Winning with solo clan

I haven't seen people post this before, so thought I'd share. I'm on my second game, first one I realized I'd changed to my own kingdom too early, so I started over. This one I went pretty slow, stayed off with the Vlandians and was granted two cities and a few castles before I decided I wanted to play with another kingdom, so I gave up my fiefs and went to join the Khuzaits. I did well and was elected leader after the current one died. Pushed into western and Southern empire land and granted everything to myself and then broke off with about 5 cities.

I had seen everyone posting about lords leaving with fiefs and actually couldn't find anyone to join me anyway, so I decided to solo clan it. At first I had my companions leading parties, but now I have three grown kids with good stats, so I can raise an army of over 1200 without minor clans. I do hire them when I can, but they are hard to find and leave often. Currently I have 17 cities and 19 castles with strength of 20k men.

The western empire and Aserai are my biggest threats, but I'm total I am stronger than them now. Because I'm the only clan, I don't have to spend any influence to do anything. I can declare war or sue for peace any time I want. The most tribute I have had to pay so far is 20k per day after I took two cities in a row. I have a good chunk of western lands taken and my plan now is to wear down the Aserai before taking down the western empire and pushing west with one long front north to south.

Not sure if it is the most fun way to play, but it seems to be working. If someone declares war on me, or my armies are replenished, I take one or two castles or cities, then sue for peace before they can strike back. I end up paying tribute, but I can afford it by taking a few days to smith every once in a while. My best two handed sword is worth about 80k, so I just build a bunch of those.

My character is 54 now, so it will probably be my kids who need to finish out the conquest. But I have 6 more kids growing up, so I'm confident I can do it within that generation. I think the key is not needing influence to declare war or peace, currently I'm at 13k influence, because I only spend 100 each time instead of needing to override other clans. My fiefs may not be optimized later when I get a lot more without governers. But I'm trying to build a huge family to overcome that. Overall I think it's pretty cool and I don't have to worry about lords running away with my hard won land. Just thought I'd share in case others want to try or have had similar playthroughs.

submitted by /u/the_seattleite85
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