M&B II: Bannerlord Influence System¶

The influence system in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is simple, but highly important once you join a kingdom as a mercenary or vassal. The amount of influence that you have will determine whether or not the nobility within a kingdom will agree with your decisions, or even listen to a proposal in the first place. Without influence, you will be unable take part in any aspect of political decisions, and you will be vulnerable to sabotage from other clan leaders. When you first join a kingdom, your influence will be zero or close to it. In terms of the most basic method of accruing influence, you will gain it after winning any battle that you’re involved with. The more the odds are against you and your allies in any given battle, the more influence you will gain if you win the battle. The most influence comes from participating in battles alongside other powerful nobles, against powerful nobles of enemy factions. A successful siege will bag you the most influence, but you can still earn a lot from basic field battles if the opponent is powerful enough.

In addition to the above, you can earn influence by:

• Donate troops to settlements within your kingdom or an allied kingdom (doesn’t work if the settlement is owned by you)

• Build a forum in one of your settlements and upgrade it for daily increases to influence (starts at 1 influence per day)

• Implement and support policies which increase influence, especially in one of your own settlements (note that some policies drain influence per day)

• Join a large army from the kingdom to which you belong to earn more influence per day (note the food you have in your inventory will feed the entire army, the more food you have, the more influence you gain per day)

To further increase your ability to earn influence, you can also invest in specific perks. For example, the Charm perk tree provides the ‘Champion’ perk (level 125), which allows you to gain +10 more influence by winning tournaments. The ‘Our Glorious Leader’ perk (level 175) will provide +20% more influence gain from personal actions. Alternatively at the same level, you can choose the ‘Pro Familia’ perk, which provides +10% more influence from clan member party actions. At level 225 you can choose the perk ‘Courtship’, providing +1 influence per day for each allied lord party which is not currently in an army while waiting in the same town. Finally at level 275 you have access to ‘Immortal Charm’, which provides +1 influence per day for each 5 Charm skill points beyond level 250.

Alongside the Charm perk tree, the Trade perk tree provides one perk at level 250, ‘Influential Trader’, which allows Caravans and workshops to gain influence on your behalf each day. The Steward perk tree also offers three perks which increase influence: ‘Supreme Authority’ (level 25), which provides +1 influence as a ruler, ‘Prominence’ (level 50), which provides +1 influence as a vassal, and ‘Warmonger’ (level 75), which doesn’t directly increase your influence gain in any way, but instead reduces the influence cost of summoning vassals to war. Once you’ve joined a kingdom, you can keep track of how much influence you have compared with other nobles in the kingdom by opening the ‘Kingdom’ menu and selecting the ‘Clans’ tab. This will give you an idea of how much influence you will need to spend to impact any real change within a kingdom.

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(1 of 7) Use the Clans tab in the Kingdom menu to compare your influence with other clans within the kingdom.

As a mercenary, influence will be converted into denars with each passing day. This can be a great way to earn a lot of money quickly, but it does diminish any gains that you might have been accruing in terms of political clout if you were a vassal. Once you do become a vassal, you will generally lose influence if you become inactive, so it’s a good idea to invest your time in working towards the expansion of the kingdom, either militarily or economically.

What to Do With Influence in M&B II: Bannerlord¶

Once you have enough influence, you can do the following:

• Partake in votes to determine who governs a newly acquired settlement

• Partake in votes to determine whether a settlement should be reassigned to a different noble

• Partake in votes to propose new kingdom policies or disavow existing policies

• Pledge support for a specific clan within your kingdom to increase their influence at the expense of yours

• Propose to expel a specific clan from a kingdom to which you belong

• Request an army in the kingdom to which you belong joins your party for a time

• Force an army to disband within a kingdom to which you belong

• Propose a declaration of war with another kingdom

You will need a significant amount of influence to impact any policy decision within a kingdom that you join. One of the first things you will be capable of doing is partake in votes to determine new kingdom policies, thereby influencing the political direction of a kingdom and how it is managed. As you gain influence, you can begin to consider internal politics in terms of contending with other influential figures by using some of your influence to decrease theirs, vote to remove them as governors, or even expel them from the kingdom. The more influence you have, the more you will be able to use to challenge others. You might find that more nobles are voting against your decision, but if you invest enough influence you will be able to sway the vote. Nearly all of these same methods of influence can be used in your own kingdom once you create one.