If I join the Kingdom of Swardia, will I lose the recruits

Here's a list of some changes that I've noticed

• A new faction was added, the Sarranid Sultunate.
• The map and faction positions have changed.
• There are new political options, for example
  • If you create your own faction, you have the option of recruiting enemy lords
  • Marriage, which works differently if you are a male or female.
• Combat has changed slightly. However, it is difficult to notice unless compared side-to-side. This affects things such as swinging animations and projectile accuracy.
  • Individual arrows, bolts, and throwing weapons can now be picked up off the environment if they miss the enemy.
  • It is more difficult to hit enemies from horseback.
  • In my opinion, the combat is worse. Swinging your weapon is no longer as quick or as intuitive as the original. They probably made these changes to balance the multiplayer mode.
• The graphics are now better, though still nowhere near that of games with large development costs.
• There is support for custom single player battles, where you can choose the two factions and Cavalry/Infantry/Archer ratios as well as the map and game type (battle and siege).

As a side note, the multiplayer mode is quite fun and I suggest you try it at least once.

There are 4 ways that I remember off the top of my head, but I haven't played for a while, so I won't be much more help.

1. A hero with high pathfinding skill (remember, if you have this skill and your companion also does, you get a bonus)

2. Smaller party

3. Extra horses in your inventory

4. Amount of "infantry" and "mounted" troops, armies with more of the latter move way faster, so there are a lot of benefits of having your army composed entirely of cavalry, not even mentioning how strong it generally is.