2. Yes, you are either born noble or you are not, you can still earn their respect, and you can get a banner once your renown is above 100.
3.1 Cheating within normal game parameters does not cause crashes or anything like that, but you may screw up you gaming experience. The game can actually still be a challenge even if you max out all stats.
3.2 Not really needed, you can export/import your character (and all companions) and edit stats with any text editor, that takes care of stats and money.
You can enable the cheatmode in the options menu, that more or less takes care of any remainding cheater needs.
4. The Train xxx troops can be completed with any troops of the proper type, it does not specifically have to be the recruits the lord gives you, if you already have some of the proper type in your party, just go ahead and turn in the quest straight away. You only fail the quest if you do not complete it in time, or if you tell the lord you do not want to do it. Unless you can train them up completely with trainer skill, you should go grab some extra recruits at the nearest village, some are bound to die before they reach level 4 if they have to earn their xp themselves.
The easiest way to keep them alive is to have some training skill, it stacks, so the more companions that have it, the merrier, and with trainer on a few guys, your level 1 recruits will be level 2 or 3 in short order, and thus have a much higher survival rate in combat.
Surgery skill is also very important, it can save loads of your troops from death.
For battlefield survival it helps to have the high ground, and if you cannot protect your lvl1 recruits with something tougher, bring lots and lots of them.
free tip: lords of a given faction tends to require the same types of troops trained, so keep a stash of that type on hand, either in your party or at a garrison.
5. For starting position I would suggest Rhodok or Swadia, because the bandit types there are the easiest to handle, if you start in horse country, you will face bandits on horse, that's bad because the may be faster than you on the overland map. Nords lands are home to sea raiders, you really dont want to mess with those unless you have a significant numerical advantage.
If/when you sign up as vassal back whatever faction you like at that time, you can always wimp out, if the faction is taking a beating.
But I would suggest to spend 100 days or more trading your way to riches and becoming deadly on the battlefield, before you go mess about with fighting lord parties.
6. Most of the "manual" for this mod is in the sticky thread (http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,148140.0.html) in here, otherwise it is just the usual native manual. there can also be extra instructions in the forums dedicated to the "submods" since this is mostly a compilation mod.
And yeah, many modding communities could use some more people who really shines at writing manuals