] version) by starving out Epicrotea. Had an army of about 140, mostly all elites (mixture of Sturgian heavy spear, Fians and Cataphracts), and total encumbrance capacity of about 40,000 (and about 2 million ducats in my pocket). This was at about 1085 or 1087 ish date. Epicrotea had changed hands several times already, and when I started it was controlled by Vlandia with loyalty around 33. I bought all the food, everyday at about 11:59PM for about 20 days. It was in the "settlement is rebelling" status. Here comes a Sturgian army to siege it. They took, and thankfully the food and loyalty remained low so, I just resumed starving it out. I cannot recall if it took another whole season or 1.5 but I finally got it to rebel. At one point my encumbrance was 80,000 / 40,000 so I did run off to sell food to Diathma once or twice! 🤣 Once it had rebelled, I waited until all the lord parties were outside the city, bought all the food again, chased down one of the smaller lords and beat his party, then went back and sieged it. His party DID starve out BTW. It appears that only "Militia" are not vulnerable to starvation.
Thank you! I'm planning on doing more videos like that started later this month or next month :) Those videos take a bit more work to do and I prefer those over making these quick videos, although making both is probably important.
This is mildly related but if you're a vassal of a kingdom you can actually kill the king in battle (providing the option is on) and then get voted in to being king but you don't want to this without a sizable stock of money
Please make a video of tips or strategies to wipe out a faction or conquer the whole map, I feel that big factions feel impossible to conquer since you try to conquer a field or town, to then het sieged by an army of over 2k
I did the way of getting stuff in one of the factions then after I got the castles and town I wanted I left the kingdom as a rebel made peace with that kingdom and now I own a rebel faction and now when anyone who rebels I take there castle or town
I was playing just yesterday as a vassal for the first time in bannerlord, and Derthert gave me Ortysia and 2 castles right next to it. I didnt even have to spend influence, and i didnt have any in the first place. First fief as a vassal and it was a city, lmao. A far cry from Warband AI rulers givin ya a freshly raided village
After my save was corrupted I lost my campaign where Raganvad died early and I helped the Sturgians conquer half the map. On my new campaign Raganvad is really mucking things up so it is clear I will need to save the Sturgians from themselves.
My strat is - I farm relationship with the kingdom ill go off of, marry off siblings, then when enough money I go to the lord I want and have much relationship with, typically alary, take him prisoner, wich makes me at war with vlandia. Then I go to the castle West of pravend, siege it with a Single ram, then I deckeare kinngdom and recruit alary. With a town and 2 clans, I hire more clans or siege them until they join me. Its a snowball tactic.
I was trying to rebel tactic in the newest patch, and similar numbers, 300 to my 100, and they just sally'd out and attacked me in the field almost instantly. Didn't have the highest tier troops so it was a bloody loss. I don't think they wait around to starve if they have a numbers advantage anymore.
I captured 3 castles independently on my playthrough by using the make peace strategy, at the moment, I am an independent clan with 3 castles, question is, if I join a kingdom as vassal and leave, will my fiefs be taken over by the kingdom I previously joined? or will you still keep them? I am planning to join a kingdom to accumulate influence but I am cautious about it. Nice video by the way, this guide is the reason on why I was able to have fiefs without joining a kingdom 😂 thank you!
I've waited a week before after food hit 0. The garrison starved. The militia grew by 1 every day. I still advocate for always building siege engines, even if you plan to starve them out. Always be prepared
What would say is more fun, taking a fief independently or usurping a kingdom from within? I’m unsure what to do next and would like some suggestions on where I could go next in my game.
@@Strat-Guides I see, perhaps it would be cool to plan a separate campaign to become king of one of the starting kingdoms through some politicking. For RP purposes of course.
I'm a fan of shock troops like the falxman, menavlion, etc. although they are far from the best unit to use. They can be deadly if they are positioned well. For them most OP unit it's definitely the archer (mounted or on foot). Half the time you can get away with a trash shield wall (level 2 units even) and just keep them on shield wall, soaking arrows and distracting the enemy while your archers clean up.
I attack a castle with 1200+ troops i was not the leader but heres a tip leave wait for that 1200+ troops to get to 400 against now like 100 join and you can practically sweep through the Castle and if you got t4/5 out of you 100+troops they want you to be the leader cause of your contributions leading to no influence used only lost 12 troops also And you can say what you want be i did it twice 3 hours ago
In taking a castle or town, is it better to starve them, rid them of their siege equipment, and then push in with ram and siege towers OR starve them, rid them of their siege equipment, break their walls, and then push in? Considering you're just a faction not a kingdom yet.
