NOT Happy >:(

[Madthorn]

ah i see
what bringing money and whats taking it

Troop expense. I'm level 7, so nothing is bringing in money yet. In previous saves, I would hunt down looters and trade goods to gather enough money to succeed, but since last patch, I can't even do this. My game is dead and I'll sell my horses to buy food and try to complete some quests, but it looks doomed. Not fun.

 

[majutsushi]

i did a trade game to start off with and figured out some good routes. ive restarted about every other patch from new. so this is my basic starting route. head over to to khuazit and hit every citys arena on the way getting some gold. also fight the bandits u see with maybe 10 basic men u pick up. dont buy much in rations yet though or anything. once in the khauzit territory start going to main towns u see and buy cheap tools usually the south most town has them at 30. and buy pack mules. then be line to tyrol and buy fish and sell the tools. if u made a decent amount while travailing and doing all the arenas in the citys u should have some decent cash so buy butter and and cheese. better trade for the weight. then off to vostrom if u need cash or if u can go all the way to orysteria. should make some real bank selling stuff there. then repeat that trade loop and start buy more stuff.

 

[somaholiday]

I'm not sure a lot of these people have started over at this stage, they are probably using earlier saves where they already established themselves. I've been starting over since 1.06 and playing the beginning to get a feel for what it's like, so I know what you describe. Margins on trading are bad, tournament money is pretty bad, sure it can tide you over a bit, but not sustainable.

The beginning has a steeper upward curve now, and it's pretty apparent for anyone that starts a new game and doesn't leap directly into mercenary work. It's obviously quite doable if you follow the established road of what is being thrown at you, but if you try to sandbox at all and don't jump into inter-faction fighting, it will be a pretty tough road in the beginning.

 

[Madthorn]

i did a trade game to start off with and figured out some good routes. ive restarted about every other patch from new. so this is my basic starting route. head over to to khuazit and hit every citys arena on the way getting some gold. also fight the bandits u see with maybe 10 basic men u pick up. dont buy much in rations yet though or anything. once in the khauzit territory start going to main towns u see and buy cheap tools usually the south most town has them at 30. and buy pack mules. then be line to tyrol and buy fish and sell the tools. if u made a decent amount while travailing and doing all the arenas in the citys u should have some decent cash so buy butter and and cheese. better trade for the weight. then off to vostrom if u need cash or if u can go all the way to orysteria. should make some real bank selling stuff there. then repeat that trade loop and start buy more stuff.

I appreciate your post, but i'm past that point. I did all that until I had enough money for my troops and upgrades and a few basic mounts so that I could maybe catch some looters. What I'm saying is, after the last patch, I can no longer continue playing because they must have nerfed the profit margins for trading and made enemies faster. its too hard. When a game is too hard to even play, it's no longer any fun at all.

 

[Madthorn]

I'm not sure a lot of these people have started over at this stage, they are probably using earlier saves where they already established themselves. I've been starting over since 1.06 and playing the beginning to get a feel for what it's like, so I know what you describe. Margins on trading are bad, tournament money is pretty bad, sure it can tide you over a bit, but not sustainable.

The beginning has a steeper upward curve now, and it's pretty apparent for anyone that starts a new game and doesn't leap directly into mercenary work. It's obviously quite doable if you follow the established road of what is being thrown at you, but if you try to sandbox at all and don't jump into inter-faction fighting, it will be a pretty tough road in the beginning.

Thank you. I'll try to sell my horses for food and see if I can Merc a living. I'm highly doubtful, but better than scrapping my best build so far. Either that or not play this save until they balance the game in the next patch. I posted because it's very very different than my other saves.

 

[MegaYama]

I'm not sure a lot of these people have started over at this stage, they are probably using earlier saves where they already established themselves. I've been starting over since 1.06 and playing the beginning to get a feel for what it's like, so I know what you describe. Margins on trading are bad, tournament money is pretty bad, sure it can tide you over a bit, but not sustainable.

The beginning has a steeper upward curve now, and it's pretty apparent for anyone that starts a new game and doesn't leap directly into mercenary work. It's obviously quite doable if you follow the established road of what is being thrown at you, but if you try to sandbox at all and don't jump into inter-faction fighting, it will be a pretty tough road in the beginning.

