How to Recruit Lords in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord – Guide, Tips, Tricks

Recruiting lords in Bannerlord is the primary way to expand your kingdom. Moreover, unlike in Warband, in Bannerlord you can recruit not only a lord, but also his entire clan. Thus, the player can gain up to four allied troops in their kingdom at once. But to make a lord join you, you will have to put in some effort. Note that you can recruit lords not only into your own faction, but also into the faction of which you are a vassal. The process will be the same.

Searching for a Suitable Lord

Running around the map and trying to recruit everyone is not the best idea. First, you need to select the most suitable candidate. This is the longest and most tedious stage, as you will have to comb through the profiles of clan leaders to understand who you have a chance to negotiate with.

1. Open the Encyclopedia by pressing the “N” key on your keyboard.
2. Go to the “Kingdoms” section and select the kingdom where we will be looking for lords. For example, Vlandia.
   
3. On the kingdom page, check the head of each clan and determine whether it is possible to recruit him based on several characteristics.

How to Determine if a Lord Can Be Recruited?

You can’t know for sure, but you can make assumptions based on indirect signs. Here are some such signs.

• The lord is on bad terms with his liege. Go to the lord’s page and see if the ruler of his faction is in friends or enemies. If in enemies – great. The chances of success will be higher. If in friends – the chances will be extremely low.
• The lord has no fiefs. If the clan does not own any fiefs, it will be easier to recruit them into your kingdom.
• The lord has a good relationship with you. Perhaps the most important point, because if the relationship is negative, the chances of recruiting the lord are minimal.
• The lord has a good relationship with the lords of your kingdom. It is unknown whether this point affects the result of recruitment, but if the lord is at odds with most of the other lords of your faction, he may simply run away from you.
• Your kingdom is strong enough. Lords are reluctant to join weak kingdoms and often leave them if they don’t see prospects. To increase the strength of the kingdom, gather as many troops as possible in the corresponding clan section and hire as many mercenary clans as possible.

It’s important to understand that lords can both join your kingdom and leave it without warning. Therefore, you need to approach the selection of lords wisely. Otherwise, you will just waste a lot of gold. Let’s consider an example.

The Process of Recruiting a Lord

Let’s say you’ve found a decent lord. Let it be Ospir, the ruler of the dey Gunric clan from Vlandia.

• You have a good relationship with this lord.
• Derthert (the ruler of Vlandia) did not list him as an enemy, but he is not considered a friend either (neutral relations with the liege).

Such a lord can certainly be recruited.

However, he has a castle, and the icon above his portrait says he is “honest“. Therefore, there is a high probability that he will decide to remain loyal to his liege, despite disagreements or neutral attitude.

Click the “Send Messenger” button to send a messenger to this lord. Be sure to save the game before talking, and then start persuading.

1. In the dialogue, select the item “There is something I’d like to discuss“.
2. Tell him that your liege isn’t worth your loyalty. Start persuading.
   
3. Your task is to fill in 4 circles that appear on the left side of the dialogue interface.
   
   Circles fill up when the lord agrees with your argument. The chances of success and failure are indicated next to each option. When choosing each, there are 4 possible outcomes: Success (+1), Failure (0), Critical Success (+2), Critical Failure (-2).

If you didn’t manage to convince the lord the first time, reload the save and repeat the procedure, choosing different options in the dialogue.

When you finally manage to convince a lord to join your kingdom, he will say that it’s a big risk and will ask for financial support (in the trade window, press the “Auto deal” button in the middle to see what he wants). The amounts can vary: from a couple of hundred thousand to a couple of million denars.

For example, Lord Ospir asked for 622 thousand gold. If you agree, your relationship with the lord and his clan will instantly rise to 100 points, and he will join your faction or the faction of which you are a vassal. If you refuse, you will be able to return to this conversation in the near future and offer him a deal again, bypassing the persuasion stage.

It has been noticed that the cost of recruiting lords depends on:

• The lord’s possession of fiefs,
• The relationship of the lord with your character,
• The lord’s wealth,
• War between your state and the lord’s state.

For example, a landless lord, with whom you have a good relationship, can be recruited for as little as 100 thousand denars. But such lords as Ospir with his castle will require much larger sums.

The plus is that lords join your kingdom with their fiefs. But if they decide to leave, they won’t take these fiefs with them – the land possessions will remain with your kingdom. At the same time, a lord who has left you can be recruited again in the future.

To reduce the likelihood of a lord leaving your kingdom:

• Maintain good relations with him;
• Support his clan with influence in the kingdom interface;
• Maintain a high kingdom power (mercenaries, troops);
• Consider his opinion during the passage of laws, distribution of fiefs, conclusion of peace, or declaration of war;
• Summon the lord to the army more often, so he can become friends with your other lords.

However, some lords leave without apparent reasons, and this is always unpleasant. But to quickly improve relations with the lords of another faction, level up your Charm skill, defeat them in battles and release them to freedom. Remember, a wise ruler always strives to turn enemies into friends, and not the other way around.