Nny 说:
What I need is the fastest way to start a small army, and the best possible group, without all the bull**** fighting.
Here's the simplest way I know of:
1. Gather together a group of companions; my note at the bottom of this post describes how to pick a good, non-fighting group.
*
2. Recruit around 10 Khergit Tribesmen and level them into Lancers.
3. Mount all your companions.
4. Go around fighting bandits. You won't have problems finding bandits in the vanilla game. Start with looters, then move up through the various types of bandits until you get to Sea Raiders.
5. Fight Sea Raiders until you can reliably take on large groups of them. As a bonus, you'll be able to outfit your companions with their armor and, if you put points into Prisoner Management, you'll be able to ransom captured raiders for a nice amount of cash, especially if you've hung on to a few Manhunters as bakters suggests.
Hints:
After looters, try Mountain Bandits next. The terrain will be against you, but they're weak, and they drop really helpful shields.
Mounted bandits like Steppe and Desert Bandits are fast, but weak. Avoid them until your whole troop is mounted. They do drop horses as loot; if your whole troop is already mounted, put 6 horses in inventory to further speed up your troop on the map.
Forest bandits and Tundra Bandits tend to be archers, and can be murder if you and your group are not adequately shielded. If you're all mounted, try flanking them and riding them down fast.
Sea Raiders, of course, are the toughest types of raiders, and drop really good gear that will outfit you and your entire troop for a good part of the game.
Once you can reliably take on large groups of Sea Raiders, hire yourself out as a merc and start fighting lord armies. Keeping your troop small will guarantee fast leveling, but you might want to start out by jumping into other lords' battles rather than challenging lord armies by yourself; as a bonus, this will get you increased relation with the lords you help.
Once your companions are very strong, dump the Lancers and start recruiting the troops you want to build your army around. Now's a good time to join a faction, too. If you've been faction-hopping as a merc, you'll probably have built up good relations with a lot of lords, which is always a good thing if you intend to start your own kingdom.
___________________________________________________________________
* As for non-fighting companion groups, just remember this:
A1: Alayen, Baheshtur, Firentis A2: Nizar, Marnid, Katrin
B1: Borcha, Artimenner, Matheld, Lezalit, Rolf B2: Deshavi, Klethi, Jeremus, Ymira, Bunduk
Pair either A group with either B group and you can't go wrong.
.