I would say if they have a large garrison of high tier units, then starving them out is priority. If not, then take the walls down ASAP and it's a free fief
Right now I am playing my first campaign game. I joined Valandia we have been at war with almost every faction now Sturgia 4 times and they just keep giving me castles we capture right now Valandia controls 16 castles and 7 of them are under my control and I got 1 major city. I could do the main quest and have my own kingdom if I choose to the only problem is I am virtually broke.
It's a mix of several different factors, but some of the major ones are to not own any fiefs already (the more you own, the harder it is to show up on the list), have the same culture as the fief you're taking and participate in the battle to take it.
First way didn't go like that for me at all, owner of the city joins up with the garrison and attacks before I can starve them out. $700k, almost clan tier 4, over 100 troops with 6 companions; biggest weakness is army is a broad range of types of troops and not all tier 4 or 5. Also suck at commanding troops but didn't even get to that point.
@@Strat-Guides thanks! i was hoping that towers performed better (wouldn't be surprised given TW balance). Destroying the walls also means you have to defend the town longer afterwards too :(
It just depends on how many wrong-culture towns are being taken. Castles don't rebel, so it has to be a town and we all know how bad the AI is at besieging lol
What would I do if I wanted to take my own culture fief first and then join my faction? There is a chance that your faction loses 1-2 fiefs then a rebellion happens and you siege it before the AI does, but that might not happen or will take an enormous amount of time. Once you declare war you get an opinion hit which won't allow you to join that faction after you finish the war, what's the strategy?
I love trying to take cities that rebelled. But as you said, that can be hard to find. Is there a way I can try to find ones that may be close and...encourage... them to rebel? How can you tell if ones might be close?
Rebelling is based on loyalty, which should show up in the top left corner when you're in a city. I forget the exact numbers but there's around a 10ish percent chance per day a city will rebel once it gets below 15 or so loyalty. You can help this along by starving the city by buying all the food in the city and buying food from incoming villagers/caravans. It can cost around 50k to fully starve out a city like this, but is well worth it when they eventually rebel and you get essentially a free city. Also keep in mind, cities will only rebel when the militia is bigger than the garrison (even when at 0 loyalty), and starving a city causes the militia to skyrocket.
Usually it's when someone takes a town from another culture and they don't match. That's why you usually see most rebellions with non-empire culture because if one empire faction takes a fief from another empire, they don't get the -3 loyalty. Keep an eye out for fiefs that don't match the starting owner and go pay them a visit.
@Strat Gaming Slightly off topic, but I've had an issue with loyalty in one of my campaigns, (playing as a Western Empire vassal) where I'm always being given foreign cultures cities and castles. Had a real problem with Varcheg constantly rebelling until I forced a few loyalty increasing policies through. Now, no lord in my faction has this problem anymore.
If you're no part of a kingdom, then you can ask any noble for peace. However you cannot ask mercenary clans (minor factions like hidden hand, Ghilman, etc.). If you're part of a kingdom then I think it can only be done through a vote.
a town that has rebelled you arent at war yet, so you can go in and buy all their food first. then attack a bound village. they will be starving and losing people while you are building the siege camp. makes it that much easier when you attack and you wont have to wait for them to run out of food.
I usually go after rebels.
But buying all their food is fucking diabolical lol
@@alexanderrahl7034 I sometimes sit in the city a buys all their food until the city rebel
@@It_is_I_Rogal_Dorn villainous!
...also genius lol
@@It_is_I_Rogal_Dorn thank you i havent seen a single rebel in my campaign yet now i know what to do
@@cheekclapking4014 dont know in my campaigns ussualy Tyal and "Hussn Fulg" rebels
"They are not going to get hit by any Siege equipment there"
Onager: I'm going to ruin his entire carrier
Lol perfect example of a leader not following their own advice :)
I've only ever played as a vassal for various kingdoms, and last night thought to myself "Huh, I wonder if Strat has a guide for starting out on your own." Thanks for the video Strat!
Lol it's funny how things work like that sometimes :) Thanks for watching!
I am unsure if how much they like you affect who they will vote. I one case, I only helped with a few troops because I was a noob and didn't know about quartermaster, but even the opposing guy who would otherwise get it voted for me, and the other one the leader took it first, then a short time later I got 89% vote yet again with the opposing guy voted for me again.
