Your early game.

[burnbaby]

Go to the lord thats own the city and take tax quest -> 4500 - 7500 gold.
Take gem from Rane.
Take side in one the nations fights and gather prisoners -> normal fight or auto calc and ransom non honorable lords or king for money.
After few lvls and bit of cash gather trainers setup companions if you start as a peasant.
Ransom more and get better equipment.
Now you can roam the map with your companions only do some fights get loot, lvls etc. or give your 12 companions heavy horses and warhammers and make more money too.
Go for tournament in Sarleon for easy lancing or D'shar land if you are horse archer.
Be merc or vassal whatever and make some friends ->like Kyrox or Agathon legathus if you fight for empire.
Dont forget to make factories in all cities :>

If you wanna be imba horse archer, you can solo bandit parties at start for lvl up and vaneskieries later(?) for more exp and loot until you grow fat =) 

Probably fastest way to gain money early is too ransom non honorable lords all over the map and pay for truce every here and there.

 

[Wuzgar]

I've always wondered what's the point buying all those businesses, the highest amount of money I've seen they made was around 1k (1,5k with raw silk and dyes provided), mostly around 300-600 denars per week. So even if you have 20 of them rolling at let's say average 500 income that's that's only 10k a week. You can just do 1 tournament per 2 weeks and break even. Hardly worth it for 100-200k initial capital if you ask me

 

[Vaanshir]

I've always wondered what's the point buying all those businesses, the highest amount of money I've seen they made was around 1k (1,5k with raw silk and dyes provided), mostly around 300-600 denars per week. So even if you have 20 of them rolling at let's say average 500 income that's that's only 10k a week. You can just do 1 tournament per 2 weeks and break even. Hardly worth it for 100-200k initial capital if you ask me

Lets look at this example.

Your army costs you 10k a week to field.

Either you spend your time going to Tournies or playing merchant to just pay for that alone.

OR

You have businesses that get you 10k a week making it balance out and you can spend more time on the battlefield instead of in the marketplace...

 

[Wuzgar]

Doesn't take that long to do a tourney and like I've said, once every two weeks. I do a couple and at once and have some time for other pleasures . Besides it's not like they operate on a steady basis. Make war with somebody and some of your shops get closed, something beyond my comprehension happens and they bring you loss. I still remain unconvinced

 

[freyuk]

In my early game I trade and set up business, I find the combination of business and mercenary work the best to accumulate wealth without worrying too much about your finances. I really like to build up a strong army and storm a City and a couple of Castles as soon as I go for my own kingdom. The steady cash allows me to quickly hire mercs and multiply the size of my army/garrisons.

 

[sairtar]

I've always wondered what's the point buying all those businesses, the highest amount of money I've seen they made was around 1k (1,5k with raw silk and dyes provided), mostly around 300-600 denars per week. So even if you have 20 of them rolling at let's say average 500 income that's that's only 10k a week. You can just do 1 tournament per 2 weeks and break even. Hardly worth it for 100-200k initial capital if you ask me

Lets look at this example.

Your army costs you 10k a week to field.

Either you spend your time going to Tournies or playing merchant to just pay for that alone.

OR

You have businesses that get you 10k a week making it balance out and you can spend more time on the battlefield instead of in the marketplace...

My army costs me 150k per week.  Though the spoils of war have my bankroll around a million most of the time.

 

[deagon]

150K?!

What troops and how many do you own?

 

[Sequester]

I've always wondered what's the point buying all those businesses, the highest amount of money I've seen they made was around 1k (1,5k with raw silk and dyes provided), mostly around 300-600 denars per week. So even if you have 20 of them rolling at let's say average 500 income that's that's only 10k a week. You can just do 1 tournament per 2 weeks and break even. Hardly worth it for 100-200k initial capital if you ask me

The Good Thing is:
Your investment in enterprises earns you 500 a week risk free for the rest of the game without any further hassle. You can participate in tournaments everyone two Werks and still get 10k a week extra. I can't Imagines why someonevwould not do this.

 

[Vettkinn]

i never found the point of buying businesses cuz you dont get your money back until like 20 weeks later.

