by GoIllini » Mon 29 Aug 2005, 22:51:47
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dagod1', 'A')fter playing many computer games that start in the dark ages I have devized a plan. Please let me know how to improve it.
Assuming I am stable and have 100 acres and plenty of food grown for myself and family and have ammo and guns.
#1 begin buy getting starving people to work you fields for food. Build your number of workers and land over the years until you can grow more food than you need.
#2Then feed your people for pay to protect you. Once you have people protecting you get people/workers to build your defenses like a wall of some kind that surrounds your land/new kingdom.
#3 Begin building a small force to take over other small groups around you, get those supplies and land and get them working. Do this enough times and you become pretty large in terms of people under your rule and your land.
Any other ideas, I would like to be a better than average king?
Any ideas?
This is after the fall of the USA of course, It will be hard to fight swords vs, bullets or what ever.,
Rob

Being pretty naive about war, myself, (maybe a little less naive about leading a bunch of folks without the comforts of civilization than about war, though), I would argue that real-life is going to be a heckuvalot scarier than a video game.
My experience has been that good leaders tend to work as followers and lead by example. That means that if you're going to be a feudal lord expecting folks to go into battle, you're probably going to be on the front lines. If you're not up to the task of risking life and limb, someone else will take over as leader for you, and you'll wind up as a peasant unless you have helpful skills. (Lucky me; I'm studying in the college of Engineering at my school.)
My suggestion: learn to fire a weapon, buy a few bulletproof vests, and if you're really buying into a doomsday peak oil scenario, join the military.
Failing that, start putting money into oil stocks, make friends with someone who grew up on a farm, and when oil hits $200/barrel and your stocks have a P/E of 15, sell them, and you and your friend can pick out a nice plot of land on some fertile but remote plot of land. I've only been out to Washington Island and a few other islands out in the Great Lakes, but IMHO, an island community out there might very well be the perfect place to ride out the peak oil storm. No sea level change, longer growing season, fewer people to fight with over food, and little attention from the rest of the world. Islands out there are going to head back to the way they were in 1900, and it'll be a nice vacation (besides backbreaking work during planting and harvest.)
To be quite honest, feudal lordship is for people who don't plan ahead but still want to come in second or third place. Living in a community of self-sufficient folks where there's still plenty of culture, and then being in a position to help the world rebuild after 20-30 years (in the doom-and-gloom scenario) is for the folks who can see this coming.
Remember, this is real life. Being a feudal lord means watching real-life human beings- people who have families who love them- people who are maybe even friends- die because of some war that you want to engage in. It might even mean getting shot at yourself or even dying. I don't think it'll be anything like a video game.