Yo I registered just to comment on this. I have over 1300 hours put into this mod by itself and pretty well adjusted with the ins and outs of it.
First point of note: if you are new to Warband I suggest not starting with this Mod. It is considered one of the more difficult mods amongst most Warband players and forums. I suggest taking some time in native to learn the basics of the game.
Second: Perisno is a fantastic total conversion, light fantasy (no magic, orcs and the such) mod and has all the aspects of such a mod that I look for before trying it; i.e. new mechanics and features, new companions and lords, new scenes and varying scenes for specific places and events and so on. Like stated previously the mod can be difficult and hard to adjust to, just give it time and realize that mistakes or being beaten and captured are just lessons learned.
Third: This version of mod does a certain things that most mods don't, and that is drastically increase Wp's with most 3rd/4th tier units having higher Wp's than even native kings and lords. This makes the game a lot more fun, as well as difficult. Especially when you start to realize that having 300 wp in archery in native is considered god like, but is absolute chump change in perisno. Most high tier archery units will straight up outshot you in most cases.
Fourth: the recruitment system got a bit of a nerf. Recruits cost 30 aurums. (The currency in perisno) each. And the upgrades to each tier cost about 4 times more or so. The wage costs are also considerably tuned up. So fielding a large army can become costly and expensive to upgrade.
With the basic changes discussed. Starting out in perisno can be a challenge. The outlaws are finely tuned to be quite a threat in the early game. The type of outlaws is also quite diverse, others being considerably more deadly than some. I.e. The assassin's of Raal'Duin are expert infantry/ranged units and pose a huge threat to you in the mid/early game, on the other note there are outlaws like robbers and sandwalkers which are lower tier troops that pose less of a threat. the higher tier outlaw groups i.e. Eagle/Wolf Knight War parties pose quite a threat, even in the mid-late game. Able to field 80 to over 100 troops, most of which being 4th tier and higher. There are other threats in the lands of perisno but I will cover them in a later section of this opinionated guide.
-Character creation.
There are many viable creation paths to consider when creating your Perisnoan Savior. Fiddle around with the creation screen. Perisno made it so you see what changes with each decision you make so play around with it and find the best ways to get the stats you want. I typically go with the Island far to the North start for 2 reasons. The first being Hyk, a companion only gained from this start who essentially starts the game with almost no stats outside of a high str attribute and lvl1 so he is a completely open to character to customize how you see fit. (He also starts with some really good early game gear and has household troops if made into a Lord which are generally as a rule pretty strong.) The second reason being the outstanding early game combat stats you get. I believe it's 6 in ironflesh, 5 powerstrike, and a couple in weaponmaster and other minor things. This makes the early game outlaws a lot more manageable to solo if needed.
-Starting region.
Next step is choosing where to start. I personally like starting in either Maccavia or Tolrania. Each region has it's pros and cons. Maccavia and tolarania are both potent in terms of game hunting, which is an easy source of income, and there are generally ample amounts of lords around to help with the more dangerous outlaws. Their troops are good early/mid tier units are easily upgradeable. But the regions have some of the strongest lower tier outlaws which can be a pain to handle at the extreme early game; the volhere raiders and outlawed criminals. Both types have generally low Map movement speed, so a few points in pathfinding in the early game should lead to safety until you are strong enough to take them on your own. Other good starting regions would be Drahara and the Hakkon. These region's low tier outlaws are the sandwalkers which are on the lower end of the outlaw spectrum but their gear is pretty pricey which leads to some good currency income if farmed out. They also give pretty decent experience while being generally easy to kill which is useful for training your troops. But it is swarming with foreign invaders and slavers, who's map movement speed is on the higher end of outlaws due to their armies being primarily cavalry. All in all these would be the four suggested regions (imo) to start out in.
-Income and troops.
Earning money in the early game can be done in several different ways.
First thing first. FIND FAZL! You can do this by going to any ransom broker in any town and asking if they have come across any travelers looking for work. They will tell you of companions and where they are currently located. (A very handy feature added during, I believe, the .9.1 patch) keep clicking this till Fazl comes up and go hire him. He costs 3.5k but will make you that money back easily. Fazl is pretty imperative when it comes to earning money due to his 8 trading skill. This will increase prices of goods sold by 5% each point, and decrease the price of goods bought by 5% each point.
-Farming herds: their hides and meat sell for a pretty good price. Make sure you go to a different town each time for the selling price will go down based on how much of a particular thing each town has in stock.
-- on a side note of farming herds, some people have a difficult time farming herds efficiently due to their fleeing mechanic. Well big brother allaeus will help you newbies figure it out wisely. First step being I recommend always using a bow. Having a power draw of 3 with an equivalent bow to match with at least 100 wp in archery will allow you to one shot deer. Once a herd is "aggroed" there will always be one lead deer. This will be the first deer to start running, the other deer will follow it once it gets a certain distance away from them. KILL THIS DEER IMMEDIATELY. Doing this will stop the deer from running and will keep them in one spot. Not sure if this mechanic was intended but thats how it is. This is highly recommended. And I recommend hunting deer above the other herds simply because they generate more income based on being larger packs. Each herd (usually comprising of between 19 and 30) can earn you generally between 4-7k each and if lucky you can hit 2-3 packs a day and selling at a different town after every time. (I usually hop between Galwe, Lesbere, and leauven.) 12-21k a day sounds pretty nice doesn't it? This will be your staple money for building enterprises to keep a steady income flowing. Also use this money to hire any companion you find in taverns along the way. Some of these can be very expensive but useful.
