temaire said:
I'm on day 20 or so, and I have an army of 32, with troops from all 5 factions. Is this a good idea?
Also, my arm is quite weak, so who should I train against?
I recommend getting an all-cavalry army and make sure to mount all your companions. You can crush most enemies you're likely to encounter on day 20 this way. Maybe more importantly, you can get around the map super-fast with an all-cavalry army. This way you can avoid those nasty Jatu while you are weak (days 20), but also run down all those small bandits armies that try to get away from you. Also, you can make trading/questing runs a lot faster with cavalry.
As far as troops, I have some suggestions:
1. Get some foreign nobles from taverns ASAP. Adventurers and Hero Adventurers kick serious butt while you are just toddling around the map and not trying to take castles, etc. However, they are also very expensive, so see #2.
2. Rescue as many refugees/peasants/villagers as you can. They turn into Pendor Militia and eventually Pendor Mounted-Man-at-Arms. These guys aren't as good as the Adventurers in #1, but they sure are a heck of a whole lot cheaper to employ. Like 40G per week vs. the 250G for a Hero Adventurer. Get enough of them and you will be set. In my opinion, one of the best bang-for-the-bucks in the early game.
3. Don't discount female peasants. They are very similar to the foreign nobles in #1, so you could also get some of them for a lot less gold to begin with than the foreign nobles. You could certainly save gold up front by using this route over #1. However, IIRC they are still as expensive to employ weekly as the Adventurers.
Thus, #2 with #1 or #3 sprinkled in is what I recommend for early game.