I'm really loving that this game has some challenge to it. Like I'm getting annoyed that the computer player is claiming new territories that I wanted. I tried to challenge him on one to see what happened and he rolled out with a sizeable retinue and around three mercenary units, absolutely dwarfing what I had access to.

I think clearing camps is really important, but you do have to race for them sometimes and pay attention to your units. I don't know if it actually effects anything, but I reason that calling my militia up during harvest time might make the harvest slower, and it already needs a lot of hands, so I try to go for camps in the summer and winter.

Right now I'm trying to get some arms and armor produced via blacksmith and get my first bailey set up. I had only a small deposit of iron in my starting region, which got mined out really quite quickly, so I'll have to be careful about allocating it to different weapons and armors, once I unlock that development. The retinue system is neat so far, quite expensive to get your guys together, but you can customize them. They all seem to wield polearms (reasonably good selection of these, there are some gorgeous bardiches, but only one pole-hammer besides that.) or a short weapon with a buckler. Not sure if that can be changed anywhere.