Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

I got this achievement on day 721 by starting my own kingdom and turning companions into clans as I went along my conquest. This only costs 20k denars, 500 influence, and at least 1 available town or castle to give them. I made sure to always give the clan a fief in line with their culture for best results, so stockpile as many wanderers of the culture/faction you plan on attacking next. I also tried to cap each clan at 2 settlements (1 town and 1 castle, or 2 castles etc) so they don’t get too stretched out.

Once you turned a companion into a clan, they will immediately be joined by 2 male members with very good stats. An interesting thing about companion clans is if it’s a male leader, they will marry and steal away daughters from other faction clans and have lots of babies. The regular non leader male members will marry as well. If your companion clan leader is a woman, they will marry a male noble from another clan faction and steal them away (just saw one marry Tariq from the Banu Sarran) so there is no need to worry about another rival clan marrying and stealing your companion clan away lol. Or they will marry the male members from your other companion clans but those males will now join your female leader clan. Companion clans can raise their clan tier above 2; it just takes a little time.

Once a clan within another kingdom doesn’t have any more fiefs it’s a good chance they will be willing to join your kingdom. You can do this by talking with them during peace time or even as a prisoner in your party. Since the empire is so big you will probably want to recruit some empire clans that way you don’t have to stretch out your empire culture companion clans because it’s a lot of ground to cover. A fun fact is that you can recruit the imperial faction leaders to join your kingdom! After their kingdom is eliminated they will join another imperial kingdom. Garios and Ascyron both joined Rhagaea’s southern kingdom and as they had no fiefs I was able to recruit them right away. In Warband once a faction was destroyed the leader would leave the map permanently, so this is a nice change.

The higher your charm and relations with them will determine how much a faction clan will cost, also how easy the persuasion checks are. Their clan tier/strength/members may also determine how much they cost because I noticed I got some tier 5 clans for only 130k while others were almost 500k denars. My charm was already 260 by the time I started recruiting faction clans and relations always at least 50. As you start getting more they all cost over 400k even with 100 relations. Keep an eye on which lords and ladies belongs to the clan you want to recruit and release them from battle every time to raise relations until you get your hands on the leader. Capture him and then talk to them as a prisoner.

At day 986 I have 40 clans - 32 companion clans and 8 recruited clans. A bunch of my companion clans made it to tier 3.

I conquered the entire map at day 1123, with 55 clans. 43 of them were companion clans and about 12 of them made it to tier 3, and one even made it to clan tier 4! Those numbers will go up of course if I continue playing on that save file.

You don’t have to wait for a king to die just to have your own kingdom. You can be successful at this game by starting your own kingdom. In my opinion it’s more rewarding and you have full control right from the start.

Wait until you are king, then talk to a companion and say “i’d like to reward you for your service” then give them a fief that YOU own, (as in the council awarded it to you) pay 20k gold and 500 influence, rinse and repeat by hiring more companions in taverns.

If you own zero fiefs, then when you take one in conquest, there will always be an option to vote for yourself to own it. If you own 2 fiefs there will likely not be