The only way to survive in the beginning is to keep your group pretty small. More men = more food expense and money drain.
I have been riding with about 10 men for a long time. I did battle greater armies with them and won. Most quests in which you have to fight against rival gangs or family feud's enemies, you can just circle around the enemy NPC and hit his head. Running in circles prevents you from being hit. Same for fighting from the horse back. It's an easy and practical tactic. Since in reality knights and other warriors, also tried to hit the enemy from the side or back and never faced them frontally.

 

[Karl_Magnus]

I never had trouble with trading, personally, but I learned where prices are low in some regions and in which other regions to sell them at a good prices in general...

 

[eddiemccandless]

They did change prices of some items, namely horses, but apart from that I didn't see any issues with making money on a new save (I always make a new save after each patch). If anything I am having an easier time making money now, but that's probably because I know the game better than I did a week ago.

I would not rely on the colors for making money out of trading. There is a huge variation in the green zone, and it is not always a good idea to rely on it. Also last time I noticed it seemed to be bugged. Trade rumors in tavern are somewhat more effective even if not 100% reliable. As Karl_Magnus says, eventually you develop a feeling for where to buy and where to sell.

Also, if you are really hurting for money do the imperial board game, taking the defender side. After some practice you can win easily, and it can double your money up to 500.

Also do not have too many troops/don't upgrade them if you don't need to (especially upgrades that require warhorses).

Hope that helps.

 

[majutsushi]

in most my playthroughs i wont push my army past 50 men until i vessel up and get land. i support those 50 tier6 men with the now 2 wood workshops(location is key to profit) and 3 caravans(agin location is key). with that i usually make around 0 to 200 or so a day. if i increase army though i cant support it and it gets to slow. i use the start of the playthough to always do my trade route thing get money and now way better gear and xp from tournies and dont go past 10-20 men and usually atleast 100 mules(sounds crazy but its not). then ill look at the map ( its kinda randomize) every play through on what cities will be the best and most prosperous(ie more money for you). that is where i drop my shops. side note on the wood workshops also look for a place that ether has alot of wood already or if u a good trader find somewhere that doesn't have any wood. then sell them all your wood for profit and your shop will make more money as well if there is alot of wood in the cities market. once im at all my incomes(2workshop/3cara) ill go up to the 50 men. but thats about how far you can go and stay stable. ill do some more trading then and get some bank to roll max size army and take my own city then. or keep at 50 and vassal up. i know the start can be frustrating though believe me. i dont think i could do it if i didn't have the good trade spots and prices memorized. to be honest though ive never done a mercenary start. i always start with trade.

 

[Cleo]

I never had trouble with trading, personally, but I learned where prices are low in some regions and in which other regions to sell them at a good prices in general...

yes but since last update i noticed that a lot of prices have changed . they reduced the low to high price margin . so trading doesnt bring as much profit anymore .
and they seem to have also increased the prices generally . in before i would find grain for example in some villages that produce it as cheap as 9 .
while now its like 20-30 in same villages

 

[Cleo]

OP to adapt to changes . you need to disband most of ur party .
what i did in latest start was : get 15 troops ( without attacking any looters to not level them up increasing upkeep )
but having them lets me move without worrying about bandits attacking me
and do what u always do . trading - arena - questing . whatever to bring 15k . and start with workshops . after 3 workshop and 1 caravan i started getting troops and leveling them up

 

[eddiemccandless]

OP to adapt to changes . you need to disband most of ur party .
what i did in latest start was : get 15 troops ( without attacking any looters to not level them up increasing upkeep )
but having them lets me move without worrying about bandits attacking me
and do what u always do . trading - arena - questing . whatever to bring 15k . and start with workshops . after 3 workshop and 1 caravan i started getting troops and leveling them up

You don't necessarily needs workshops if you keep fighting. Once you join a faction as a mercenary and start attacking other factions you will make a lot of money from that pretty fast, but even just fighting looters/bandits you can make enough money to mantain some decent troops.

