>>74956760
butter, lots and lots of butter

crossbows

Crossbows.

Start in Swadia and train a shit tom of Knights, then make the first people you attack the nords. Their huscarls ain't got shit on horses, you'll have all their land in an hour. Only hard part will be taking Swadia, you'll have to constantly replace knights that leave due to morale.

Remove kebab?

>>74956760
>not playing anno domini 1257
>not crusading through the middle east killing every shitskin you see

>>74956760
My first ever play through I conquered everyone with mercernaries.

>>74956760

It's hard. I went on a very long mission with Lethwin Far Seeker to replace King Ragnar and we now have all of Swadia and the Nordic territory under out control. We are the biggest Empire but it's hard to keep it under control. I like playing with the settings pretty difficult as well, no saves of course.

>>74956760
level up, get renown, make money and grind experience (training + charisma) until you can maintain 100 elite troops.

join a lord. improve the relations with all the lords of the realm, until you can convince them that you deserve a castle. or you can take a castle yourself. to take a castle, use rhodok crossbows or nord infantry. depends on the castle.

when you take the castle, start recruiting more elite troops, so that you can still have a reserve if you ever lose a battle. start being aggressive and instigate wars to unify the realm under your king. alternatively, when your king denies you a castle, you can betray him and start your own kingdom. you should have enough troops to storm some castles by now.

congratulations, now you can hate this game as you have to deal with ungrateful vassals and traitorous allies.

make sure to have atleast 40 right to rule before you become independent. you can attack a weak castle and make your own kingdom without all that hustle, but expect everyone in calradia to unite and fuck your shit up.

>>74958387
if i have debt to a lord
do i repay debts