"Discount Utred" hahahahahahahaha I see you are a man of culture as well ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
Destiny is all
Lol I hit the random generator a couple times and when that dude popped up I thought it was a fatter, uglier version of Utred :D What an amazing show!
@@Strat-Guides I like what you've done with your hair :)
Bebanburg
Destiny is All!
An alternative cheesy combat tactic for the 1st and 2nd ways (rebellions and nations distracted by war) is to get bare minimum soldiers, quality whatever, to get the AI to hold out in the siege instead of attacking your force. Assault as soon as possible, no siege equipment necessary, and put all your forces far back and have them retreat. This will cause the AI to march out the gates to try to kill you, which you will avoid on horseback and run straight into the open gates, closing them behind you so you can go around and whittle down the ranged garrison inside.
🗿
Smart and helpful, thank you!
4:27 - Well, with our leader dead, seems like it will be hard to take the castle...
_Actually, it'll be super-easy, barely an inconvenience!_
Lol that's the beauty of having quality troops! They can handle business for you :)
@@Strat-Guides I do like taking the time to build quality troops. More often than not, I find that the majority of enemy armies are tier 2 and under with maybe a handful of high tier. So, one the high tier are taken care of, it's an instant defeat for whoever I'm fighting.
Ah sieging castles with the leader dead is TIGHT!
Ryan George bannerlord crossover ohhh wow wow wow .. wow
Me, who's completely familiar with how the game works: Hell yeah I'm gonna watch a tutorial.
Lol hopefully it was still interesting :)
When part of a kingdom, one way I found to give yourself a better chance at getting the fief is to call together an army and use it to whittle down the defenders of a fief, then, when the defenders are low (usually less than 100 defenders left) I retreat from the battle, disband the army and then besiege and immediately attack the fief with just my party (and maybe companion parties from my clan). That way I am the only clan that took part in the final capture of the fief so I get full credit.
That's an interesting idea, I had not thought of that!
One thing I've noticed is that if the friendly garrison is really small and you see the enemy begin a siege, they won't build any siege engines and will just use ladders. If you break in you can easily defend the walls against overwhelming odds. I managed to win a hopeless war against vlandia by defending Nevyansk against 2 1000+ armies, capturing like 20 nobles in each battle
Surprised you didn't mention rushing the outer gate. Once you get your siege camp built you can attack the Town/Castle, but instead of using the ladders you can order a formation to start hacking the outer gate in a tight formation like shield wall or square. It is a slow process, takes several minutes, but it can save you a lot of casualties since enemy archers generally can fire on troops right next to the outer gate in most scenes.
Very useful if time is of the essence on the campaign map or you are facing a well defended Town/Castle.
Interesting, I've never thought of doing that before! It would be great with a small group of highly skilled troops (like for a companion only campaign)!
Vandal perk is sweet for this
WE ARE SURROUNDED
Fian Champions: Exactly. We can't miss.
Dude, you are the real MVP. Posting not what the people want, but what they need.
This, if I ever get stuck in bannerlord, I search Strat's channel
Started a new playthrough yesterday specifically with taking & holding a single fief in mind! (at least initially). Just in time, thanks Strat!
Perfect timing :D Thanks for watching!
I needed this not sure how many hours I’ve played but only managed to take 1 fief unassisted. And has been a bit disheartening. Thanks Bro.
No problem! Aside from doing ridiculous challenges, this is probably the hardest part of any campaign so it's understandable.
Destroying a wall will generally mean you take much less causalities, since your troops can easily get in. One or two doesn't make much of a difference, since they tend to focus one anyway, but it's better than using a siege tower.
Build your siege engines than promptly remove them. Wait for the garrison to starve out, then place them again- this assures that it takes the most time for them to build new siege engines, minimizes the amount of time they can hit your troops with siege engines, and also ensures that you can have 4 siege engines out at once (to quickly destroy their siege engines/defenses). Trebuchets aren't great at hitting siege engines, but are great for destroying walls- I like to make a single catapult to compliment them. The trebuchets have a lot of health and will tank hits for the catapult, which will promptly destroy their catapults/balistae.
Trebuchets are also pretty bad in mission. Catapults, especially the single shot exploding variant, do a much better job at killing enemies en masse... that being said, if you're just fighting 100 militia, it's probably not worth the time to switch out all your trebuchet with catapults for the mission portion.
0:05 "Discount Uhtred" - I'm dead
Last time I tried to take the castle he is talking about at the end of the video, a sturgian army of 1000+ showed up. I swear my luck with trying to take castles is so bad. I’ll be about ready to start the assault then boom an army twice my size or more comes to stomp me out.
