(SPOILERS) Best choice on chapter 2-4?

[KerZerBer]

I'm trying to figure out if staying outside the walls, or siding with ekk yields the most supplies and renown, but i'm tired of having to complete the entire damn varl campaign. We're not going to discuss the third option of the backbiter.

[David]

You can get 2 battles before the choice to go inside, but it involves a bit of weirdness with Onef "dying" and the death flag for Ekkill never being set (comes up in convo with Nid later). To do that, confront & attack the supply cart, or ambush it. You'll get 2 battles.

Staying outside gives you another 3 battles, more peasants and Calabilla. I think the only way to get close to that is to stay inside & let Onef join, which nets a bunch of supplies & Calabilla. You obviously don't want that because of the backbiter.

So you want to stay outside, basically, afaik.

[KerZerBer]

Stay outside? I've never done it. Time to try!

I'll let you know how it pans out.

[Fringehunter7719]

Staying inside is only worth it if you want to go with Ekkil which means Gil dies and Alette kills a human. If you don't go that way then you miss out on all the good stuff from that route - Shepersky stone, the 140 supplies and the 35 fighters. IIRC you get 1 fight to get into the city and 2 fights at the start of chapter 4 on that route. You'll also get a fight much later in the game.

Staying outside allows you to go with 2 fights on the way in (I think you have to rest and tend the wounded to get the info about the cart and then confront it rather than ambushing it) in chapter 2, then gives you 3 fights at the start of chapter 4, which give you 96 clansmen and calabilla. This route preserves Gil.

So you get more supplies going inside, but only if you give up on Gil. You get more renown and clansmen going outside. Both items are pretty great, although Calabilla is a bit more unique, so I think it edges out Shepersky stone (which Namejs's ring can replace if you get reasonable fortune in marketplaces).

The problem with staying outside is you'll starve on the way to Wyrmtoe if you don't get very fortunate/save scum the random events for supplies, or buy about 5 days worth at the 1:1 trading price in Frostvellr before you leave, since supplies don't carry over between chapter 2 & chapter 4. With the extra food eaten by the clan and one less fight later in the game I'd guess this ends up being the slightly less optimal route for renown despite its initial advantage, but better for caravan size.

If you're carrying saves over to TBS2 and TBS3 it's also worth bearing in mind that Ekkil is one of the strongest characters the otherwise weak Ravens caravan gets, he has good stats and is able to get the two strongest raidmaster abilities in guts + stonewall, which very few others can, and none have as good stats as he does.

ETA: You might find the last part of section 2 of this guide helps:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=698507714