Passing Through Initial War Mode in Facebook Knighthood

In my first tutorial, getting started in Facebook Knighthood, I covered getting your kingdom off to a good start from the tutorial. However, all players must build a garrison and pass through war mode in order to be able to upgrade their existing buildings, build new buildings, and produce weapons. Passing safely through war mode is easiest when you have fewer than four knight/ladies in your kingdom. Because knighthood is an ever changing game, some info may become outdated.

You want to build as much as possible while your workers are at 100% production. By now you should have a level 5 castle, level 6 market, and level 5-6 watchtowers, wall, and palisade. You probably have some knight/ladies and a bunch of power 10 vassals. You are itching to recruit but want to get through the war first so you won't lose your vassals while you are not yet powerful. So you prepare for the transition.

A player at war cannot gift or receive from a player in peace mode, so you need to protect your gold now by either investing it in hammers or lending it to a trusted friend. The knighthood rules clearly prohibit cloning (having multiple facebook accounts playing facebook knighthood,) but do not prohibit you teaming up with a friend.

You can also gift vassals that are knight/lady or higher; with a limit of one per 24 hours. You can gift a knight to your trusted friend each day until you have less than four knights. If you are really worried about losing a knight, gift all your knights to your friend and free him from vassalage. Knights freed from vassalage cannot swear back to their former liege for 24 hours. You are trusting your friend will swear back to you and gift back your knights and gold. Make sure he is someone you can trust. You need to have at least four vassals in addition to your serfs and steward, but not too many more.

Now you will build your garrison. Before you do, make sure you will be able to be online 24-25 hours later so you can let your armies disband. The garrison requires 10 hammers and should build within 15 minutes. You will get a rank within 20 minutes, once you get a rank select to disband your armies. Note an update has reduced this to twelve hours.

Once you have hit disband armies, you get a timer that says disbanding in 23:59:59. You will be on knighthood about fifteen minutes before the timer runs out. Release power 10 vassals until you have less than four vassals (not counting your serfs and steward.) Select to release the power 10 vassals that have been around for the longest, they are less likely to accept your invitation at this point and you are more likely to lose them sooner. Use your remaining vassals to construct the workshop so you can begin to upgrade buildings. You can build a building and upgrade the same or a different building simultaneously.

Log back onto knighthood about fifteen minutes before the armies are to disband. Now you can invest any gold you have in buildings or hold onto it, chances are you have less than 1k if you even made any money. Send an invite out to a friend to get a squirrel. You need to have at least four vassals to disband. Wait until your army disbands (your crown with the rank number will become a crown with green leaves) and then you can go about retrieving your money and vassals from your friend and getting your friends to swear loyalty to you, whatever the case may be. Now you can build and upgrade buildings, build and expand, and prepare your empire for real war. Try not to get too close to 60 power, as you will want to remain as a knight in order to have an advantage in early battles over players who aren't as well prepared.