Also great and sneaky is to walk with an big Army and wait for them to siege a Castle or Town and after they are down wait till they are gone and besiege it yourself, way less troops, cause Armys often don't leave Garrision back
Thing with defensive mangonels is that now they can now fire at a closer range, meaning its a bit more risky now to use the “rush and hug the wall to avoid mangonel fire” tactic.
It still works and i still use it, but you will take more casualties so keep that in mind.
As always, great vid buddy !!
That's true, they just patched that recently! That's probably why I got nailed lol
@@Strat-Guides yea it help the defenders with them blind spots. A welcome addition imo, its not breaking the siege scenario (meaning not giving the defenders too much of an advantage). Plus now its a single projectile, not cluster ammunition (until updated with the fire engine perk i believe). A good balance imo.
it’s probably my game’s current difficulty settings…. But people hit by the catapults only get injured.
I think that is always the case with mangonels.
Great video, as a newbie years ago, gaining a fief was my hardest thing.
You forgot the old trick of just buying your own settlement thanks to Trade perk 300.
I've generally found it's best to buy from a lord who owns more than one fief and has one that isn't his culture (ex. Caladog owns Veron Castle). Can normally go for a few hundred thousand. Highest I've seen is 12 million.
Leveling trade up to 300 is only for the most dedicated grinders! Also, they changed the formula for purchasing fiefs and a lot of the time, the AI won't sell at any price. I added max denars (a little over 1 billion) and it still wasn't enough. That's the main reason I didn't cover it, but you're right that is another way to do it!
Let's be honest, if you grind Trade in current BL in an honest way without horse/metal exploit with caravans you'd conquer the world long before it hits 300 =) Even the exploit itself is effing tiring (yeah I did it in my current pacifist campaign)
@@GetAssista I tried a pacifist trading play thru, got to trade lvl 200ish and said fuck it and started killing everything in sight
@@Strat-Guides I think the A.I. basically won't sell a fief, if it is there only 1 fief left. Lords with multiple fiefs will usually sell Towns for like 2-5 million. I did encounter a Lord with some 9 fiefs and they were willing to sell some of their Castles for 400K. It makes sense from the A.I. perspective, but it's really not worth it as an actual human being to grind up that much Trade and money though.
Useless to me. I always struggle to get it up to 125 to gain renown perk. I would rather to commit suicide than having to haul all this cargo between cities until my trade skill is maxed out
Good vid brodie hopefully new players will be able to use your tips to great effect
In the last example, while you wait, if you leave a castle and the enter it again, the army will donate a few troops more to the garrison.
I actually tried that this time and I think they patched it because they only deposited the first time you enter! I spammed it like 10 times lol Good point though, I used that trick a lot in the past :)
My way of getting a fief: "Oh, my emperor, your attacking this castle? Let me help!" Result: I only had 10 mens that has been hurt, with no casualties. Since i was following the emperor army and getting involved at the last minute for each battle he was getting into, he really liked me and I was winning renowns. During the election we were two lords at equal chance to get the castle.. So after putting my vote in the count they just say "Ok, we give it to you!" When i entered my new castle I already had an army of more than 150 men inside!
Just join empire factions, they'll literally force those new fiefs down your throat.
Empire fiefs are all strong af, so the chance of capturing a new fiefs from outside empire factions are much higher.
When I don't want that fief with -3 loyalty, yet I still got them. I vote others with my 100 influence and literally everyone else including the king voted me.
Every Single Fucking Time.
4:08 Fian Champions aint no archers. Theyre beasts of the battlefields. Theyre really OP.
Yeah they are nuts! And the Khan's Guard
Gotta love the Uthred from The Last Kingdom character hahaha
I am exactly at this point in the game, this guide was made for me, thanks strat
Perfect timing!
I'm so glad I found your channel!
Thanks for watching!
Lol, I enjoy your clipped, methodical style of delivery.
Thank you for watching!!
Chad video, I will probably go more with the first or last tips, but thanks for the help giga strad
I think the first option is the best, but it's hard to wait around for it!
One, semi-obvious, tip if you're attacking non-rebels to pick on a faction who is already at a disadvantage in war (such as two kingdoms otherwise unoccupied kingdoms at war with them), that way they have
I prefer to do it in this cowardly way: I work as mercenary for my preferred faction and wait till an acceptable fief is about to be captured, then I join the faction and usually get the fief without doing much for it. In my current playthrough, with Separatism mod installed, I even got a nice castle of my own faction/culture far away from the mean potential enemy factions, so I don't need many in the garrison. My party at that time was only 80 strong and mainly T1 to T3, so conquering a fief myself was out of reach.
