I have to agree with Canuck and crew, I've had no problem starting off in this mod. Granted I've been playing Mount and Blade since Zendar (6, 7 years?) so maybe that's some of it, but there are lots of options to help get started.
1. Take quests from local villages and cities, decline the ones that ask you to kill a dozen mercs. at once.
2. Use the training fields. Doesn't take much time at all to get 8-10 local recruits to the next grade up.
- And yeah, 10 or so fodder at second tier and a 200 gold sword/spear do just fine to take mercs.
3. If these are too tough you can (for now at least) hire a small band of your own mercs. some starting options (bandit, poacher?) start you with furs and a gold bar to sell. More than enough to get a group of Lady Knights, which are more than enough for almost anything.
4. Starting in Rhodok, Khergit, or Vaeger territory gives you some great trading opportunities.
- Velvets, Spices/Salt and Iron respectively. A starting handful of denar go a long long way
Yes it's a little tougher, but I like not just steamrolling groups of 30+ men to start. It seems to make the game much more immersive and engaging. I have to plan my beginning and struggle through the ranks. And I'm sure that the four methods I've listed (and played through) are just a fraction of the ways you can make it through the opening hours. Besides, after you kill your first group of mercs., even with low plunder skill, you should be just about set from their pieces of EQ.
And.. I've never had trouble evading groups, I think the starting character+horse is faster on worldmap than anything but the Khergit/Sarranid bandits, even with a modest contingent.
Don't start in those areas? Or, as a previous player suggested, avoid Ctrl+space for a little.
At any rate, I hope you can find a way to enjoy this awesome mod! Surprisingly, this is one of my favorite mods recently, over Pendor and Damocles (how'd that happen!?). Maybe some of the other oldies can put in some tips for getting started? But the difficulty seems perfect to me.
Good luck!