I am trying to control the entire world in the game Mount and Blade. This is a game I have gotten fairly good at but never have beaten 100%.

Where I Started

I started the game with little more the clothes on my back in a world at war. All around me were kings and great lords who control massive towns and lesser lords than owned castles and small villages. They fought over these territories with great armies.

I had no titles or money or land. There are however, ways to acquire these things. There is money to be made in trade and pillage. Soldiers to hire and train. Businesses to invest in. Relationships to cultivate with NPC's.

My Story

I am quite a few hours into this game, so I will give a VERY high level overview. I hired a few cheap soldiers to discourage bandits from attacking me as I crossed the land. Once I could travel safely, I bought items at towns were they could be gotten cheaply and sold them at other towns where they were in high demand. I saved my money and kept my army relatively small. I associated with no kingdom as I did not wish to be dragged into their wars (yet).

After I saved enough money, I bought my first business. A business essentially runs itself and provides a decent level of income for the rest of the game. With this additional income stream, I bought more businesses and grew my army.

When my army was strong enough to challenge other lords, I gave my allegiance to a king and became a minor lord. When the first war came, I captured a major enemy town (only 20 in the whole game). I asked the king to reward it to me and he did. With my first town, Yalen, I was able to become very rich by collecting rent and taxes from the residents and businesses there. At this point, I stop trading goods for money as my taxes and businesses paid all of my costs. I spend any extra money raising extra troops to garrison my town.

After Yalen, I was rewarded Jelkala after taking it by myself during a war. At this point, I owned 10% of the entire world's major towns (that is 40% of my kingdom's major towns). At this point, I am still just a lord, not a king. After I take the major town Reyvadin without help, I request it to be given to me as a reward. The king explains that I would own half of the kingdom if he did, so he refused me. At that point, the game gave me a choice to make my own kingdom and keep the town, or be a good lord and let someone else have the town. I decide to revolt. I now have 3 of the 20 major towns, making my new kingdom tied for third largest kingdom in the world. Other lords begin to join my kingdom seeking my favor.

The other kings don't see me as a true ruler and quickly all declare war on me. I quickly take the major towns Khudan and Narra, bringing my kingdom to a total of give towns. I own and defend them all myself. My lords and awarded with lesser castles and small villages, but true power comes from controlling major towns. My lords make enough money to assist me, but never enough to challenge me. I am the second largest kingdom in the world with 5 towns (the largest has 9). I spend all of my time recruiting soldier, waiting to expand quickly in the next big war.

After a period of stable peace, a kingdom with four major towns declares war on me. I gather my armies and my lords and move to take all of the towns for myself. I take Tihr, then Sargoth, then Wercheg, and finally Curaw falls. I am now tied for the largest kingdom in the world. I soon take the #1 spot by taking the major towns Suno and Dhirim from small kingdoms.

Now, I Control Most of the World!

I now control 11 towns (and everything else in red). That's most of the world! My only real competition left in the Sarranid Sultinate (seven towns). They just declared war on my today, so I think I am approaching the endgame. I have reserves of soldiers in place to take two of their seven town. After I take those two towns, I will assign the marshal-ship of my armies to a lord so they can fight while I rebuild my armies for the final push.