Cowardice has it's benefits, can't deny it! :)
I learned it hard way that auto resolve sieges is absurdly disadvantegous for my army :D Once i gathered even like 3000 trooops with various vassals, against 200 troops castle - and still lost....
Ouch! It's pretty crazy how big of an advantage defenders have in auto resolve. It's almost to the point where you can get better results as the player by auto resolving and avoid the fight in person.
Appreciate the guides! They're a big help!
I'm glad they are helpful :D
Cool siege tips. But the hardest part of getting your own fief is holding on to it afterwards.
Yeah I agree! That's why I usually recommend saving up a couple hundred thousand denars for an easy peace.
So glad I found this! About 2 years in game now and after being granted my first castle the town nearby in Vlandia rebelled and it’s basically the exact same scenario here, will update tomorrow how it goes.
How did it go?
I deleted the game, fuck this bullshit, King Caladog dipshit couldn't stop declaring war on EVERYTHING @@dk-wg4wq
Didn't even think of starving them out. Thanks
As I remember, you can also buy a fief from other lords. (It is the last perk of Trade skill)
Yup, that's another way to do it! I generally don't cover it because getting to 300 trade takes literally tens of hours to do without using exploits and I don't want to be responsible for sending someone down that path hahaha Also, they changed things recently so not all fiefs can be bought - a lot of nobles will ask for a price higher than the game's max denar balance, meaning they won't sell at any price.
4:31 that comment backfired fast 😂
I guess if you don't make a kingdom, you can repeatedly ninja capture stuff and peace out. I would imagine influence farming and stealing a whole bunch from within is still the way to go, though I haven't played in a while now.
very nice tips thank you sir
been playing the game since it came out and the game just keeps on giving so much joy 💚
i legit only got this game cuz my love for last kingdom so i love that ur name is discount uhtred
Nice! Destiny is all :D
@@Strat-Guides lol love it. The game is pretty fun honestly … just wish they had a multiplayer or co op campaign I don’t really like the mods they have rn for it
@@Barba223 Coop would be a game changer, for sure
Excellent video yet again Strat ❤
Always thought it was silly that TW doesn't let you form an army or at issue a command to a subordinate party before being a ruler or vassal.
i think it has to do with kingdoms cant declare war on you unless youre in a kingdom, therefore you could take the entire map with your clan armies and keep making peace whenever you felt like it. im sure they could just fix the issue with declaring war on clans as well but..
@@wateraffliction I don't know what the official rules are, but Sturgia has declared war on my clan when it was not a kingdom multiple times.
@@kupiercerberus904 i can only imagine you have a terrible relation with some of them?? kingdoms have to pass a vote to declare war (on kingdoms). the only way they can go to war with you is that some of them are just indiscriminately attacking your settlements?? i’ve never had it happen myself so i’m not sure, how are they going to war with you
@@wateraffliction i had taken Ustokol castle off in the corner of the map in an area that was separated from the rest of Sturgia. I followed the video advice and made peace with them after doing it. My relation with them was probably around 20 at this point. I then proceeded to begin enjoying my conquest and BOOM, Raganvad of the Sturgians had declared war on you. I had no kingdom, and wasn’t attacked immediately, so Idk. I then made peace again and he started war again. Not only is the AI somehow declaring war on me, he’s practically trying to extort me. I don’t really understand how he kept his honorable trait while consistently breaking his peace agreement with me every two days. One thing total war unfortunately did better
They should also really add alliances to this game. I’d love to have joined the Sturgians against the Vlandians, but as an equal ally and not a vassal
my first fief was just given to me by Caladog. randomly after i married his daughter
“we already built the trebuchet, might as well use them”
edward longshanks
Lol good reference!
These tactics will be good to adopt for my Barbarian story campaign, I plan on building my own Kingdom to bring back Palea. Their real name, language and customs may be gone but they can be honored.
And if you want to start your own kingdom you can capture a fief with a different kingdom, and leave their kingdom and take the fiefs with you, that causes them to declare war on you but if you go and talk to that one guy about starting your own kingdom right after, they’ll be peaceful again.
Important to note, the more troops you have in your party the higher the chance to be in the vote for ownership. Me running a companions only playthrough I've taken tens of fiefs and got NOTHING.