Well, you see, if you're intent on setting up your own kingdom, it's normal for the game to last for 500~1000 days or more, so the businesses already pay off by then. Also better to have them early.

Also, for me, I feel more secured to have green weekly balance when I have a small mercenary crew while not having a fief yet (I don't like being a lord or mercenary, pure lone-wulf blood here).

 

[minimumdifficulty]

I agree with what everyone has said about enterprises.  It's nice to be able to pay your army without having to go out of your way (tourneys/trading/ransom, etc...)  That being said, I like to to invest in some decent kit for both myself and my companions prior to setting up enterprises, so the early game isn't as painful.

 

[jimbowuahoo]

Hey! i just made a video about this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTNG4KRSW14

 

[Zomgeddon]

Well after playing Warband for over 400 hours, I finally went and downloaded this awesome mod. I'm happy to read how others start their games, and it's actually given me some good ideas, though I do tend to try and avoid exploiting secret knowledge when I'm just starting out.

With my first character, I stuck to what is traditional for me in other Warband games and went with a heavy cavalry build: 1-hand/shield, 2-hander, lance. Riding by while sweeping a giant axe is pretty much my favorite way to kill enemies in this game, but I find it helpful to have a shield at times when there are lots of archers about. The lance, unfortunately, gets little use because I seem to be terrible at aiming them, causing me to get stuck and having to quickly switch weapons for a proper fight.

This character has done pretty well so far... he did lots of mercenary work before becoming a vassal of the empire, but was woefully unprepared for the cost of troops without the padding of a merc salary, so has had to do lots of tourneys to keep ahead (which is no problem really). Still has no fiefs other than the one village he got from joining up, but his 129-strong all-cavalry army is a rampaging beast on the battlefield!

After reading what others here have posted, though, I started thinking about making a more archery-focused character, to take advantage of the awesome bows that come later in the game. I started one, and have had a rough early game thus far of course because horse archery is painful without stat points to back it up. Making it tougher for myself on the battlefield of course, I also went with a very merchant-focused background, giving me better looting and trading ability while of course making my archery even worse.

 

[burnbaby]

Horse archery is most OP thing in this mod :>

 

[MitchyMatt]

Horse archery is most OP thing in this mod :>

Not really. And this is such a vague statement. Considering there are numerous horse archer units with all different stats.

 

[Dorrin]

Another of my favorite starts is to grab the salt loving pointy eared fellows and go pick on one faction capturing their lords, then ransoming them to start investing in businesses. The occasional rescued units get to provide a fodder screen to slow down the enemy troops to keep my precious ones alive in the back sniping away. The downside is the faction and those lords really hate me, and it will be a major PITA to get businesses going in their towns.

 

[burnbaby]

Not really. And this is such a vague statement. Considering there are numerous horse archer units with all different stats.

For a player. Its make you riding, uncachable killing machine and siege god :> After you get 7 horse archery/power draw and around 400 wm you can kill any unit in 1/2 shots. Mele weapons will never have that killing and safe potential horse archery gives.   

That would seem to leave little for Int/Cha which might make the character a poor leader.

Just get few gems for potions and go all int.

 

[Zomgeddon]

For a player. Its make you riding, uncachable killing machine and siege god :> After you get 7 horse archery/power draw and around 400 wp you can kill any unit in 1/2 shots. Mele weapons will never have that killing and safe potential horse archery gives. 

What does 'wp' mean? I can't figure that one out, at least not without the game open in front of me.

Also, how do you build a good horse archer? I imagine you need lots of agility for the riding and horse archery skills, but you also need lots of strength for power draw. That would seem to leave little for Int/Cha which might make the character a poor leader.

On my melee characters, I tend to neglect agility as it's not all that necessary (other than a bit for riding 4 or so) but that appears as though it would hurt the horse archer a lot.

 

[Dorrin]

WP would be weapon proficiency

 

[X-Warrior-X]

Crossbow, large bag of bolts, 2 hander, and spear.


Never worry again.

 

[Vettkinn]

Crossbow, large bag of bolts, 2 hander, and spear.

Never worry again.

I dunno about not carrying a shield. Those javelins fly everywhere and they hurt like hell.