WHAT IT TAKES TO BE KING

That's not really how I'd measure being a king. To be a king, you have to be able to expand as it is all about the treasures and influence of your kingdom. That will in turn allow you to build lots of troops.

If you have to ask a question how to be a king. My advice. DONT start as a king.

I might go into a little more detail for you.

On a COM server, if you do not arrive with a pre made team, then the chances of you lasting as king are slim to none. But if you want to try it, it's not just about troops. You will have to convince every neighbouring king that they need to abdicate and join your kingdom. You can only do that by being bigger than them, and having more troops. Diplomacy will only get you so far - you will be on a constant war footing. Even then, sooner or later, you're going to run into a pre made team that's bigger and better than you.

It's a real weakness of the game design that kingship is made to look as if you can take it on by being active. You can't. Unless you're going to hide out on the rim and not be involved, you will not last. Build a kingdom, make it as strong as you can, but recognise when discretion is the better part of valour - when one of the massive alliances wants to expand in your area, accept you're going to fight to the death, lose, but have fun holding out as long as you can, or just abdicate and join the bigger team.

Stick with the team long enough, and unless they're the sort of people where it's always the same people being kings, then sooner or later your turn will come (unless the single king mechanic is successful in the next test server and gets rolled out, then all bets are off).

I think you could be a king without a pre-made team, and be successful. And it doesn't always require getting other kings to abdicate, more importantly you need the surrounding govs to join you. If you get all the govs in the area to join you, you can over take another king. Last Comx3, I started 8 days late and played as king only because there were no others with influence around me. Ended up 2nd largest kingdom by area and had an impact in the end game.

Everyone has different experiences as kings and everyone has a different opinion on who should be king, at the end of the day, in my opinion, it comes down to luck, luck that you create for yourself by being active and do the right moves at the right time. The decisions you make, right or wrong, determine your path as king and in order to have a sequence of good decision you need experience. In order to have experience you have to start from knowing nothing and be ready to make mistakes and eventually fail. There are no magic formulas to be king, there are just experiences that belong to one person but doesn't to another.
So, for me, what it takes to be king is willingness to fail in order to succeed later.

Maytrix and Mayo,

Yes, both of you are right. But let's be realistic - if you're coming on the forums to ask for troop counts to be king, you probably don't quite have the experience and the understanding of the game to make those lucky right decisions that mean your kingdom will last.

Yeah but you got to start somewhere right? Getting crushed as king a few times, see how others behave, why their kingdoms are more successful than yours, asking "noob" questions on the forum etc.. are all experiences for the next servers.
I mean, someone who wants to be king shouldn't play king because he thinks its a better title then governor, he should play king in order to create a kingdom, a team that works together in offence and defence against other kingdoms.

If reaching this goal means going on the forum and asking something like the guy did and it brings him eventually to the point where he wants his kingdom to be, through experience and different inputs from other veterans, well he did the right move for him.

Agreed. I realise my posts come across as sounding like I'm saying don't do it, which isn't what they were intended to be. Just more a case of do it, but don't be surprised if it's tough going, or you fail. But those failures are important. You always learn far more from any failures than you ever do from successes...

I think I'm going to point some of thing "Kings" I've been dealing with at this thread, so many just want to be King without doing any of what means, and when I come along and say, initially very nicely, where I spend time to explain, but ultimately it comes down to "abdicate or be catted out of existence" and they refuse, they don't fight it, because they can't, they have no allies or friends and the 250 troops they have of their own get wiped out the first time my hero wonders by.

Seriously, I always contact these people first, and I always try to explain, but I reckon 75% just refuse to listen or understand, and man I've met so many "experienced players" with 250 troops is just depressing.

What does it take to be king?

1, A very good understanding of Kingdoms
2, You better be a troop maker (simmers stay home)
3, Above average diplomatic skills (better be able to sell yourself and goal for the server to others)
4, Stamina to lead a group of known or unknown players for the duration of the server.

This is directed at some kings. Your governors are not your resource mules so don't them as such. It takes all to make a team and any good team needs to work together.
If you can't master that then playing as a king may not be for you. May sound harsh but the king title comes with mounting pressures and it will not be everyone's cup of tea