I remember the good ol' days when nobles would beggingly ask you to take your fief and all their money as long as you had "everything has a price"
Lol yup! Now half the time they won't sell even for 1 billion denars!
I'm at 16 towns and 2 castles and I haven't even declared a kingdom yet.
I'm wondering just how far I want to take this thing...
I'm at 8 towns and 10 castles and I haven't even sieged a single place yet =) Money is power
All the way baby!!! It's so nice not worrying about being attacked :)
I'm usually worried, maybe too much, about the empire factions. It takes only a year or three, four, to see one eliminated and consolidate a lot of power in two factions, or sometimes even just one. The other factions are never able to hold on to any of the empire towns and such that they conquer. The AI is so consistently bad at holding fiefs that are not their culture, you can generally add rebelling cities from a losing faction as it gets wiped off the map. It's why I often end up in Khuzait territory, or Sturgia, or Battania. Sturgia and Khuzait because they consistently lose wars Battania because they've got the worst starting position ever, being next to or close enough to be declared war upon, 4 different faction including two empire cultures and Vlandia. Being a neighbour to Vlandia is bad. Unless you're a human player because shield wall beats cavalry charge.
Anyway, the point I was trying to make with this is that I'm usually more worried about declaring my own kingdom than I am about capturing the first fief
I've currently got 7 fiefs on my current playthrough and am trying to build them up before declaring a kingdom. It's in campaign mode, so I'm holding off until the last few days left to complete the next story mission. I have two Battanian towns, three empire, one Khuzaite (forgive me if I spelled wrong), and an Aserai town.
Battania only has 5 cities too lol while other factions have 6-8
@@LCInfantry Yes but battanian towns are closer to each other so it makes where they have higher prosperity in each town. They are small but compact and rich and the Fians champions are very strong.
Was that Discount Uhtred of Bebbanburg? Awesome book series (The Saxon Stories). I always think of them when I play Bannerlord. Thanks for the video, Strat!
Lol yeah he's not nearly as handsome as the real one - Destiny is all! :D
In my recent experience, taking a fief at all is painful because the faction you make peace with almost always go to war with you again within a week regardless of whether you're a kingdom or not. I've been spending the last few days slaughtering nobles of the Vlandians and when I finally got them week the Western Empire also declared war. Everyone in game is solely opportunistic, there is no sense of borders or honor other than leaving nobles alive, which is useless unless you have a mod that keeps them in your dungeon without them escaping as they will just build a larger army and come back.
That's what I count on. I stack my fief with every troop i could find, I create a clan party with my brother as a general and incorporate him in my army, then I sit and wait for all the xp come to me. You can easily stack 500+ troops total in few days after taking a fief, which should be enough to defend it against any army
Thats the best part. Now you get to do a bunch of defensive sieges for massive rewards
Today I learned, that you can put away your siege weapons. Now it actually makes sense to make them, before it seemed like a waste, the one will always get immediately slagged by the four waiting on the walls.
I took my first fief (in 1.1 experimental ["beta"] version) by starving out Epicrotea. Had an army of about 140, mostly all elites (mixture of Sturgian heavy spear, Fians and Cataphracts), and total encumbrance capacity of about 40,000 (and about 2 million ducats in my pocket). This was at about 1085 or 1087 ish date. Epicrotea had changed hands several times already, and when I started it was controlled by Vlandia with loyalty around 33. I bought all the food, everyday at about 11:59PM for about 20 days. It was in the "settlement is rebelling" status. Here comes a Sturgian army to siege it. They took, and thankfully the food and loyalty remained low so, I just resumed starving it out. I cannot recall if it took another whole season or 1.5 but I finally got it to rebel. At one point my encumbrance was 80,000 / 40,000 so I did run off to sell food to Diathma once or twice! 🤣
Once it had rebelled, I waited until all the lord parties were outside the city, bought all the food again, chased down one of the smaller lords and beat his party, then went back and sieged it. His party DID starve out BTW. It appears that only "Militia" are not vulnerable to starvation.
Lol you savage, starvation by economics :D
I really love the Joker experience. Can you make more detailed video like this? Btw love your channel❤
Thank you! I'm planning on doing more videos like that started later this month or next month :) Those videos take a bit more work to do and I prefer those over making these quick videos, although making both is probably important.
