Conquer
From HiveWiki
You can attempt to conquer players in your attack window who are sovereign (don't have a liege). This is harder still, as the total power of the person you're attacking is applied to the defense, and Alarm kicks in. You select the person in the list and hit the conquer button, then where you would like to attack and with whom.
If your attack succeeds, you will get a notice saying you have conquered the player.
For a conquer attempt to be successful, the total power of your attack force must exceed the total defense of the area targeted, plus double the power of the liege you are attempting to conquer, plus the health of any opponents in the guardhouse. Alarm levels from raids and seizures, but not from the outpost apply to this attack.
(Ergo: conquering is hard but not impossible!)
Lets face it, people who are sovereign are probably sovereign for a reason and as soon as you conquer them, they are likely to either request release, rebel or 'join the uprising' hence they are not likely to be happy subjects of your tyrannical reign. This effectively renders 'conquering' pointless (unless you can find a sovereign who has stopped playing the game). Think carefully before you decide to conquer people, it may be more trouble / more expensive than it is really worth.
[edit] Conquering Drawbacks
"Drawbacks: You become top heavy. Your TAS goes through the roof, opening yourself up to attackers with power against which you're not equipped to defend. In order to protect your vassals, you will have to consolidate your defenses in a small area, leaving your gold immediately available. You will also need to rely upon your newly conquered vassal to supply part of those defenses, but when they rebel (and they're sure to rebel) they will easily succeed when they attack the exposed areas of your kingdom. This will, in turn, remove the primary pillar of what defenses you have, and leave you open for the rest of your vassals to be picked off. On the other hand, you can meekly spread out your defenses across your entire kingdom, making it more difficult for your vassal to rebel initially, but failing to provide sufficient defenses in any area... Just Don't Do It!"
Conquering is only worth while if the player you want to conquer has abandoned the game, even then it's debatable whether it is worth while!
- Note: with the addition of the ability to sell vassals on the open market, conquering is an easy way to make alot of money fast, example: if your current TAS is 50 and you conquer another 50 knight, you can sell this person in the market for between 100,000 and 300,000, this is another way to upgrade your defenses and/or buy lower ranked players that no longer play the game (i.e. knight 20's). Be aware that many people do not want to be conquered and will rebel or leave the person buying them, who will sometimes be upset that they just spent 100k on a vassal that left them a few minutes or hours later.
Do your research before buying and selling any vassal. It truly is a buyer beware market.
