What do you do early game?

[pictpixie]

every update changes a lot of unannounced things (desert bandits are now much faster! also price of horses much higher) on day one I stop lots of villager parties till I get one with old work horses then do some trading on my own without any foot soldiers to slow me down; also spend some money on upgrading my armour & helmet before entering tournaments ; noticed steel etc fetching a higher price but hardwood more expensive

 

[Gelimer]

1. Make 15k to open a workshop via trade.

2. Hire my companion party and outfit them with the weapons I want them to have.

3. Since I play as Battania and it's hard to get horse archers where Battania is, I level up to clan tier 3 in Khuzait land, clearing bandit hideouts. Usually by clan tier 3 I have about 70 troops and 50 prisoners that all upgrade to Khans Guards. I keep my early game army all horse cavalry since they're fast and I have to travel all over the map.

4. I referred to this above but clearing bandit hideouts, although a struggle in the early game, is very rewarding. It gives you a good reserve of recruitable prisoners and it allows rapid improvement of your companions combat skills. Bandit hideouts are a good source of loot as well.

5. Get married.

I consider early game done when I'm married with a full companion party, I have a good army, and I've opened the maximum amount of workshops allowed to pay for my army without owning any fiefs.

Looks like we are doing exactly the same thing except that I usually fight for Aserai who have horse archers

What i also do is roam from town to town in the imperial regions winning 500 denars at Tablut every time, makes it faster to get the first workshops ( usually a tannery )

Also i like to not hire anyone before i have 5k in the treasury, but it can be tedious to avoid looters early game ( cant accelerate time during your travels as well).

I also use a mod called tournaments enhanced which lets you level up the combat skills you use during the tournament like in a battle ( at the same rate ), but since i play first person only and my armor is so poor early game, i can rarely win it since its max ai difficulty and some OP contestants are really tough and can one shot you at that point but it is nice when you can win ( you feel really proud because later on when you have a good armor, higher skills and athletics it is easy to win ) or just for the experience in weapon skills.

 

[Lordjay]

Changes with each update was trade now deserter mission and find daughter,However i will not do find daughter again as it spawns loads of companions with no skills lol I like trading but until it fixed i leave it alone .

 

[Nakh]

I also use a mod called tournaments enhanced which lets you level up the combat skills you use during the tournament like in a battle ( at the same rate ), but since i play first person only and my armor is so poor early game, i can rarely win it since its max ai difficulty and some OP contestants are really tough and can one shot you at that point but it is nice when you can win ( you feel really proud because later on when you have a good armor, higher skills and athletics it is easy to win ) or just for the experience in weapon skills.

You may want to try Tournament Fair Armour mod.

 

[geala]

I play with some mods which might change things considerably. But usually first what I do is fighting in the arena to train my skills and get money. It's fun too. I modded the arena gear and weapon sets to my pleasure, fights are harder and quicker now, often you are out after one real hit.

Then I recruit some companions and troops and fight bandits (which in my game are plentiful and in many variants, with Custom Spawns and Scum and Villainy mods) a lot. And relatively early I join as mercenary. I never invest time in trading or smithing. BTW I always only use faction troops for recruitment from villages.

 

[Gelimer]

You may want to try Tournament Fair Armour mod.

Thank you I will definitely check it

 

[Liffy]

The early game is punishing without using some mods.
The ones that are most important to my early game are companion respec, character import/export and another that allows me to raise the cap on tournament betting.

Usually the randomly generated wanderers available wont totally work for you. The most efficient tools to deal with this character import export and companion respec allows you to reallocate focus into the most desired areas.

I initially concentrate on bow skill as this means I can solo large groups of looters in beginner armour. Sure the loot isn't great but it raises riding and archery pretty fast.

I look to pick up a scout and medic while going from town to town doing tournaments. I initially set the bet amount cap to 5k which generates some good starter cash. Once I have comfortable funds I start to pick up troops and work to the centre of assari territory to pick up large numbers of desert horses and pack horses. I fill up with cheap beer and any space left cheap grain.

Then I work north engaging looters and questing, picking up tournaments and look for a wife current flavour of the month Liena. Buy a couple of stores in the faction I intend to align with. Build up a small force if up to 50.
This usually takes me up to around day 25 to 35 depending on issues securing my bride.
Usually by now I have clan level enough to join as a vassal if not a short shift as a mercenary before being able to vassal up and work on grinding influence.

I had over 1k hours played on warband only using 1 mod that allowed me to increase tournament bet caps and boost the number of projectiles in a quiver.
It's just not possible to play this game vanilla in its current state. I've got to be running 15 to 20 mods leaving you to work out how to balance things so its challenging without being a chore.

 

[Old-Bull]

Looks like we are doing exactly the same thing except that I usually fight for Aserai who have horse archers

What i also do is roam from town to town in the imperial regions winning 500 denars at Tablut every time, makes it faster to get the first workshops ( usually a tannery )

Also i like to not hire anyone before i have 5k in the treasury, but it can be tedious to avoid looters early game ( cant accelerate time during your travels as well).

I also use a mod called tournaments enhanced which lets you level up the combat skills you use during the tournament like in a battle ( at the same rate ), but since i play first person only and my armor is so poor early game, i can rarely win it since its max ai difficulty and some OP contestants are really tough and can one shot you at that point but it is nice when you can win ( you feel really proud because later on when you have a good armor, higher skills and athletics it is easy to win ) or just for the experience in weapon skills.

Yeah. I might try Aseria on my next play through. The disadvantage of clearing all the Steppe Bandit hideouts early game is it makes the Khuzaits even more powerful to start the game. I'm 3 years into my current play through and Ghangis Khan owns half the map, although I think that's pretty common.

 

[Tpfitz]

After around 15minutes, I usually go into the menu and select Quit because this game is designed for Obsessive Compulsive people who like to do repetitive meaningless tasks which is what this game basically is ... OCD simulator

 

[chandl34]

I play mercenary for whatever faction is getting demolished, so that I can keep them alive long enough so that I can kill them myself later.

 

[Sword_of_Light]

Looter grinding and tournaments. I find a lot of the quests to be a pain, so I dont bother - and while I like the profit margin in the Poacher mission, it's a bad fit for early game, since village fighting is bad ground for a battle.

Looters provide quite well early on. They often have basic gear, food, and the payout is small, but adds up. I wont go after Mountain Bandits until I've leveled a few of my followers. I wont go after Forest Bandits no matter what, because they guarantee casualties even in first person, and I love Sea Raiders as much here as I do in Warband because of the quality of their loot drop. I also wont bother killing looter bands smaller than half my party size - because autoresolve guarantees they'll kill some of my men no matter how big the advantage I have.

Tournaments are tough early in the game, since all your stats and gear are low - but in terms of leveling, its a riskless way to boost your level. Plus, if you win, you're probably getting gear that's well above your purchase power.

I also stomp around Caladria looking for blue ! because the real game doesnt begin until you clear that obnoxious starter quest. So talk to the lords bla bla bla big battle, talk to the 2 NPCs and lie to one of them, kill quest bandits in their hideyholes, grind up to Clan 2, pledge to some lord because starting your own kingdom is still borked.