Leveling up troops...

[Lord Serius]

I have about 50 ravenstern troops after having to start a new game due to the patch 


So now with those 50 troops I can't kill ANYTHING. Smaller parties run, Sarleon lords with 50- troops attack me, and for some reason even with tactics, I still get my ass kicked by their tanks known as cavalry. I lead them away from my bunch for as long as I can doing as much damage as i can. Sometimes I get knocked unconscious. The Ravenstern Kingdom thought it would be a good idea to make peace with Sarleon, so now I have nobody to leech off of.

I'm not a lord of any kingdom or anything but I just want to get my 50 troops up to the max. Last game I managed it, but I don't know how. My trainer skill is 4 yet I earn a ****ty amount of exp for my troops every night.

 

[The Horse]

What level is your character? That affects your trainer skill effectiveness, iirc. Frederick and Donovan both have a pretty high training skill to start off with and their level is fair enough to train recruits. I have both in my party and I can usually upgrade a good 10-12 recruits to militia status in one night.
I can't think of an effective way to deal with Sarleon's Knights as Ravenstern without using Knights of your own, which you can't get a hold of. If you're set on using Ravenstern troops you might want to throw in some Adventurers if you can afford it to better counteract Sarleon's tanks.
I would lease yourself out as a merc to Ravenstern and work on trading+selling loot before you worry about raising and maintaining an army. Usually your payment covers most of if not more than the wages you have to pay your men so that leaves you to make a profit off of loot and trade. As a merc, depending on who Ravensterns at war with, I like to traffic Iron from Senderfall to Ravenstern. If they're not at war with the Fiervsdain I like to take the iron there and buy flax from Javikshlom and sell it at Avendor, checking the tavern there and the tavern at Sarleon for Adventurers or Barclay troops. It's a good way to grow a profit of cash and gives you time to train troops if Ravenstern is playing the pacifist.

 

[noosers]

Training affects only troops lower in level than the trainer applying his skill. So your 4 points of training wont do any good to any higher tiered troopers. Go do some sparring at the training grounds, reduce your troops or hire some decent mercearies so you can deal with cavalry units.

 

[ManOfHonor]

Do missions for lords, guild masters, and village elders. + Relations with villages is great because you can recruit many more troops to replace those you loose.

Just keep on looking for parties that you can catch and kill, you might be better off finding fights already in process. Just because Rav isn't at war w/ Sar doesn't mean you have nothing to kill, you can attack them anyways, or any other faction (preferably one at war with another faction), just choose one faction to be friendly too as much as you can. Getting lord relations up will help you later in the game when you declare your own kingdom.


As far as high tier enemies, you'll just have to deal with them yourself, mercenaries are useful so visit every tavern. Don't try and take on a lord with twice as many troops as you when all you've got is fodder.

You can go down to the area around Cez and fight snake cult parties that are attacking farmers, and rescue prisoners, or the Mistmountain raiders up at their mountain (near Rane and that other town that I can't remember the name of), or normal bandits anywhere, or vanskerrys near Javiksholm.

But really, I recommend quests, they're good money low level. And sign on as a mercenary, it's a good deal, most of my paychecks exceeded my wages by a good 1-5 grand. Find companions (compatible ones, check the FAQ) and get them some points in Trainer.



Oh, and loose the dead weight, if you're too slow, it's your fodder troops that are slowing you down, dump some recruits, and have a few extra horses in your inventory, and don't have a bunch of other crap in your inventory, the more weight in the inventory, the slower you move on the map. Morale helps you move quicker on the map.

Edit: pa = map dunno how that happened. Damn touchpad.

 

[m4dm4x101]

yes, right now i would focus on quality over quantity if you are at a relatively early stage in your game.  Build relations.  When you're a merc, you will be able to sustain keeping high(and low) quality companions.

 

[joeman]

Don't hire any troops in beginning phase of game IMO.  Hire only companions.  You don't want troops to take experience from your companions.  You want your companions to level up ASAP and equip them with the best gears.  Before I hire at troops, just my companions and myself can tackle a snake cult with 30 guys.  After you get to about level 25 or higher, then you can start getting troops and join a faction.

 

[Marius_Imperator]

Spend some time at the training ground to level up the peasants/levy militia etc.

Lord/guild master quests are junk. The mighty King Marius offers 3k to go kill a snake cult lair as opposed to the 2-300 other quests give. But thats how shmucks do it.

Instead, find a fight between two kingdoms, join the side with the most numbers. You can autocalc, or if you're a real miser, enter the fight, order your troops to withdraw and just let the army's duke it out. You get shared XP/loot/+rep/prisoners. Sell all then pay 640 per fight to fix relations with the losing kingdom.

 

[Fawzia dokhtar-i-Sanjar]

Follow joeman's advice, except for one thing - if you find an Adventurer in a tavern, and can afford him, hire him!  Take all your companions to the training grounds regularly and level yourself and them faster.  Do the same with recruits as you begin to add them into your troop.  They are truly a useful commodity, those training grounds and can give you quite a leg up in the early game if you use them.