 

[Cleo]

You don't necessarily needs workshops if you keep fighting. Once you join a faction as a mercenary and start attacking other factions you will make a lot of money from that pretty fast, but even just fighting looters/bandits you can make enough money to mantain some decent troops.

fighting can bring a lot of income yes
depends on what you wanna do i guess .
personally i was going for trading as a traveling merchant + smith and whatnot

 

[WolfeCreation]

I'm level 7. I can't make any money doing this at this stage; I can't even catch anyone since last patch.

I would recommend you drop your troop size to around 20 (keeping your higher tier troops and booting recruits/lower tier troops), and start to increase your number of horse to 20 also (1 horse to 1 troop, unless they're already a mounted troop). "Pack" horses do not increase speed (e.g mules have no effect on your speed), so make sure you're getting actual horses as well. With 20 troops and more horses you'll easily catch small groups of bandits and looters, and outrun stronger bandit groups. Do this for a while, slowly build up to 30 troops (I also recommend you get companions if you don't have any yet - press the "N" key to find a Shieldmaiden as they're the best fighters).

Once you start to build up your saved gold then you can slowly increase your army and horses again. Basically don't get too big too quickly.

 

[eddiemccandless]

fighting can bring a lot of income yes
depends on what you wanna do i guess .
personally i was going for trading as a traveling merchant + smith and whatnot

Right, that's what I have also done in the past but I had to change a bit to prevent it from getting monotonous. It does seem that they nerfed that option a bit which is a shame.

 

[Occyfel]

I'd get rid of most of your troops except the best to keep looters off you, I find that beating up gangs in cities gives a lot of money.

 

[TheDuncanMacleod]

weird in my experience the trading was more profitable on this patch then others I think maybe the beginning state of the games econ is semi randomly generated.

 

[White Ahroun]

The problem is gated gameplay, realistically what you 'should' be doing, and by 'should' I mean this is what the developers want you to do at this stage, and apparently some players at well, because they don't like sandboxes, is to transition to become a mercenary band for a poor performing power, earning influence and getting paid pretty well.

Trading and tournaments are pretty garbage for any new playthroughs. Welcome to a non-sandbox sandbox.

Bull****. I've been playing a bandit for 16 hours with no weird side effects. It's a sandbox. Maybe you're playing wrong?

 

[Ted Striker]

In my new game my trade learning rate is at x0.11 multiplier for some reason (charm and leadership are x1.89, no focus points in any of the three skills) and my workshops are barely making +150 gold per day.

Don't know what's causing it. Nothing in patch notes about them. It is making it harder to earn money through non-combat means.

EDIT: Oh wait trade says learning limit exceeded. So that explains that.

OP you can use Bannerlord Tweaks to change things, like making tournaments worth fighting in again with decent to good rewards depending on how much you want them to give.

 

[imgran]

This is going to sound crazy but it's also going to save your run.

Your overhead is killing you. You're going to have to downsize.

Cut your band in half, dismissing your most experienced units. Until you're ready to play mercenary there's no reason to have more than about 25 soldiers.

Then when you're able to move a bit faster, capture Mountain Bandits and hire the horse riding bandits from those parties, Highwaymen and Raiders IIRC, to replace your soldiers 1-2 at a time. Those things are ridiculous, they're very fast on the overmap and fight like horse archers so they'll literally run rings around Looters. and having a force of them will guarantee that you can outrun anything you can't outgun. Your band will be puny, it'll take a lot of hard work to get even 10-15 together, but you'll see the difference in overmap speed almost immediately.

Even if you don't dare dismiss everything but the Highwaymen they'll still bring your average party speed up just by existing. It's weird but it works. If you're very careful that'll get you to a place where you can start filling your ranks with Khuzaits. A Khuzait based caravan build is frankly OP, if you don't bother with the infantry. Expensive to equip, but OP

Best part is that the non horse riding Mountain Bandits, Hillmen and Brigands, can be trained up into horse archers without the Disciplinarian perk. Until I'm ready to go big, I nearly always recruit my caravans from Mountain Bandits. Even better, their early level Hideouts aren't that difficult to take, yielding tasty recruitable horse archers without having to knock them off a horse first