A lot of new players or experienced ones from Warband might not be familiar with the new system. This guide will give you all the details you require to dominate Calradia in Bannerlord.
Getting Started
When beginning the game, ensure that you have the Birth and Death Options turned off. This won’t prevent you from eliminating nobles, but it provides additional safety for both you and the nobles from your faction.
Gameplay Settings
Keep the autosave feature turned on, and always remember to save your game manually before you engage in a siege, a battle, or declare war.
At the start of the game, set the Battle Size to Very Low (200) to increase your chances against larger enemy armies. You can gradually increase this to 600 or 1000 as your own army grows.
Create a Character
To begin, select the Aserai faction, as it makes caravans cheaper and helps prevent rebellions when you conquer Aserai territory.
Next, focus on boosting your Social and Intelligence skills, with a particular emphasis on Charm and Engineering. These skills are the most crucial.
Getting Started in Calradia
In the beginning, you’ll receive a quest called “Investigate ‘Neretzes’ Folly.” To complete this quest, simply press ‘N’ to locate the people you need to find. Any of them can be a noble for the quest. Just remember to recruit some soldiers to protect yourself from bandits while you’re on your journey.
Here are the names of the potential nobles for the quest:
- Lucon, Rhagaea, Garios, and Penton from the Empire
- Derthert, Ingalther, and Unthery from Vlandia
- Raganvad, Olek, and Godun from Sturgia
- Caladog, Ergeon, and Melidir from Battania
- Unqid, Adram, and Tais from Aserai
- Monchug, Mesui, and Hurunag from Khuzait
You have plenty of time to complete this quest, so while you do, consider taking advantage of the time to earn renown in tournaments. Renown is essential for increasing your clan level and eventually establishing your own kingdom.
To find tournaments, explore the map and get closer to towns. Towns with a special icon on the right side of their name host tournaments. Participating in tournaments can also yield valuable and expensive items that you can sell to buy caravans and recruit companions from taverns. Companions are important as you can send them with the caravans, and remember to buy caravans with well-trained troops to avoid bandit attacks.
Don’t forget to place a bet in each round of the tournament to earn some extra gold as well.
Marriage with a Noble
If you want to ensure that Sturgia won’t immediately declare war on your newly proclaimed kingdom while you’re at war with another faction, consider marrying into the ruling clan of Sturgia. Be prepared with at least 200,000 gold before getting married, as the cost can range from 100,000 to 200,000 gold.
Assembling the Dragon Banner
When you’re in the process of assembling the Dragon Banner, be cautious not to proclaim your kingdom too soon. It’s best to delay proclaiming your kingdom until you have more than just one settlement. If you rush to proclaim your kingdom with only one settlement, every faction will likely declare war on you.
Starting Your Conquest
To initiate your conquest, begin by building an elite army with at least 200 soldiers, focusing on recruiting cavalry if possible. Your primary objective should be to eliminate the Khuzait and Aserai factions before proclaiming your own kingdom. If you’re fortunate, a rebellion might occur in one of their cities, allowing you to declare war on the rebellion rather than the entire faction. Keep in mind that towns provide daily gold income, while castles deduct from your gold reserves.
A strategic approach to defeating a faction is to acquire a castle and leave it lightly defended to attract enemy armies. Once an enemy army begins a siege, they’ll become trapped in that siege and won’t be able to retreat. When dealing with captured clan leaders, it’s advisable to execute them, which will disband their clans, leaving the nobles in dungeons.
Don’t forget to check the dungeons, as enemy nobles may be sent to the castle or town they were besieging after you defeat their armies. Leave the faction’s king imprisoned to seize as many towns and castles as possible before proclaiming your kingdom. If you kill the king last, neighboring kingdoms won’t have the opportunity to claim these territories once the faction is destroyed.
It’s important to note that no faction will declare war on you until you officially proclaim your kingdom.
Maintaining Order in Cities and Castles
When you capture a city or castle, it’s a good practice to choose the “Show Mercy” option to avoid angering the local population. Since you don’t have access to kingdom policies without your own kingdom, always select “Manage Castle” to remove any construction choices made by the AI. Set “Festival and Games” as the Daily Defaults to prevent rebellions. You can also appoint governors, who are your companions, but you can call them back to your party anytime by pressing ‘L.’