- Enterprises: Building enterprises will be your bread and butter when it comes to funding your army until you can take a town and start your own kingdom. The first and foremost one I always recommend is a dyeworks in Elsinore. This is singlehandedly the most productive enterprise you can land. Generating between 3 and 4.5k every week. With a few points in leadership you can field an elite tier army of 40-50 with just that money alone. After that I suggest doing a bit more farming, either from low/mid tier outlaws or hunting and heading to the dwarves nation of The Kaikoth Federation. In both the town's here build iron works. These will generate between 2.4 and 2.8k each week. With just these 3 you will get about 8.5-10k depending on the week. Rinse and repeat until you have a good amount of profit coming in. (If you want a more traditional means of earning money you could do quests for town guildmasters. It takes longer but adds to the gameplay and will increase your relation with the town.)
--Side note on enterprises. You need a total of 5 points in a town in order to build an enterprise as well as have a relation of -1 or higher with the owner of the town. Relation in this aspect is also affected by your persuasion skill level. For each persuasion point you have it makes the relation requirement decrease by that amount. So if you have 5 persuasion your relation with the town needs to be at least 0. I recommend putting a few points into persuasion to make it easier and quicker to build enterprises. Otherwise doing and completing quests for the town guildmaster will get you the relation you are lacking. Also the persuasion comes in handy later on in the game.
Your warband- due to the ridiculous amount of diversity of troops in perisno figuring out which units to use for early effectiveness can be challenging. For this I have 3 words. THE MERCENARIES GUILD. This is located just to the north of the main body of the Hakkon Empire. Here you can hire customisable recruits. And by customisable I mean they are completely and utterly yours to create with the exception their attributes and stats which are generally on par with other similar troops of tiers with other nations. They arent cheap to tecruit but they are easy to upgrade and their wages arent too high (depending on the quality of gear you out on them. If you put super high quality gear on each unit their wages will be exceptionally higher than if you used lower quality.) Put whatever gear you feel would be best for what you want to do on these troops. Make them diverse to handle any situation. These are my typical back-bone units in the early/mid game. Other than these troops i tend to use either the Elintor elf troops because of their excelling archery skills or Valahir troops for their extraordinary infantry. Both make the early game quite easy to manage.
--Side note on those Hired customisable recruits I mentioned. These guys can also be an efficient way of gaining money by simply giving them all blunt weapons. Perisno is different than native in the fact that blunt weapons only give a chance of knocking unconscious the enemy where as in native it was 100% everytime. Put a few points into prisoner management and blunt weapons on your recruits and watch them rake in the prisoners. Sell these at any ransom broker for a big gain.
Getting honor- honor is a very important stat to increase as the game progresses. There a few ways to get honor. The first being doing bounties in taverns. There is an endless bounty amount in any town tavern. Simply talk to the innkeeper and accept the bounty. Keep in mind the bounty system in perisno isn't like native. Sometimes they will have you track down some tough cookies. So I recommend only doing this once you get some lvls and better gear. Each bounty will give you (I believe) 2 honor if you deny payment for the bounty, so you don't receive any reward outside of honor but you can't be picky when grinding. But as I said this is farmable. The second way is to fight lords and free imprisoned lords as well as letting the lords you do occasionally capture go. This way gives the most honor but is also the hardest of the ways. The third being donations to the order of God's in the castle of Maccan, the capital of the Maccavian nation. There are two donation options. One being a donation of 500, this won't give you honor but will give you renown. (A good investment in the mid to late game to help with warband party size.) The second being a donation of 2k. This will greatly increase your relation with the particular religious order that you donate too as well as give you 2 honor everytime. I recommend doing this once you either A) having a large flow of income each week whether through enterprises or rents from towns or B) Keep a small army and can afford to drop all your weeks earnings into it. The last way (at least efficient way) is by random event choices that will randomly pop up on your screen from time to time. Obviously choose the most honorable one (easily distinguished between the less honorable ones) and this can sometimes land you some good points in honor. All in all honor is a pain to grind, but dedicate some time to it and you'll eventually see it rise.
Adventurer guild questlines- Now instead of having the traditional bandit start like in native, the developers of perisno decided to integrate a guild quest line. The Adventurer's Guild. This quest line can only be started at the tavern of the City at which you chose to start your Adventure. Talk to the guildsman and he will give you an easy task to complete. Do it promptly and return back to him. Doing this will unlock quests all across perisno granted by Adventurers such as himself. NOTE: YOU CANNOT ACCEPT QUESTS FROM OTHER GUILDSMAN WITHOUT DOING THE FIRST INITIAL QUEST. As is standard in most questlines the first quests they will give you are generally easier, and the difficulty will progress as you continue to do more and more. This is a fun way to earn some good gear/aurums/and relations, and in some particular instances a easy way to grind some aurums/exp. (I.e. The Ankar escort quest. Speaking with the lady at any time will spawn some Ankar inquisators that will pursue her. Take them out. But this will happen everytime you talk to her until you bring her to desired destination. So if you have a decent warband, you can farm this for renown/gear/exp/and money. Probably wasn't intended to be this way but thus once again just how it is.)
I think that pretty much covers starting out in the early game. If requested I will make another status on the mid and late game grinds as well. I apologize for the long post. I just have a lot of passion for this mod and will always want to talk about it xD
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