Bannermen

Bannermen takes inspiration from A Game of Thrones and a similar mode from More Interactive Vassals, aiming to make the relationship between Liege and Vassal more interesting during times of conflict.

Upon becoming a king or emperor, vassals are not only considered vassals, but also become bannermen. Whenever a character’s Liege is embroiled in war, either offensively or defensively against another king or emperor, every vassal bannerman will face a decision. Will you honor your obligations and support your Liege, remain neutral and preserve your strength, or seize the opportunity to declare for the opposing side and potentially strike a blow against your ruler and weakening them to further your aims? Due to request, bannermen will also have the option to join a civil war. These changes have the added benefit of making the AI more interesting by giving them some agency as well as injecting some well needed drama into this game.

There is a unique rule for a player vassal, since you can always choose to join any of your Liege’s wars anyway if you so wish. For the sake of convenience, upon declaration, you will always be given the event to join or not, whether or not your Liege is a king/emperor. Of course, if you are imprisoned or incapable, you will not be able to join.

• Consequential Choices: Vassal bannermen can choose to Join their Liege, Remain Neutral, or Mutiny and join the enemy side.
• Dynamic AI Decisions: For AI-controlled characters, while the base chance is skewed towards joining their liege (since that is the expectation), the choice is then further determined by a number of factors, including, opinions, traits, relations, among others, making their reaction feel organic and tied to their personality and circumstances (with some room left for chance.)
• Player Event: You, as the player, will receive a special event whenever your Liege goes to war, allowing you to make your own strategic choice.
• Consequences for Mutiny: Betraying your Liege comes at a cost, including significant opinion penalties with your Liege and gaining the ‘Bannerman Traitor’ trait. This is considered a crime. The way to remove it is via having your Liege pardon you, or becoming independent. Within a year of independence, the trait will be removed.
• Bannerman Traitor: as a traitor, you are given access to an independence casus belli that you can use at any time against your liege. (AI included & independent of government type.)
• Fewer Levies: Bannermen provide 75% fewer levies to their Liege.
• Player Vassal: The kingdom/empire only rule does not apply and you will always be given the option to assist your Liege.
• Civil Wars: Due to request, bannermen will be given the option to join civil wars.
• Realm Management: As a consequence of these changes, managing the realm becomes much more important. You’re going to want to think carefully who exactly are your direct vassals and if they are going to be problematic or not should war arise.

AI characters don’t simply roll a dice, though there is an element of that, nor is it based on a simple opinion score. Their decision is influenced by a weighted system where different factors add or subtract from the likelihood of choosing each option:

• Personality Traits: Traits are paramount. Loyal characters are overwhelmingly likely to join their Liege, while Craven characters strongly prefer neutrality. Disloyal vassals, especially combined with traits like Lunatic or Possessed, are far more inclined to mutiny. Traits like Just, Honest, Trusting lean towards loyalty, while Greedy or Paranoid may prefer staying out of conflict. Brave or Ambitious characters are encourged to pick a side and not remain neutral.
• Relationships: Having a formal relationship like Friend, Best Friend, Soulmate, Lover, etc, including close family with the Liege makes joining almost certain. Conversely, being the Liege’s Rival or Nemesis makes mutiny highly probable.
• Alliances: If allied with the bannerman, they are incredibly likely to join you. Though of course, if you end up as a rival or nemesis to your ally, the chance of being backstabbed is high. (This also makes allying with your vassals useful.)
• Opinion: A vassal’s opinion of their Liege significantly impacts their choice. High opinion (+25, +50, +100) provides increasing bonuses to joining the Liege, while low opinion (-25, -50, -100) provides increasing bonuses to mutiny.
• Liege’s Dread: A feared Liege is more likely to see their vassals fall in line. High dread levels (+25, +50, +100) add weight towards vassals joining the Liege’s side.
• Otherwise Incapable: If imprisoned or incapable, a vassal will not even have the option of joining in the first place.
• Other Factors: Specific traits relevant to some of my other mods, such as Chaos Reigns are also factored in, providing baked in compatibility.

The system calculates a total weighted score for each option, and the AI character makes a random choice based on these final weights. Certain combinations of traits and relationships can result in a weight so high for one option that it becomes incredibly likely. However, you can never be completely certain which way the wind will blow.

Everything.

Though of course, you wouldn’t use this with More Interactive Vassals. If you want an incredible array of customization options, then you would use MiV. Bannermen on the other hand is more performant as it only affects Kingdoms and above, and only when they are at war with other kingdoms or above (or one is involved in a civil war). This was also built to work better with my other mods. The end result should be somewhat predictable, but also allow for some fun chaos to ensue.

This mod pairs very well with Nye’s Aggressive AI

Genetics, Death & Difficulty
Better Landless Adventurers

Enjoy!