I am not sure about you guys, but when I play Mount & Blade, I always aim to conquer the entire Calradia. I know, big dreams often fail, but hey, it’s worth trying! If you too are as eager and ambitious as me, then you have my full support. And my tips as well.
In this article, I will be helping you improve your influence once you become a ruler in Bannerlord. I will also be sharing some tips on how to manage your settlements and your vassals, to ensure you become the ultimate ruler of Calradia. Let’s get right to it!
Forming your kingdom
Before deciding to form your own kingdom, there is a lot to do first. To form your own kingdom, you must first complete the “Dragon Banner” quest. Once that is done and your kingdom formed, it’s time to move on to fame farming.
Gaining Influence
Influence is quite similar to Renown. The more you have, the better your odds are of achieving certain things in Bannerlord. But how do you obtain Influence? Well, there are quite a few ways to do so. For starters, winning battles. This is pretty much a given. No one will respect you as much as when you win battles. Also, the bigger the fight, the more Influence you get.
Releasing captured generals and donating troops raise Influence too. If you release lords or generals from captivity, you will not only gain Influence, but also Charm points. If you have allied yourself to anyone and donate them troops, you will get a good Influence boost.
Building forums in settlements is another way: it will grant you 1 Influence point per day. It’s slow progress, but a constant one.
Using your Charm skill raises your Influence gain too. The higher your Charm skill, the better odds you have of being respected by other lords and kings. The more lords like you, the more you influence them.
Once you’ve gained enough influence, then it’s time to move on to Kingdom Policies.
Kingdom Policies
There are countless Policies you can apply to your kingdom. Most of them increase your Influence, making your life a lot easier. You can see them below.
I went with the Council of the Commons and Feudal Inheritance to get started. I already had a considerable amount of settlements when I became a Ruler, so those two seemed like the best option. There are other policies not listed above, they don’t provide Influence points, but they too have their own advantages. For example, the Tribunes of the People increases town loyalty and reduces 5% on town taxes.
Managing your settlements
Much like in Warband, Bannerlord has 3 types of settlements: Villages, Castles and Towns. Towns are the biggest settlements, allowing players to build more, receive a higher income, and recruit troops. Castles are fortified settlements that also provide a reasonable income, but don’t allow troops to be recruited. Finall, villages are the smallest of the settlements. They provide a very low source of income and can only be defended by the militia.
To improve your influence in Bannerlord, you should build and prioritize projects that increase Influence and settlement prosperity. To keep your settlements happy and safe, there are a few things you can do.
- Assigning a Governor. Assigning one of your companions as the settlement’s governor will make your job a lot easier. They will manage your settlement’s growth and may even provide bonuses, depending on their Steward skill. And to increase Loyalty, you should ensure the companion’s and the settlement’s cultures are aligned.
- Providing Security. No one likes seeing their homes get pillaged or robbed. For that reason, you should assign troops to defend your settlements.
- Increase Prosperity. Increasing settlements’ Prosperity means higher wealth. Higher wealth means more tax money.
- Provide Food. Ensuring your people have food at all times will grant Loyalty.
Recruiting vassals
Once you’ve become a Ruler and established Kingdom Policies, it’s time to recruit lords into your faction.
My advice to you on this part is to recruit lords that bring something to the table. That means recruiting lords from the enemy’s clan, that way simultaneously reducing the number of enemies and increasing territory. Recruiting lords that possess a lot of territories will greatly improve your kingdom’s area and increase your Influence.
Improving vassal relations
The best way to improve your relationship with your vassals is to give them land. And if you’re receiving over 50 Influence on a daily basis, then you can definitely do it. You can award them with fiefs. Keep in mind, that this can only be done with newly-captured fiefs.
There is another way to improve your relationship with a vassal in Bannerlord, which will in turn raise Influence. You can choose to “Support” Vassal Clans. This will increase the clan’s Influence and your relationship with said vassal by 2 points.
