Influence is the currency of Bannerlord politics, and fiefs are what it buys you leverage over. This guide explains how the single-player campaign really handles kingdoms: how you earn and spend influence, how fief votes work when your kingdom captures a settlement, what policies do to your daily income, and why your clan tier matters as much as your army size when the vote opens. It is written for the campaign game; multiplayer is a different mode and is only mentioned in passing.
At a glance
Game: Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, single-player campaign
Core resource: Influence, spent inside your kingdom
Fiefs: towns, castles and their bound villages
Kingdom menu: press K to see clans, armies, fiefs and policies
Ruler power: propose policies and overrule vote outcomes, at an influence cost
This guide is based on version 1.4.8
From mercenary to vassal to ruler
Most campaigns reach kingdom politics through the same door. You start as a free agent, take a mercenary contract with a kingdom at war, and fight its battles for pay. Swearing an oath as a vassal is the next step, and it is the step that opens the kingdom system: vassals sit in the kingdom menu, vote on decisions, and become eligible for fiefs. Founding your own kingdom comes later, after you have the clan standing, the fiefs and the allies to hold territory on your own. Treat influence as kingdom-bound: it is earned and spent inside the kingdom you belong to, so do not count on a stockpile surviving a breakaway.
Influence: how you earn it
Influence is not money, and you cannot buy it in a town menu. The reliable sources are all things you do in the world, and the game pays more for harder deeds than for routine ones.
Win battles against enemy lords. Victories against stronger parties pay more than easy wins, and leading the fight yourself pays better than riding along in an army you do not lead.
Donate prisoners to settlements of your own kingdom. Clearing your prisoner train into a friendly dungeon is a steady, repeatable source.
Hold fiefs. Towns, castles and villages in your name generate daily influence for your clan, and some settlement projects raise that daily amount.
Back the right policies. Several kingdom policies pay daily influence to qualifying clans, which is why policy votes matter even in peacetime.
No fixed per-battle table is given here on purpose: payouts scale with the fight, and a number copied from an old patch would mislead you. If a source quotes one exact figure for every battle, treat it as a rough example, not a rule.
Influence: how you spend it
Propose a policy change. Putting a new policy on the table costs influence, and the vote that follows costs support from other clans.
Back a candidate in a fief vote. Spending influence on a vote is how a small clan beats a famous one.
Create and lead armies. Forming an army and keeping it together runs on influence, so a clan that spends everything on votes will struggle to field one.
Overrule a decision, as ruler. A ruler who dislikes a vote outcome can override it, but the override itself costs influence, and the price rises under some policies.
Fief votes: how a settlement finds an owner
When your kingdom captures a town or castle, the game does not hand it to whoever dealt the final blow. A vote opens in the kingdom menu, clans put themselves forward, and every clan can spend influence to support a candidate. The ruler then confirms the outcome, or pays influence to override it. That is the whole machine, and everything else is positioning before the vote opens.
Clan tier counts. Higher-tier clans are taken more seriously as candidates, and clans that already hold several fiefs are less likely to be picked for another one.
Participation counts. Leading the siege, or fighting in the army that took the settlement, strengthens your claim far more than watching from the other side of the map.
Position counts. A fief near your existing holdings, on a frontier you already defend, is a more natural grant than a town deep inside another clan territory.
Bank influence before the siege ends. Votes open when the settlement falls, not when you feel ready, so arrive with influence to spend.
Policies that change your influence income
Kingdom policies are the slow-moving part of the system, and a few of them touch influence directly. These are examples from the policy list, not the full list: read each policy in game before you vote for it, because every one of them trades something away.
Sacred Majesty: the ruler clan gains influence every day, while non-ruler clans lose a little each day.
Royal Guard: the ruler clan gains influence daily and the ruler party grows larger, at a small daily cost to other clans.
Feudal Inheritance: clans gain a little influence per fief they own, and revoking a fief from a clan costs twice as much.
Serfdom: villages grant their owner clan daily influence, in exchange for town penalties.
Senate: clans of tier 3 and above gain daily influence, while inviting lower-tier clans into armies costs more.
Council of the Commons: each notable yields daily influence to the settlement owner clan, at a cost to fortification taxes.
Bailiffs: a town with high security yields extra daily influence to its owner clan.
Military Coronae: military achievements grant more influence, while troop wages rise.
Owning a fief well
Winning a fief is the easy half. A town or castle needs loyalty from its people, prosperity from its trade, and security against bandits and enemy armies, and all three move every day. Build the projects that raise daily influence and shore up the weakest of the three, keep a garrison you can actually pay for, and remember that a frontier fief you cannot defend will be the first one voted away from you in spirit, if not in law, when the next war turns against your kingdom.
Ruling: what changes when you are the one on top
A ruler proposes policies, grants fiefs, calls the kingdom to war and peace, and can override votes, but every one of those powers runs through the same influence wallet, and the clans underneath watch what you do with it. Spend influence to reward loyal clans with fiefs and you build a kingdom that votes with you; spend it overriding every vote you dislike and you build a kingdom that waits for its chance to leave. Daily influence from ruler-friendly policies helps, but it does not replace the need to keep other clans invested.
Common mistakes
Spending every point of influence on a single vote, then having nothing left to raise an army when war comes.
Voting for a policy for its headline benefit without reading its daily influence drain.
Founding a kingdom before you have the clan tier, fiefs and allies to defend it.
Chasing a rich interior town while your frontier holdings burn.
FAQ
Do I need a fief to earn influence?
No. Battle victories and prisoner donations earn influence before you own anything, and that is the normal way to build your first stockpile.
Can I lose influence?
Yes. Spending it is the obvious way, but several policies also drain influence daily from the clans they disfavour, so check the policy list before you vote a new one in.
Does the ruler always get the fief they want?
No. The vote decides first, and the ruler must spend influence to override it. A ruler who overrides constantly will run dry and lose clan support.
What happens to my fiefs if I leave a kingdom?
Leaving has consequences for your holdings and your relations, and the exact terms are shown on the leave screen. Read them before you confirm, and do not assume you keep everything.
Is there a fastest way to become a candidate?
There is no single trick. Raise your clan tier, fight in the sieges that take settlements, bank influence before the vote, and prefer fiefs near holdings you already defend.