Building a messenger post improves your radar for enemies as well, securing the roads for villagers looking to sell their excess goods.
Treating your villagers kindly allow your reputation to rise, which gives you a source of recruits for future battles and contributes to a better economy. When you do gain control of a town, one way or another, you can start collecting taxes once every week any taxes left uncollected are still yours to pick up whenever you're back in the neighborhood to gather again. Female characters will have to work extra hard due to archaic attitudes nobles often refuse to recognize that she could easily match or better them in strength. If you do become a vassal to a lord, you can get the lowest valued village he owns. The trick here is to conquer the town alone otherwise, your more powerful allies would claim the victory instead.
As such, your character often needs to buck up and lay siege to a town to acquire it. At the start of the game, fief land owners are generated randomly and typically don't change.
