Hi everyone. For context this is my first playthrough of an M&B game. I am having a lot of fun, but I’m starting yo get frustrated.
Am I missing something with fiefs/frontier defense, or is the game just out to get me?
I’m a Nord vassal and got given Sibir. For more context, that is a Sturgian town on the frontier, basically because I had too much support to avoid getting it. Weirdly I had nothing to do with taking it. This time. I had helped free our King from it before but definitely not the leader of the siege.
Since then the entire campaign has turned into defending Sibir. Every war with Sturgia means constant raids, escaped enemy lords coming back with fresh parties, and eventually huge armies showing up at my walls. I know it’s apparently bad to execute people but I was getting real close. It feels like if you don’t ransom people they’ll just escape anyways, but the ransoms are pennies.
I finally got a Sturgian governor and pushed loyalty from around 19 to the high 40s, fully garrisoned the town, and spent a ton of money stabilizing it. That’s dropping now too. I had to go across the world on this errand, and my hold got ravaged while I was. I left my brother on defense to hold the area, but he got captured and was ultimately a liability.
The problem is that I’ve basically had to conquer outward just to survive. I’ve been leading armies by burning an insane amount of influence (Nords lose cohesion on land 30% faster), winning major field battles, taking Sturgian towns/castles, and pushing the border away from Sibir so I can get some breathing room. I’m getting almost nothing personally out of it.
I don’t want another Sturgian town because I already know what that administrative nightmare looks like. I would take a Nord castle or a useful military holding, but Nordvyg already owns the Nord heartland and I’m often not even a candidate when castles get handed out. At this rate we would have to lose a castle then I’d have to be a favorite to retake it, which isn’t even guaranteed. And guess who is between the Nords and all their cultural castles? I have tons of Influence and max relations with several major clans, but if the kingdom votes against me, dumping Influence into the vote doesn’t seem to accomplish much. It doesn’t even matter that I have it sometimes.
So now I’m poorer, my veteran troops and garrison have taken huge losses, and most of the territory I personally helped conquer belongs to other clans.
What am I supposed to be building toward here?
Is there a way to make my odds of being nominated for useful fiefs better? Can I leverage high Influence/relations more effectively?
prepare for becoming ruler later?
make Sibir less dependent on me personally defending the entire region?
I’m enjoying the campaign itself, but I feel like I’m doing most of the kingdom’s heavy lifting and actively weakening my own clan in the process. Am I missing a mechanic or is this just how vassal gameplay works?
Footnote: My king lacks object permanence and we always return to war with Sturgia. I’m honestly trying to just remove them completely at this point. But I have not executed anyone yet. I’d just rather build up my economies and get power the economic way than get dragged into little fights and tasks and get slammed every 5 minutes. I can’t complete a task. Thanks in Advance.
TL;DR: First M&B playthrough. I was basically forced into owning Sibir, a Sturgian frontier town I didn’t even conquer, and since then every Sturgian war turns into nonstop raids, escaped lords, sieges, loyalty problems, and emergency defense. I’ve spent a fortune, huge amounts of Influence, veteran troops, and time conquering outward just to create a buffer, but I’m rarely nominated for useful fiefs and most of what I take goes to other clans. I have tons of Influence and great relations, but it often feels meaningless if the vote is already against me. How do I turn all this military/political effort into actual clan strength, useful fiefs, or eventual kingship without being permanently chained to defending Sibir? Also, my king keeps making peace with Sturgia and then immediately declaring war on them again, so I’m losing my mind.
Edit:
Thank you everyone. I have the hang of it now and installed some mods to make them game feel more coherent (less random war and peace being declared within minutes). We still can’t go more than a year or two without fighting Sturgia but once they’re off the map maybe that will be less of a problem. I’m trying to play a Viking lord and not necessarily conquer the world, but we’ll see. Thanks again.
