
This way you can keep your army and start back at the last auto-save. If a War doesn't go to plan and you die, once you die Do Not Press Continue instead dashboard and quit game. If while at war with more than one faction, try and make peace with one of them just to lessen the amount of attacks and so you can fully focus on one faction. Once you capture a Castle/town Recruit all the rescued prisoners and then garrison them in the castle/town. Do not accept Vassals, over time they will leave other factions and join yours but its best just to leave them waiting. This is when you can easily capture castles and towns. Do not rush! start a war and try and take on one lord at a time, keep doing this until you see the majority of them have very small armies, which mainly consist of recruits. Keep an eye on the amount of food you have and try to have a good variety Before starting a war with another faction, check what troops you have to ensure you dont lose them due to the morale loss. This morale will fix itself once you've either made the faction your facing disband or made peace. When you start a war with the faction, the troops you've recruited that are from that faction will take a heavy morale loss (-50) - leading to them leaving your army overtime. Recruit from at least 2 different factions.

On another note: The faction you side with will be a lot harder to defeat using this method - I sided with the Rhodoks and regret it as by the time I turned on them their main castles had a lot of Rhodok Sergeants and Sharpshooters.

If you dont make a back-up save you will have to start another playthrough as the game will count that faction you assisted as the Rulers - even if you start your own faction and wipe them out. If you decide to go for Manifest Destiny in the same playthrough, ensure you make a back-up save just before taking the last faction. Note: I did this in the same playthrough that I used for the achievements Kingmaker & Manifest Destiny by making use of the extra save slots. This guide focuses on how I did it using the Swadian Knight, however it is possible with troops from any faction. There is no set way to achieve this other than the objective is to defeat all other factions. The best way to avoid this is to keep good relations with Lords or capture the kings and lords before taking the last castle/town.

*This achievement can be a little glitchy, as you can control every town and village in the game but have a non-surrendering king who will completely disappear from the game until one of their vassals conquer a town/village. Empress can be achieved with either The Golden Throne or Manifest Destiny Just ensure you choose to play as a female when setting up the character.
