During the main quest, at one point you'll be tasked with brokering peace between the empire and stormcloaks. During these negotiations, what you need to do is give up both holds that you can in exchange for two of the other faction's forts. Your faction will soon afterward garrison the forts you've gained for them, but more importantly, the enemy faction will garrison the bandit/necromancer forts on your faction's territory. After the MQ is over, you'll then be given quests to take the forts you gave away by your superiors, which involve taking over those holds' forts (now magically filled with opposing faction's troops) and garrisoning them with your allies.

This won't work if you've already finished the CW questline for either side.

That's probably a glitch... as in you're not supposed to have the option to make the truce if you already killed ulfric or the general, it should've skipped that from what I've heard/read on the wiki. well, if the quests themselves work just they don't garrison the place then it shouldn't matter too much, just claim the new garrison was still weary from the battle and the bandit/necromancer/skeleton/draugr/dragon/whatever horde wiped them out easily. based on when i've used troops from both sides as dragon fodder it'd probably fit.

edit in response to the response... Oh, ok. then as you get the valuable rewards anyway, i'd say this isn't much of a problem unless you want maximum gold for your work.

It's not a glitch. You simply don't get this quest if your faction has already won.

Edit in response to response: I'm referring to the forts (like Greenwall, Kastav, Neugrad, etc) not camps

Ok. i assumed from your "This won't work" statement that the quests were there, just broken so there were enemy troops wasting your necromancer etc. hunting ground, harrassing your preferred side, and generally being an infinitely respawning nuisance. i've done these quests until they un-froze and worked before, all i got was a bit of extra gold and more spaced out item rewards.

Oh, I see what you were saying. My OP wasn't exactly clear, so let me rephrase it:

In my game, I played through the entire MQ before joining either side. During the negotiation quest, I made all possible hold-exchanges. Then, since I was RP'ing an imperial, I joined the legion, took over fort Hraagstad from bandits and took over all remaining Stormcloak forts by playing through the questline normally. This ended with the legion in control of every fort on the civil war map. I wanted to have my faction control all the main strongholds for immersion purposes.

Would it still work if you have gone to the point where balgruuf wants you to take his axe to ulfric?

Should work fine before you've taken over any forts. Both sides should have an equal number of holds at that point.

Heck, It might even work when the other faction only has their capital left for all I know. I'm operating on the assumption that you have to exchange holds, and that you can't just give them up for free.

Edit: When you guys do this, keep in mind that you have to finish the whole main quest from that point on (it's a peace treaty, after all) until you can start taking over the enemy forts for your side.

Could someone test this out for the Stormcloaks?

I joined the stormcloaks awhile back, got about halfway through the civil war quests before I picked up on the MQ again and ive not recieved this quest (and im on the last mission of the main quest btw).

Wish I coulda been able to do this lol

Alright, I'm coming back to this thread after testing it again for the Imperials. You have to give away Markarth (for Riften) and Falkreath during the negotiations, which requires that the Stormcloaks feel that you're supporting the Imperials too much because you let the Thalmor ambassador stay. Once you've finished the main quest, Tullius will, later in the civil war questline, give you missions to take back Ft. Sungard and Neugrad. You can clear out Ft. Greymoore (the one in Whiterun hold) any time, and it will be garrisoned when you come back later. The only fort I can't get them to take is Snowhawk, in Hjaalmarch, which the necromancers seem to have a death grip on.

Still need testers for the Stormcloak side What you'll have to do is kick the Thalmor lady out of the negotiations, and exchange Riften for Markarth. The Empire should at this point ask for a minor hold, which should mean either Dawnstar or Winterhold. I've had a friend confirm that you can clear out Fort Amol at any time for them and the Stormcloaks will occupy it, and that they garrison Fort Greymoore if you clear it out after taking Whiterun.