otherjr1 said:
Is there any way to recruit from a warrant officer (or similar) when you have your own faction? If not it seems kind of pointless playing as one since you can only use inferior troops.
Come on. Austrian Jägers are almost as strong as their Tyrolean brothers. Trust me, i'm an expert with Jägers in this mod. Not too historical, but using them in huge amounts kinda pays off and with a trainer Companion or good trainer skill, you have them in a few days from recruits. This is what I used to do. No bug can stop me from enjoying my ultimate victory!
EDIT: Here some tips for the start.
At the beginning do missions, to get money. At first, I started to do missions to build some good relations and loads of money, as it is something you'll need a lot(I currently pay 17k to my soldiers with me and in my cities, castles and the fun barely began). At the start it can be helpfull to invest in things with the Mayors, but i joined Austria and looted some enemy villages(money from missions was enough to set up a small army. And i also managed to get a decent level and skill-set. I put a lot of points to trainer and path-finding as it's essential to be far quicker then the enemy) You can sell looted stuff for a very good price(always take only the expensive stuff or put a some points on Inventory Management) So, once you have your first 24k, invest it. Buy a house and rent it. This will grant you a 6k income per week, which is nice and you can start raising a stronger army(I mostly rely on Jägers as in the game these troops are fare superior to any other unit if used well). Now you have a stronger army, you can get renown and XP for beating some lords or sending the whole Russian army back home and prepare for an attack. Now, here's the point when you need some luck. Hopefully your faction is at war with some of the seemingly weaker ones(Russia seems quite weak or the Ottoman Empire, but Sweden seemed also be easy to beat) Loot some more and get some more money and buy another house. Rent it... This grants now 12k weekly. Now you can start to save up money and go for the social ranks. Build a strong army of ca. 120-170 people and you can go on to take a castle.(With a lot of patience, you can go against cities as well) Sieging is simple and with good units(just take some elite units... well... a lot of em). Now, prepare for the siege. Tell your people to stand where they are. Rifleman can shoot pretty far, so they will shoot at the guys on the wall. This can take some time, and if you're skilled in shooting, you can help them a lot. Note that higher tier units can shoot at you at spawn. So take cover. Don't mind your men, they'll be fine... Those muskets are unreliable so you won't have huge casualties(20-25 men are my usual casualties during siege) If you shoot enough enemies, they will start to counter-attack and they can be hunted down as they leave positions. By the way, you can't place sandbags during siege, but you lose them if you try. So you killed the enemy, took the castle. Ask for it. If the ruler won't grant it to you, it's your choice. Let's say, you go for own faction.
You have your own empire... well... not yet, but you're building it. So, time to reorganize your army. Leave some of your experienced troops in the castle/city and head for a friendly town and take the elite troops. If you pulled it with a little longer with a faction and had time to buy and rent houses, you have lots of money and you can afford huge amounts of elite troops. But wait, you reached your party limit. So, get some companions(or you did it earlier) and give them regiments. This will slow you down a little(If you have some cavalary, it can help with speed, I didn't really use any mounted unit)Now with the regiments you have some more men, so you can start conquering. You can keep getting soldiers from friendly towns or use the common units. With a high trainer skill, those guys reach higher tiers in a few days. And if you have elite troops, they will keep them alive. Soldiers in regiments are upgraded by their commanders, so i used to give them the already trained troops, so i can keep only Austrian/Tyrolean Jägers in the army.
So: House-business is good for the economy. If you keep only the houses you need to advance in social class and rent the rest, you'll have a huge income which can maintain your army and basically everything else. Make sure, that your balance is always at least a few thousands in the positive.(I have an income of 36k) If you go against Turkey or Russia, be on guard, the Janissary is still a danger, despite the weak faction. The Russian Grenadiers are also quite good if they manage to get in shooting range.
You'll also have some battles on the open field. Make your men follow you and find a high spot. Hopefully it's the highest on the scene or at least it's higher than the enemies' Make the men hold their position and order them to stand closer a few times(it depends on the field, you'll see it) If you paid attention, you preferred riflemen and they can shoot quite far, especially the elite ones(and so far nothing could beat the Tyrolean Jäger in range and effectiveness.) So they can cause a lot of casualties before the enemy can cause some serious damage. But some enemies or lords campaigning together, can have combined army. This is when you need to be quick. Pick a nice place as quick as possible and wait for the cavalary there. It helps if they have to charge uphills. And a little tip: Try to memorize the range of your best troops and always make your men hold fire as long as the enemy reaches that range. When they're inside, the fun can begin. Do the same when the cavalary charges at you, but let them come a bit closer. When they are charging, they leave the infantry behind, you you can take them down, before you deal with the infantry. 1 or 2 salvo will get this done. Now if you have cavalary, you hide them behind a hill, so the enemy can't see it(doesn't really help cause the enemy sees through everything, but at least they don't get killed) If the enemy's cavalary went through the first time, send your cavalry. When you see, they start to run towards infantry, order them back. By this time, infantry usually comes in range, so let the fun begin. If you know the enemy won't get any more reinforcements, send the cavalary and order a charge for the infantry... They will finish the rest quickly. Meele infantry is kinda useless as they are standard bearers and musicians and cavalary during sieges, so when you go for a siege, keep them behind cover.
