What if I don't want to trade?

Okay just played 3 games... well tried to and kept failing very hard. I searched around the forums and got the impression that to survive you need to "trade"

Well my trade sucks and I'm no fan of running between cities buying and selling useless junk for money. I want to adventure with purpose! So I find quests and fight bandits?

Well so the initiates get raped by the first few bandits you fight for the merchant, okay let's train... a few days later acolytes! Yeah the first specialized melee class, they can do it right? Gets raped by a wedding family... really? People bring scythes and pitchforks to a wedding?

Tried the queen's quest, taxing people, gets raped by village mob. Tried a count's quest, get's raped by murderer/assassin. Tried a Lady's quest, jailed in a castle for attempting a jailbreak. Tried a village elder's quest, don't know how to find cattle(and when I looked in his inventory, he had hundreds! Why does he need 8 more) Tried another village quest, got raped by wedding guests. This is the sum of my 3 play-attempts...

Now I'm just arena farming... for gold I guess... not sure what else I can do. And don't get me wrong I'm decent, can kill 30+ in arena fights(just can't survive when the last 6 decide I'm the only enemy). Can definitely win tournaments if their distance didn't scare me off. Can't ever travel at peace thanks to bandits everywhere.

Now don't get me wrong I think this mod is really great, combat feels more exciting knowing your troop's lives and your own are on the line. Troop variety also a big plus, so are the better Lord interactions and awards. I can probably enjoy this mod just fighting in the arena and occasionally travel to a proximal tournament, but really is there room for a warrior as a humble newcomer to Calradia? Or are all his fighting prowess worthless, and he must settle for the wearisome merchant.

PS I should note *honorable* warrior. Want to help people and not loot villages, although I bet if I tried I'd get raped anyway lol

Are you experienced with the normal, native M&B:Warband? Because if you're not, I suggest you play it some more. Native Expansion (NE) was designed to be difficult and painful. As Argeus once said: "The difficulty at the beginning. It is not a difficulty curve, it's the frigging Himalaya." I suggest you learn the tactics and well, trading is a part of that. You can be a courageous warlord, but for that you need money. M&B is all about realism (Mostly) and you'll have to deal with it.

You need the looting skill. At least 5. Screw that initial quest.

This is for a brand new character. You should be exporting and bringing one over multiple plays.

sell the gold and get a horse. avoid battle. you can outrun them. win a tourney with all your gold invested in bets, then find another tourney and do it again.
now you should have around 40k. start recruiting every companion you come across. (you can turn off personality clashes) look for interesting merc groups in the taverns, the lady knight is afaik the best heavy calv you can get without being a landowner. dont go crazy on equipment just yet, instead make sure you equip everyone with a sword + shield
you can equip two shields, this is especially useful as a low lvl character. forest bandits get eaten by by calv troops, especially on flat ground. the forest at the end of the river near Uxkhal has plenty.
kill the **** out of bandit parties. mountain bandits near Veluca, Sea Raiders near Wercheg, the Khergit bandits are a little annoying due to high horse content, weak deserter parties. these guys usually have female peasant prisoners. recruit them and train them in lady knights. once you get like 5-10 LK's you can take on merc bands. keep doing this until reasonably well equipped.

you should now have no trouble with gray parties.

join a faction. take something you can store troops in. build an army, take more land. demand it all, until you can rebel starting your own kingdom.

take over half the map, get bored and start over

remember to export your character

EDIT just wanted to point out that once your party is large enough, when you collect taxes the villagers will not rise against you. collecting taxes is for scribes though. so is trade. i'm a warrior and you sound like one too.

EDIT2 get your agi to 15 first for riding/looting), then pump str, although making sure your str is at least 8 is a good idea. you can get the stats you want by answering questions correctly. there's a thread stickied here with the info on that

@Carnivorious: yeah I've played native, but after I got a band of Swadian Knights most battles aren't difficult anymore. I guess I'm pretty decent at fighting... uh... solo, less decent at tactics management, and very much less decent at everything else boring.

But yes this mod adds a lot of realism native didn't have, like persistent injuries... ouch. Not used to playing "handicapped" like that. But it's cool a true warrior never gives up lol

@kdros: that sounds like an excellent idea, I've only fought a group of mercs before, and they shot me to death on my horse. Most of the times as long as they can't shoot me I'm fine, since I always play horse archer, and can pretty much outskirmish even knights. But okay leme do that and tell you how it goes

I disagree with the "should be exporting" part kdros mentioned.  It would make things easier, but what you're given with is enough... just need to find the ways to get through with it.

I've managed twice with new characters.  First (successful) time, I started out in Tulga and ran around doing letter quests for lords until one finally offered to hire me as a mercenary.  Once that happened, joined in battles other lords were in but were going to win and just let the xp roll in and bump my guys up high.

Second time, I started off with the Rhodoks.  Unfortunately, I wasn't having much luck this time with lords, so I sold the gold bar, got a few arbalest mercenaries and some peasants, went over to swadian land to face forest bandits.  Had my guys hold position and the bandits were mostly dead by the time they got to us thanks to the arbalests.  I don't think it was as fast as having the lords do the bigger fights, but it got my peasants leveled into something.

Trading just seems to be the way other people found around the beginning.  Tried it in native, didn't care for it.  After seeing how easy the money comes in with a decent looting skill on your guy in native expansion, don't really see the point in doing such, with possible exception of helping out your town(s).

NE is simple when you played native on 144% difficulty, eventually try NE on the lowest difficulty and 25 men on the field and try increasing it when you advance in game

If you don't want to trade or do tourneys, sell the gold, hire some decent mercs, then build up your looting skill fighting bandits. Once you've got a bit of cash, start recruiting from villages. Know your enemy, don't overstock your war party too fast and you'll be raking it in and levelling your troops. I find it more fun this way as trade and tourneys are a bit of a slog.