This is mildly related but if you're a vassal of a kingdom you can actually kill the king in battle (providing the option is on) and then get voted in to being king but you don't want to this without a sizable stock of money
Anyone else catch the discount Utred? Lol. Love it
Please make a video of tips or strategies to wipe out a faction or conquer the whole map, I feel that big factions feel impossible to conquer since you try to conquer a field or town, to then het sieged by an army of over 2k
Wait for a rebellion, buy the settlement couse those 20 hours of trade grind need to be worth something
Lol true, the trade grind is a legit nightmare.
I like to mention Discount Utred's cousin Freebooter Sam, his clan paint fiefs green and its so cheap, you would think they used looters.
I did the way of getting stuff in one of the factions then after I got the castles and town I wanted I left the kingdom as a rebel made peace with that kingdom and now I own a rebel faction and now when anyone who rebels I take there castle or town
I was playing just yesterday as a vassal for the first time in bannerlord, and Derthert gave me Ortysia and 2 castles right next to it. I didnt even have to spend influence, and i didnt have any in the first place. First fief as a vassal and it was a city, lmao. A far cry from Warband AI rulers givin ya a freshly raided village
After my save was corrupted I lost my campaign where Raganvad died early and I helped the Sturgians conquer half the map. On my new campaign Raganvad is really mucking things up so it is clear I will need to save the Sturgians from themselves.
My strat is - I farm relationship with the kingdom ill go off of, marry off siblings, then when enough money I go to the lord I want and have much relationship with, typically alary, take him prisoner, wich makes me at war with vlandia. Then I go to the castle West of pravend, siege it with a Single ram, then I deckeare kinngdom and recruit alary. With a town and 2 clans, I hire more clans or siege them until they join me. Its a snowball tactic.
Thank you so much cause I was trying to take them with a 3 party armies but then a 1000 troops army would always come and destroy my 300 guys
Bro i watched this. Then rebels in Manauanth rebelled and i took it first try. Thanks Man
You can also barter for fiefs once you get the last trade perk
Clear and effective.
Thanks for watching!!
I was trying to rebel tactic in the newest patch, and similar numbers, 300 to my 100, and they just sally'd out and attacked me in the field almost instantly.
Didn't have the highest tier troops so it was a bloody loss.
I don't think they wait around to starve if they have a numbers advantage anymore.
I captured 3 castles independently on my playthrough by using the make peace strategy, at the moment, I am an independent clan with 3 castles, question is, if I join a kingdom as vassal and leave, will my fiefs be taken over by the kingdom I previously joined? or will you still keep them? I am planning to join a kingdom to accumulate influence but I am cautious about it. Nice video by the way, this guide is the reason on why I was able to have fiefs without joining a kingdom 😂 thank you!
now how do you actually keep it from here to make sure that it isn't going to instantly be taken by others
I took lageta, but it has only 2 villages so it took super long to get to 3300 prosperity, now it's steadily climbing(+600 hearths in both villages)
I've waited a week before after food hit 0.
The garrison starved.
The militia grew by 1 every day.
I still advocate for always building siege engines, even if you plan to starve them out. Always be prepared
The militia were eating the corpses of the garrison
What would say is more fun, taking a fief independently or usurping a kingdom from within? I’m unsure what to do next and would like some suggestions on where I could go next in my game.
I prefer to take a fief solo simply because it's less time. It's pretty fun to steal fiefs from a kingdom, but the setup takes a while!
@@Strat-Guides I see, perhaps it would be cool to plan a separate campaign to become king of one of the starting kingdoms through some politicking. For RP purposes of course.
Hey Strat, I wanted to ask what's your favorite type of your units, like battanian, aserai, etc, nice video too!
I'm a fan of shock troops like the falxman, menavlion, etc. although they are far from the best unit to use. They can be deadly if they are positioned well. For them most OP unit it's definitely the archer (mounted or on foot). Half the time you can get away with a trash shield wall (level 2 units even) and just keep them on shield wall, soaking arrows and distracting the enemy while your archers clean up.
@@Strat-Guides thank you man! Keep up the good work
"It's fiefing time" *fiefs all over Liena*
Lol I'm not sure I even want to know...
I attack a castle with 1200+ troops i was not the leader but heres a tip leave wait for that 1200+ troops to get to 400 against now like 100 join and you can practically sweep through the Castle and if you got t4/5 out of you 100+troops they want you to be the leader cause of your contributions leading to no influence used only lost 12 troops also
And you can say what you want be i did it twice 3 hours ago
4:30 they're not getting hurt by siege equipment anymore, gets obliterated by onager lol..
