Sir Shrek
Veteran
Recently, I posted about my strategy for companions. To be clear, although 4 start as skill monkeys and 4 start as fighters, by the time I entered the mid-game, my guys were all very skilled and they were all super soldiers imo (the person I got my strategy from described the companions as super soldiers when they have level 4 combat skills and are outfitted as I described in the other post. For some, "super soldier" might mean combat skills are 10). There’s enough skill points to do both. When I entered the mid-game, on font, they were all better than huscarls. Also, on foot, they were way better than Rhodok sharpshooters and on horseback they were wayyyyyy better than Swadian knights. I actually did some experiments to compare my guys to Calradia’s best. I’ll make a post of that later. This post is about another aspect of the strategy that I used.
Don’t join a faction until mid-game
I’ve read posts where people say you should join a faction early in the early-game. I don’t understand why. I think it’s bad advice. Last time I played, which was my first time, I didn’t join a faction until late in the early-game and I had no problems.
If you’re a member of a faction, you don’t earn money from the businesses you own in an enemy faction. Your faction will often be at war with another faction - sometimes 2 factions at once. This means you will lose a lot of money. By waiting until the mid-game to join a faction, you will earn money from all your businesses for the entire early-game.
To earn money as fast as possible from your businesses, visit each town and find out what the most profitable business would be. Do this when you’re close to having enough money to start setting up businesses. Rivacheg always has the most profitable business but after that it changes with each game. So set up a business in Rivacheg asap and then start visiting the other towns, if you haven't started already, to find out which business would be most profitable. Record all the information you get. When you’ve been to every town, sort the info in order from most profitable to least profitable. Set up the most profitable business first and work your way through the list to the least profitable. This is the fastest way to earn money in the early-game from businesses because you earn from the profitable businesses for a longer amount of time than the unprofitable businesses.
Keep your army small
I’ve seen posts from people with big armies and they have money problems. It’s fun to have a big army with archers, infantry and cavalry but it’s expensive and vulnerable to attack. In the end, you’re making the early-game harder in 2 ways.
1) By having a big army with different types of units, you move slow on the world map for 2 reasons. Big armies move slower than small armies and armies with troops on foot move slower than mounted armies. So if your army is big and has troops on foot you will be a very slow-moving easy target for big enemy armies.
2) By having a big army, you spend a lot of money on wages.
One of my objectives in the early-game is to end up with an army of 8. Those 8 are my companions. Initially, to have only 8 companions in your party would make your party weak. It would be difficult to get horses, armour and other gear for free. So, I recruit 15 Swadians. I train the Swadians to be footmen, allowing me to capture horses from bandits very early in the early-game. I train the Swadians up to Man at arms (knights are too expensive at this point) and keep 10 of them. At this point I have 10 Man at arms and 8 companions in training. When the companions are comparable to Man at arms in both skill and gear, I start dismissing the Swadians. Eventually, I have only 8 companions and no one else in my party for the rest of the early-game.
By keeping my party small, I can move fast on the world map. The fastest speed I reached in my current game was 13.2. That’s fast. At times, my party was difficult to control over short distances because they would move so fast. This means I can easily outrun any army chasing me and catch up to any army.
By keeping my party small, wages are low. In the early-game of my current game, after I dismissed the Swadians, my weekly wages never reached 600 denars. Meanwhile, I was earning 11000 denars per week from all my businesses.
By keeping my party small and not joining a faction in the early-game, I ended up with 1.9 million denars when I entered the mid-game at about level 35.
Don’t join a faction until mid-game
I’ve read posts where people say you should join a faction early in the early-game. I don’t understand why. I think it’s bad advice. Last time I played, which was my first time, I didn’t join a faction until late in the early-game and I had no problems.
If you’re a member of a faction, you don’t earn money from the businesses you own in an enemy faction. Your faction will often be at war with another faction - sometimes 2 factions at once. This means you will lose a lot of money. By waiting until the mid-game to join a faction, you will earn money from all your businesses for the entire early-game.
To earn money as fast as possible from your businesses, visit each town and find out what the most profitable business would be. Do this when you’re close to having enough money to start setting up businesses. Rivacheg always has the most profitable business but after that it changes with each game. So set up a business in Rivacheg asap and then start visiting the other towns, if you haven't started already, to find out which business would be most profitable. Record all the information you get. When you’ve been to every town, sort the info in order from most profitable to least profitable. Set up the most profitable business first and work your way through the list to the least profitable. This is the fastest way to earn money in the early-game from businesses because you earn from the profitable businesses for a longer amount of time than the unprofitable businesses.
Keep your army small
I’ve seen posts from people with big armies and they have money problems. It’s fun to have a big army with archers, infantry and cavalry but it’s expensive and vulnerable to attack. In the end, you’re making the early-game harder in 2 ways.
1) By having a big army with different types of units, you move slow on the world map for 2 reasons. Big armies move slower than small armies and armies with troops on foot move slower than mounted armies. So if your army is big and has troops on foot you will be a very slow-moving easy target for big enemy armies.
2) By having a big army, you spend a lot of money on wages.
One of my objectives in the early-game is to end up with an army of 8. Those 8 are my companions. Initially, to have only 8 companions in your party would make your party weak. It would be difficult to get horses, armour and other gear for free. So, I recruit 15 Swadians. I train the Swadians to be footmen, allowing me to capture horses from bandits very early in the early-game. I train the Swadians up to Man at arms (knights are too expensive at this point) and keep 10 of them. At this point I have 10 Man at arms and 8 companions in training. When the companions are comparable to Man at arms in both skill and gear, I start dismissing the Swadians. Eventually, I have only 8 companions and no one else in my party for the rest of the early-game.
By keeping my party small, I can move fast on the world map. The fastest speed I reached in my current game was 13.2. That’s fast. At times, my party was difficult to control over short distances because they would move so fast. This means I can easily outrun any army chasing me and catch up to any army.
By keeping my party small, wages are low. In the early-game of my current game, after I dismissed the Swadians, my weekly wages never reached 600 denars. Meanwhile, I was earning 11000 denars per week from all my businesses.
By keeping my party small and not joining a faction in the early-game, I ended up with 1.9 million denars when I entered the mid-game at about level 35.