Winning Battles
In battles, consider trying your luck by using the “Send troops” option. For instance, if your elite army of 200 soldiers is facing an enemy force of 600-700, you can still win, especially if you’ve set the Battle Size to at least 300 or 600. You can make a save and experiment with different battle sizes to find the right balance. If sending troops doesn’t work, try loading an older save or engage in the battle. It’s recommended to recruit mainly cavalry for better chances.
Keep in mind that if you’ve set the Battle Size to low, you’ll enter the battle with fewer troops than you have in your party. This is because the attacking force is designed to have more soldiers, and the game adjusts to create a more balanced battle.
Winning Sieges
Attacker
As an attacker, ensure you eliminate any enemy armies before initiating the siege, so they won’t disrupt the process. Be patient and wait for the garrison to run out of supplies. Also, set the Battle Size to 1000, as defenders usually have more soldiers than attackers in sieges, and having as many troops as possible is crucial.
Defender
As a defender facing multiple enemy armies, consider adjusting the Battle Size to “Very Low” (200) in the Gameplay Settings. Wait for the right moment and use the “Ambush” option to strike the enemy. Make sure to have elite cavalry and focus on destroying the siege engines already built by the enemies while accumulating kills until you can conclude the ambush without retreating.
In both attack and defense scenarios, it’s a good idea to use the “Send troops” option during sieges, as it provides a better chance of victory.
Establishing Your Kingdom:
When you have gathered enough towns that provide a secure foundation for your kingdom and have around 100-200 days remaining in the quest to form your kingdom, go ahead and proclaim your kingdom with any set of laws. Once you’ve chosen your side in the story, whether Imperial or non-Imperial, disregard the “Conspiracy” quest, as you’ll have ample time to focus on the main quest.
To start your new kingdom, create the initial clans with your companions, but assign them only castles. This strategy eliminates the need to pay for the upkeep of castles, allowing you to assemble large armies without depleting your gold reserves. Forming parties with companions will require you to cover their army expenses, so it’s more cost-effective to provide them with castles and allow them to raise their own armies.
You can now consider eliminating the enemy king of a faction, but do this only when there are one or two more clans left in the faction. The outcome depends on luck: they might choose a successor or give up. If there is no successor, you can acquire all the cities and castles without fighting.
At this point, you’ll have the opportunity to persuade clan leaders to join your cause, along with their fiefs. Keep in mind that you’ll need to offer them gold as a one-time payment, and the more castles and cities they possess, the higher the cost will be to convince them to join your kingdom.
Policies
These are the only policies you need in the kingdom.
After the Final Quest
Once you’ve completed the main quest, be prepared for all the factions opposing your chosen side to declare war on you. If you support the Empire, the barbarian factions will be your enemies, and occasionally, the imperial factions might randomly declare war on you as well. However, if you choose to support the barbarian factions, you’ll face hostility from the imperial factions, and sometimes the barbarians may also randomly declare war on you. Note that after completing the quest, the imperial factions will join your kingdom if you supported the Empire.
A strategic approach to finishing the quest and defeating these opposing factions is to first eliminate their armies and then capture only their towns. This method earns you more quest points, and the faction may surrender instead of requiring you to capture all their fiefs.
After completing the final quest, you can continue expanding your influence throughout Calradia, applying the strategies you’ve learned above, and there will be no more quests to distract you.
Bonus Tips
- When declaring war, always use diplomacy after creating your kingdom.
- Pay attention to the tribute mechanics; it doesn’t matter who proposes peace, you can see which faction is giving or receiving gold.
- While executing small nobles can be tempting, be cautious not to do it excessively, as many of their families are spread across all factions, and it can harm your reputation.
- Be aware that your sister is in an imperial faction, so avoid executing her.
- Keep a significant number of horses in your inventory to increase your storage space.
- Ensure you always have a steady supply of food.
- Never turn down the opportunity to collect loot from battles.
- Utilize Shift to select five pieces of one category (works with troops and items), and use CTRL to select all pieces from one category.
That's everything we are sharing today for this Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord guide. This guide was originally created and written by Ionescu. In case we fail to update this guide, you can find the latest update by following this link.