Mount&Blade/Fiefs

New to Mount&Blade 0.89x is the ability to own and manage properties (referred to as fiefs) with a more polished system than the simple castle ownership of previous versions. A fief can be a castle, a town, or a village.

Acquisition
In order to acquire a fief, a ruler must offer it to you. There are two ways to be offered one:

Reward for allegiance
Once you reach 160 Renown, kings will start randomly asking you to pledge your allegiance, offering you a village to sweeten the deal. If your status with a king and/or his faction has dropped below 0 he will not make you an offer. If you refuse a random property offer you will displease the leader offering it (making joining his faction harder) and once his opinion of you falls too low he will not make the offer again. Joining a faction is permanent; other leaders will not offer you a property in return for changing sides.

If you ask the king yourself, certain calculations are involved to determine whether you are worthy of becoming a vassal. The game first checks to make sure you are not already a member of a faction, then checks your relation with the faction to make sure it is not below zero, and also checks that your standing with the king is no lower than -5. Your standing with the king is then multiplied by five and added to your Renown. If the combined total is over 160 and you passed all the previous checks you'll be allowed into the faction.

Regardless of the method in which you joined the faction, the king will reward you with the poorest village he currently possesses.

Handout from sieges
Several towns castles are dotted around the map, controlled by various factions; once you are in a faction you are able to besiege the towns and castles of your faction's enemies (see Siege tactics). When you or one of the king's other vassals capture a town or castle it will become the property of your faction; if there is a village very close that will also become your faction's property. Every time a castle or town is conquered your king will give it to one of his vassals, and the village (if there was one attached) to a different vassal; there is of course a chance that you will be the chosen recipient of one of these new assets. When it is offered to you you have the choice of accepting or refusing; if you refuse it it will got to another vassal instead. The calculations used to determine which vassal gets a property are partly based on renown and partly based on luck, so there is no easy way of determining whether you'll be offered a fief after you capture a town or castle.

When you are granted a town or castle your banner will fly above it on the world map, clearly identifying it as your property. Villages you own do not display your banner.

Taxes
Regardless of how you acquire a fief, doing so allows you to collect taxes from the populace (these taxes accumulate, so you don't have to visit every week if you don't want to). Generally speaking, towns will earn the most taxes, castles second, and villages last, but prosperity also factors into this.

Reputation
Once a village belongs to you or to your faction you can no longer burn it. If you have previously burned a village that becomes your fief the townsfolk will remember and hate you, but you can still collect your taxes as usual. You will however be unable to get Recruits from this village (see Recruiting). You can see your reputation in the description at the top along with a word describing how much they like or hate you ("acceptive", "resentful", "hate you with a passion", etc.)

As a general rule, if you intend to conquer towns and/or castles you may want to avoid raiding nearby villages belonging to that same faction so that they will still like you. Burning villages decreases their prosperity (which affects the taxes and recruits you can collect), so it is in your best interest to ensure any villages you may come to inherit are in as good a condition as possible.

Getting supplies
You can buy food from the villagers or force them to give you goods; just as with other villages, forcing them to give you goods will lower their reputation towards you. The reputation only lowers when you actually enter the loot screen, so if you accidentally choose the wrong option you can pick "Forget it" and avoid the reputation penalty.

Recruiting
Unless the villagers dislike you (see Reputation), you will get the "Recruit volunteers" option; unlike the villages your faction owned from the beginning, captured villages will offer you Recruits of whatever nation the village originally belonged to. You can also get Recruits by talking to the Village Elder. Each recruit requires a small joining fee. Note: The higher your reputation, the more recruits you will receive. You also have a chance of getting higher tier recruits (eg: "Skirmishers" vs "Recruits") if you have a high reputation with the village.

You cannot post a garrison at the village. If the village is attacked (see Raids) only the Farmers are there to defend it. Building a watchtower (see Village management) will lengthen the time it takes for a village to fall, thus allowing you to come to their rescue.

Raids
From time to time enemies will try to raid your villages or besiege your castles; when this occurs you can head there and drive off the attackers. If it's a village being raided the Farmers will fight alongside you. If you do not deal with the attackers the village's prosperity will be significantly affected.

Prosperity
In the village you will find a Village Elder (he is the only villager who is stationary). From time to time he will offer village quests. Completing these will make the village like you more and will also improve its prosperity. Village prosperity has some amount of variation, so you may have to do quests now and then to keep its prosperity high.

Another factor of village prosperity is that villagers travelling to or from a town in order to trade need to reach their destination safely. Their parties are small and weak, so most enemy parties could be a real threat to them.

Village management
By choosing the "Manage this village" menu option you can build several improvements to enhance your village's prosperity or productiveness. Note that these improvements are not visible when walking around the village; you need to use the management menu to see the improvements. You can decrease the cost and construction time by increasing your Engineer skill.
 * Digging a fish pond will greatly improve prosperity. This takes time but is well worth it.
 * Building a school will improve the recruits on offer and will also boost your reputation with the village. The village's prosperity and their opinion of you have a significant effect on how many men offer to join you.
 * Build a watchtower if you have problems with parties raiding the village. It lengthens the time it takes for the village to be looted, giving you a longer amount of time to get there and drive off the raiders. If you successfully interrupt a raid the damage it normally causes to the village's prosperity will not apply.
 * Building a manor allows you to rest at the village like you can at a town, and if you are resting there during pay day your men will only get half wages because they are not on active duty. Your party will draw food from the village during this time.

Towns
You can rest in town for free. Your men will draw food from the town during this time.

Prosperity
Town prosperity relies on caravans. Ensure that caravans going to or from your town get there safely.

Garrisoning
You can place or modify a garrison by choosing the "Station a garrison" option. You can also drop off or pick up prisoners. Heroes cannot be stationed in the garrison.

Men left in a town are paid only half wages as they are not on active duty, and their wages are automatically deducted (along with those of the men in your party) at the end of each week. If you place your entire party in a town's garrison and then wait until pay day you will end up giving all your men only half the wages they earn for active service.

Declaring independence
Under unknown conditions, a town that has just changed hands may declare that they are independent. Despite this the town will be granted to a vassal on the following day. You can still interact with the town normally during this time.

Castles
You can rest at castles you own for free. Your men will draw food from the castle during this time.

Recruiting and garrisoning
Faction troops of varying skill levels will gradually take up residence in your castle to defend it. You can add them to your party by choosing the "Station a garrison" option, and you can also deposit men in your party in the same way. You can also drop off or pick up prisoners. Heroes cannot be stationed in the garrison.

Men left in a castle are paid only half wages as they are not on active duty, and their wages are automatically deducted (along with those of the men in your party) at the end of each week. If you place your entire party in a castle's garrison and then wait until pay day you will end up giving all your men only half the wages they earn for active service.

Castle management
Castle improvements are not yet implemented.