I have been playing mount and blade again seriously if you dont have it get it. Also M&B 2 is in the works. The game is ki da unforgiving but awesome. I dl'd the "A Clash of Kings" mod which is a full conversion mod that is a sandbox going on during the beginning of acok. The base is another popular mod called the floris pack. Anyway an option is instead of running your own army you can join a lord as a soldier and they feed pay promote and gear you identically to other npc troops. Lately I have been a Highgarden/reach levyman promoted up to elite glaiveman just porking the crap out of all Lannisters with my glaive it''s pretty great. Might start a new char that is highborn and flee to pentos see if I can enlist and become a knight instead of starting as a lowborn and being a foot soldier. You can do whatever you want once you have the resource, like buying land and setting industry or capturing forts and cities them declaring yourself king and just carve an empire and recruit lords give them fiefs and they will raise their own armies.