In taking a castle or town, is it better to starve them, rid them of their siege equipment, and then push in with ram and siege towers
OR
starve them, rid them of their siege equipment, break their walls, and then push in?
Considering you're just a faction not a kingdom yet.
I would say if they have a large garrison of high tier units, then starving them out is priority. If not, then take the walls down ASAP and it's a free fief
Right now I am playing my first campaign game. I joined Valandia we have been at war with almost every faction now Sturgia 4 times and they just keep giving me castles we capture right now Valandia controls 16 castles and 7 of them are under my control and I got 1 major city. I could do the main quest and have my own kingdom if I choose to the only problem is I am virtually broke.
Was surprised to see you watched TLK too lol, discount uhtred!!
This is me engaging with the video, as commanded by Algo
Your sacrifice is acceptable to the algorithm :D Hope you and family are doing well in the new year!
How do you get your name to show up on the voting screen to be appointed to a fief or castle? my name rarely shows up..
It's a mix of several different factors, but some of the major ones are to not own any fiefs already (the more you own, the harder it is to show up on the list), have the same culture as the fief you're taking and participate in the battle to take it.
First way didn't go like that for me at all, owner of the city joins up with the garrison and attacks before I can starve them out.
$700k, almost clan tier 4, over 100 troops with 6 companions; biggest weakness is army is a broad range of types of troops and not all tier 4 or 5. Also suck at commanding troops but didn't even get to that point.
Question... If you aren't connected to a Kingdom and put down a rebellion, does that establish your own kingdom?
Thoughts on siege towers vs destroying all the walls before assaulting?
If you have time, destroy the walls! It just takes a lot longer, but it's much easier to take the town than with towers.
@@Strat-Guides thanks! i was hoping that towers performed better (wouldn't be surprised given TW balance). Destroying the walls also means you have to defend the town longer afterwards too :(
Karma, "We should not get hit by siege engines" bam, hit by onager.
pro tip is to buy all the food before you start a siege
That's a good tip! Cuts down the starvation time by a bit.
How common are the rebellions? I'm 20 hours into a playthrough and I haven't seen one yet.
It just depends on how many wrong-culture towns are being taken. Castles don't rebel, so it has to be a town and we all know how bad the AI is at besieging lol
Lol sturgian infantry slowly marching into fian champions.
What would I do if I wanted to take my own culture fief first and then join my faction? There is a chance that your faction loses 1-2 fiefs then a rebellion happens and you siege it before the AI does, but that might not happen or will take an enormous amount of time. Once you declare war you get an opinion hit which won't allow you to join that faction after you finish the war, what's the strategy?
I love trying to take cities that rebelled. But as you said, that can be hard to find. Is there a way I can try to find ones that may be close and...encourage... them to rebel? How can you tell if ones might be close?
Rebelling is based on loyalty, which should show up in the top left corner when you're in a city. I forget the exact numbers but there's around a 10ish percent chance per day a city will rebel once it gets below 15 or so loyalty.
You can help this along by starving the city by buying all the food in the city and buying food from incoming villagers/caravans. It can cost around 50k to fully starve out a city like this, but is well worth it when they eventually rebel and you get essentially a free city.
Also keep in mind, cities will only rebel when the militia is bigger than the garrison (even when at 0 loyalty), and starving a city causes the militia to skyrocket.
Usually it's when someone takes a town from another culture and they don't match. That's why you usually see most rebellions with non-empire culture because if one empire faction takes a fief from another empire, they don't get the -3 loyalty. Keep an eye out for fiefs that don't match the starting owner and go pay them a visit.
@Strat Gaming Slightly off topic, but I've had an issue with loyalty in one of my campaigns, (playing as a Western Empire vassal) where I'm always being given foreign cultures cities and castles. Had a real problem with Varcheg constantly rebelling until I forced a few loyalty increasing policies through. Now, no lord in my faction has this problem anymore.
@@calvinpentland Thanks, I appreciate that!
@@Strat-Guides That makes sense too. Thanks!
Man dodged a bullet faster than Neo
How does peace work though? When I ask to make peace they usually tell me they have no authority
If you're no part of a kingdom, then you can ask any noble for peace. However you cannot ask mercenary clans (minor factions like hidden hand, Ghilman, etc.). If you're part of a kingdom then I think it can only be done through a vote.
well done
I took on some rebels and they do have more than 3 lords and they also defend against sieges
Yeah once in a while they can, but it's pretty rare. I've only seen it once in all my hours played
I found gold, again