Villages can be found all over Calradia or Eastern Europe. Each one is tied to a nearby fortification, both financially and politically.
Goods
You can buy goods from the village or force them to give you their supplies; forcing them will lower your reputation with them. The reputation only lowers when you actually enter the loot screen, so if you accidentally choose the wrong option you can pick "Forget it" and avoid the reputation penalty.
Recruiting
Unless the villagers dislike you, you can "Recruit Volunteers" to your party. The amount and quality of the volunteers depend on your renown and reputation with the village. If you decide to recruit them, you will pay 10 denars each to help them with their equipment. This fee is static, regardless of troop quality; if the proposed volunteers are of a higher tier, they will still cost 10 denars each, thus saving some upgrade money.
The troops you get are always from the faction the village is originally from.
You get another chance to recruit any time your reputation with the village changes, so recruit before helping a villager or progressing on a quest and recruit again after the reputation changes to gain additional volunteers.
If you have 10 or more reputation with the village while at war with its faction, you can still recruit from them, but this will result in less morale for that faction's troops.
If your relation is between 0-3, you can get 0-8 recruits. If it is 4 or higher, your relation will be divided by 2, then added to 6 to determine your maximum (e.g. at 10 you can get 0-11; at 20 you can get 0-16). For every 10 relation, you can recruit one higher tier of troops. The chance to get higher tiers is 10%.
Raids
A tempting target.
Unlike fortifications, villages cannot hold a garrison. If the village is attacked, only the farmers are there to defend it. Building a Watch tower will lengthen the time it takes for a village to fall, thus allowing you to come to their rescue. If the army that is raiding the village is not very strong, the villagers will fight to assist you, although their resistance will not be very powerful. Looting a village will reset the prosperity of the village to 0, deteriorate the relationship to the kingdom by 5, to the lord of the village by 5 and to the village itself by more than 30.
If the village belongs to another faction, you can "Take a hostile action" and "Force the peasants to give you supplies" or "Steal cattle". If you're at war with that faction you can also "Loot and burn the village". The amount you steal depends on your looting skill and the current prosperity of the village. Doing this will always decrease your standing with the chosen village and faction it belongs to.
Raiding a village is an excellent way to get food and money. Typically, there will be about 2000-2500 denars/thalars of goods, and a large amount of food, in addition the village cattle. However, raiding a village takes about half a day to a full day in game time, and leaves you vulnerable to being attacked by a stronger party, as you are unable to cancel the raid and run away.
Prosperity
Prosperity can be increased by completing the "Deliver Grain" and "Deliver Cattle" quests, by building a Mill and by making sure villagers reach the town to trade and come back safely.
If a town is infested by bandits, its prosperity will drop every three days until the bandits are dealt with or leave on their own.
If the village is unremarkable or poorer you can sometimes find an unemployed villager by asking "How is life here?" If you give 300 denars, your reputation with the village increases by 1. The owner of the village might tell you he approves or disapproves of your help, depending on his personality.
Management
If the village belongs to you, you can "Manage this village" and build improvements. The time and money it requires to build them depends on the engineer skill. You can build:
| Building | Effect | Cost for Engineer level: | Days for Engineer level: | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 | ||
| Mill | Increases prosperity in the village by 5%. | 6000 | 3000 | 63 | 33 |
| Manor | Allows you to "Stay for some time" and rest, paying your troops half wages. | 8000 | 4000 | 83 | 43 |
| Watch tower | The time needed to raid the village is increased by 50%. | 5000 | 2500 | 53 | 28 |
| School | Increases your reputation with the village by 1 every month. | 9000 | 4500 | 77 | 38 |
| Messenger post | You will be alerted when there are enemies near the village. | 4000 | 2000 | 43 | 23 |
One of each improvement can be constructed at every village. Improvements persist even after a village is raided and looted. Note, the Mill increases initial prosperity and ideal prosperity by 5%. The initial increase is lost if the village is raided, but the ideal prosperity increase persists. Ideal prosperity is the "natural" level of prosperity for the village. In effect, the Mill increases prosperity by 5% permanently (in contrast to previous conclusions about the improvement).
Village Elder
You can talk to the Village Elder if you "Go to the village center"; he's the only villager that is always stationary. He can:
- Give you tasks
- Sell you goods or cattle
- Tell you of recent enemy sightings
- Set a large fire on the outskirts of the village (reduces the number of guards in a nearby fortification when you try to free someone from prison)
- Recruit volunteers
A discrepancy may exist if you receive the task of bringing the village some cattle. The Village Elder claims bandits have driven away their herds, but you can ask to buy some cattle from them, and they will often have several heads in the village.