Are wages a problem for you too?

I've noticed that I can barely make do when it comes to paying my men. I try to throw all my soldiers in a castle/hotel by the end of the week, but that doesn't always work out as planned. I need to rack up approximately 200 dollars each week! I would gladly sacrifice each and every one of my trusted men to achieve victory, but it's annoying to train new recruits.

How do you make money? I usually travel with a 10-15 strong party and attack small groups of confeds and imperialists. What about you?

I train my mob up to the levels at which they start wielding guns, and no further. Two gentlemen with cheap pistols are more fun to have around than one soldier with a rifle.

I don´t have this problem because the mod is Mount & Blade only,
and I have warband,just like the most others.

alabaman said:

I've noticed that I can barely make do when it comes to paying my men. I try to throw all my soldiers in a castle/hotel by the end of the week, but that doesn't always work out as planned. I need to rack up approximately 200 dollars each week! I would gladly sacrifice each and every one of my trusted men to achieve victory, but it's annoying to train new recruits.

How do you make money? I usually travel with a 10-15 strong party and attack small groups of confeds and imperialists. What about you?

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Try selling guns to the natives, they will give more money per gun than the other factions.

I guess confederates and imperialists have poorly valued guns, compared to those which the outlaws/deserters from usa army/outlaws/lawmen carry. These guys' weaps are well sold in Indian towns.

But also I ride a 30-40 band of mixed guys between outlaws, companions (all of them),
some mexicans and mercenaries and hardly i hit the 100 dollars-per-week mark, if ever.
And so i can attack slightly larger groups and go high on Looting skill and in Leadership to reduce party wages.
Also levelling up the trade skill helps a bit on this.

Edited: also, from time to time, I attack commoners patrols and rob a bank.

Alcohol and looted weapons to the indians. A leadership skill of 10 cuts wages in half.

Edit: Also sell mining tool's to Bishop's Edge.
Edit2: I've got two things I do. What I usually do as well is to join one of the larger factions. (USA, Mexico, Apache or Comanche; and be sure to sign up with one of the lords, not the faction leader. The lords offer up higher monthly fee's.) Divide the monthly salary in four and try to keep my troop wages around those numbers.

When I get tired of that I either start my own gang (kingdom) or pick one of the nations to be friendly with and pick on all the other nations settlements. In my current game I am employed by the Mexican's with a monthly salary of 102 dollars. I spend most of my time raiding American or Apache settlements, steal horses from the Comanche (I throw in some Mexican horses when I pass one of the settlements).

I'm not well-liked, but I make a lot of money and fight a lot. The Mexican government pays my wages and I thank them by stealing their horses and occasionally listen to the roll-calls (only when I feel like it).

Will probably single out a couple of lords (four or so) that I will raise relations with later on and carve out a small, or medium, area for my gang once I get tired of raiding.

1. Leadership is important in lowering salaries
2. Mounted troops are expensive. If you go for all mounted gang, it will have to be smaller.
3. No need to upgrade all troops to the max. A few elites and a mix of lower tier troops works just as well and lowers the wages. Keep lots of "+" marks in your party and upgrade when top tier units are killed.
4. Sell guns to the indians or for lower profit to the Mexicans, never in US towns. Early on, buying whiskey from US town and villages and selling to the indians is a good income.

Money is only a problem if you have too many troops and too low leadership. This is in party limiting factor in 1866, not the artificial party size limit- which is a million times more interesting

Problem is that you get very low income from captured hotels,towns or fortresses.Not to mention villages,almost nothing.Cavalry is very cost-effective,because they have to be "killed twice" in battle,horses die first as already said in another topic so you can use cavalry to fight larger parties to obtain bigger loot and support your army from that money.I found myself in situation that I just had to make war against USA or Mexico just to pay salary for my troops by fighting and looting their generals!

But really, I usually have no problem paying wages by

1) looting 10+4
2) Blackjack

Shrugging Khan said:

But really, I usually have no problem paying wages by

1) looting 10+4
2) Blackjack
3) selling firewood

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Yep,that's the best way to earn some money!

mouthnhoof said:

3. No need to upgrade all troops to the max. A few elites and a mix of lower tier troops works just as well and lowers the wages. Keep lots of "+" marks in your party and upgrade when top tier units are killed.

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That's just retarded.

Nonsense. If you can't afford to pay higher wages, then keeping those +ses at hand and upgrading only before risky battles or after troops die...is an excellent move.

The only time I'd use this strategy is when I'm not at war with anyone. Yeah.

So...are you too lazy to micromanage or just bad at math? 

alabaman said:

mouthnhoof said:

3. No need to upgrade all troops to the max. A few elites and a mix of lower tier troops works just as well and lowers the wages. Keep lots of "+" marks in your party and upgrade when top tier units are killed.

Click to expand...

That's just retarded.

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Care to elaborate?

This is just like a real army. Funds is more than anything else the limit to how many "elite" units you have vs. run-of-the-mill troops. Infantry for example do not need all the training that commandos get and don't be fooled by Hollywood to believe that 1 elite soldier can obliterate a squad of regulars. They are only marginally better in battlefield work, but a lot more expensive to train and keep. Most armies keep several models of tanks, many of which are old with some upgrades, but still inferior to the new models - they are just cheaper and can be fielded in large numbers. As for ranks, most wartime promotions happen when the guy ranked above you gets killed/wounded. This is the equivallent of keeping all the "+" in the roster waiting to be promoted when your tier 4s get killed.

Sorry for the late reply, but I was banned for posting links on how to play Warband online without buying it. Anyways the main problem with money is having loads of cavalry. As well as a mixed army. Hell, I'm mexican but only like 30% of my men are of mexican troops. Most are just bandits I got after defeating a lord that happened to have many many prisoners. But hey, it's not like I can just throw free men away.

Also I have a pretty big question:

Would it be a good idea to get all the non-mexican troops and simply give them away to lords (or should I call them generals)? Right now we're not at war with anyone, so I think this is a great opportunity to clear my army of random indian ravagers and other square heads.

Adjust your army size and composition to your needs. If you just want to run over a measly few bandits, then a small number of cavalry units can run them down decently without infantry support. If you want to attack other lords (in war or peace), then numbers are all - and the cavalry percentage depends on your budget. If you're into sieges, or looting, then stick to infantry in any amount you can afford.

Me personally, in your situation, I'd keep the mixed party and go out to declare a private war on someone.

Shrugging Khan said:

Me personally, in your situation, I'd keep the mixed party and go out to declare a private war on someone.

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There aren't many factions left. I killed off both indian factions, as well as bandits. The only factions that still remain with territory are Mexico, USA, and Cottonwood bandits.

You're right, I could get money by declaring war against the cottonwood bandits but man, they're slippery bastards. They always hide.

**** the Bandits.

Instead...Raise your looting skill, or get a companion with high looting. Then declare war on the bastards in blue. They drop guns, you sell them to the Mexicans for awesome profits, and you weaken the gringos for the war that's inevitably to come. Your enemies will be tough, but worth a lot of money. And if you just keep on hitting them, trashing their economic basis, capturing their field leaders, and generally making things messy for them...well, all hail the new Mexican overlords.

PS: Also, you'll be freeing plenty of prisoner bandits. Use them to reinforce your party and to strengthen the parties of the Mexican lords.

Son that's a great idea! Also I can easily get about 80 fresh recruits from a village, and since lords don't have unit limits couldn't I just give a lord about 500 troops and seige El Paso?