There are many new players or veterans from Warband who doesn’t know how to handle the new system. This guide will provide you with all the information you need to conquer Calradia in Bannerlord.
Starting the game
Make sure that you have the Birth and Death Options off. This will not stop you from killing nobles, but it’s more safety for you and the nobles from your faction.
Gameplay Settings
Leave the autosave on and remember to save manually before you start a siege, a battle or declare war.
For the beginning, set the Battle Size at Very Low (200) so you have more chances against bigger armies. You will be able to set it to 600, 1000 slowly while your army grows.
Create a Character
First select Aserai so you have the caravans cheaper and this will also help you later when you conquer Aserai not to get rebellions.
After that, only choose to boost the Social and Intelligence skills. The most important are the Charm and Engineering.
First steps in Calradia
You will have a quest Investigate ‘Neretzes’ Folly’, all you have to do is to search for these people by pressing N and you can see their location. All of them can be a noble for the quest.
( don’t forget to recruit some soldiers so the bandits will not attack you )
Lucon – Empire
Rhagaea – Empire
Garios – Empire
Penton – Empire
Derthert – Vlandia
Ingalther – Vlandia
Unthery – Vlandia
Raganvad – Sturgia
Olek – Sturgia
Godun – Sturgia
Caladog – Battania
Ergeon – Battania
Melidir – Battania
Unqid – Aserai
Adram – Aserai
Tais – Aserai
Monchug – Khuzait
Mesui – Khuzait
Hurunag – Khuzait
But you have enough days to complete it, meanwhile you can take advantage of the time and farm renown in tournaments. You will need renown to raise the clan level and create a kingdom.
All you have to do is explore the map and get closer to towns, the ones who have this icon 
on the right side of their name have a tournament.
You can find in these tournaments good and expensive staff too, you will sell it to buy caravans and recruit companions from taverns. You will need companions to send them with the caravans and always buy the caravans with better troops not to be attacked by bandits.
Remember to bet every round so you can farm gold too.
Marriage with a noble
A marriage with a person from the ruling clan of Sturgia will ensure you that Sturgia will not declare war on you immediately after you proclaim a kingdom and you are fighting a faction.
Remember to have at least 200k gold before you marry, the marriage can cost between 100-200k.
When you assamble the Dragon Banner
When you get to the point of assembling the Dragon Banner, you can do it.
But absolutely do not proclaim a kingdom. Everyone will declare war on you because you probably got only 1 settlement to speedrun the quest.
How to start the conquest
First you have to make an army of elites with the size of at least 200 soldiers, recruit only cavalry if you can.
Then you need to always start from the right corner of the map ( between Aserai and Khuzait ) and your main objective will be to destroy Khuzait and Aserai before to proclaim a Kingdom. If you are lucky enough you can get a rebellion in one of their cities and you just declare war to that rebellion instead of the faction. ( a town gives you gold every day while a castle is taking from your gold reserve )
The easy way to defeat a faction is to get a castle and leave it with few troops so you can attract any army. When an army starts a siege, it will be stuck in that siege and will not be able to retreat.
Execute only the clan leaders so their clan will disband and leave the nobles in dungeons.
Remember to check the dungeons, sometimes the enemy nobles are sent in the castle or town they were besieging after you defeat their armies.
Leave the king in prison so you can take how many towns and castles you can until you proclaim a kingdom because if you don’t have a kingdom and kill the king last, the neighboring kingdoms will steal every castle and town after the faction will be destroyed.
No faction will declare war on you until you proclaim a kingdom.
Keep order in cities and castles
When you capture a city or a castle, always press on Show Mercy not to anger the population.
Because you don’t have a kingdom and access to policies, you will always press Manage Castle get rid of what the AI choosed to build in that city and choose as Daily Defaults Festival and Games to be sure that you will not get a rebellion. The governors are optional, they are your companions and you always be able to call them back in your party by pressing L.
How to win a battle
First always try your luck by pressing Send troops, for example if you have an army of 200 elites vs an army of 600-700 you can beat them and be sure that you have set the Battle Size at least to 300 or 600. ( you can make a save and see what is the difference between battle sizes )
If it doesn’t work by sending troops, try an old save or fight. I recommend recruiting only cavalry to have more chances.
Remember if you have set the Battle Size at low, you will start the battle with less soldiers than you have in the party, because who is attacking you will always have more soldiers and the game is trying to make the battle equal to the real number of soldiers.
How to win a siege
Attacker
Always make sure you get rid of the enemy armies so no one bothers you during the siege, wait for the garrison to die of starvation. ( the militia can’t die of starvation )
Also don’t forget to set the Battle Size at 1000, in the sieges always the defender will have more soldiers than the attacker and you need all the soldiers you can get in the battle.
Defender
If you end up in a situation where more armies come and the only solution is your participation in a siege as defender, first go to options at Gameplay Settings and set the Battle Size at Very Low (200), wait to be able and press Ambush the enemy and don’t forget to have elite cavalry, then destroy the siege engines already built by the enemies and farm kills until you can finish the ambush without retreating.
Always press Send troops in sieges, you have more chances to beat that army.
Making a kingdom
When you have enough towns that will secure your back and few time left in the quest to make the kingdom ( 100-200 days ), proclaim the kingdom with any laws. After you choosed a side to finish the story. Regardless of what you will choose, ignore the Conspiration quest because you will have enough time to do the main quest instead.
Make the first clans with your companions and give them only castles, the advantage will be that you don’t have to pay for the castles anymore and you will be able to form large armies without losing gold. Only if you create parties with companions you are paying for their armies, it’s cheaper to give them a castle and let them form their own army.
Now you can kill the enemy king of a faction, only when his clan remains or 2-3 more clans in the faction, depends on luck if they want to choose a successor or give up, so you will get all the cities and castles without fighting if you kill him and there is no successor.
Now you will be able to convince the clan leaders to join you ( together with their fiefs ) instead of executing them. You have to give gold once if you manage to convince them, the more castles and cities they have, the more you will have to pay them.
Policies
These are the only policies you need in the kingdom.
The final quest
Once you complete the main quest, all the factions who are the opposite of what you represent will declare war on you.
If you choose to support the Empire you will get all the barbarian factions against you and sometimes the imperial ones will randomly declare war on you. ( also if you finish the quest, all the imperial factions will join your kingdom )
If you choose to support the barbarian factions you will get all the imperial factions against you and sometimes the barbarians will randomly declare war on you. ( same story like above, but nobody is joining you after you finish the quest)
The easy way to complete the quest and defeat these factions is to get rid of their armies first, then capture only the towns, you will have more points in the quest and their faction will surrender instead of having to capture all their fiefs.
After the end
Once you finish the final quest, you can continue conquering the entire Calradia with the help of what you learned above and there will be no more quests to bother you.
Important tips
– Always declare war through diplomacy after you create a kingdom.
– The tribute works like in reality, it doesn’t matter who proposes the peace, you can see if the faction takes or gives gold.
– If you execute the small nobles, don’t do it too much, many of their families spread in all factions and you get bad reputation.
– Your sister is in an imperial faction, be careful not to execute her.
– Get a lot of horses in inventory to increase your storage space.
– Always get food by any means.
– Never say no to the loot you can collect from battles.
– Using Shift you can select 5 pieces of one category ( works with troops and items ), using CTRL you can select all pieces from one category.
