Some tips

[Hagen]

I didn't read through everything but I saw briefly someone had asked about making weapons, effects of tax rates, grain vs dairy, etc.

WEAPONS:

You must have at least 1 unit of iron before you can produce weapons, however I believe you can begin training peasants before that. You just won't get any progress on actual weaponry but you should see the % rate rise (this is their proficiency level).
Usually I don't even start producing iron for a few years, then when I take over a county that doesn't have all the fields ruined I dump a huge portion of their population into iron mining (half even - usually take some out later but its better to remove than add). Same with weapons AFTER I own 1 unit of iron. At this point I typically have several counties producing iron. I dont pay too much attention to the exact number of miners in each county but its pretty safe to start manufacturing weapons in just as many places as you are mining in. I typically specialize in each county - depends on available manpower. And I can usually start selling iron for mercenary money before the first weapon is produced. Keep in mind if you were training weaponsmiths before you had iron, my system might not work the same.

TAXES and RATIONS

These both affect the peoples Morale (the heart icon), while rations also affect their Health.
Any troops raised in the county will have Health and Morale based on the county's values. A 20% Tax rate gives you status quo. Drop to 15 for +1 Morale each season, 10 gives +2. I can only assume that pattern continues, with a rate of 25% giving you -1 Morale.
Full rations give status quo on Morale, but its possible to feed unhealthy people full rations and see their Health improve (as long as the plague doesn't strike). Double rations give +1 Morale each season and improves Health faster. Triple rations gives +2 Morale and likely speeds the healing more.
I use a 15% tax rate to give a constant +1 to morale and encourage immigration. I feed double rations when the need and ability to do so actually coincide. Mid and late game its not too hard.

GRAIN vs DAIRY vs SHEEP

I think this is probably preference, but you can try to play markets. The AI's use specific strategies (I never paid attention to see if say, the Baron, always does the same thing).
One strategy they use is only planting grain. This means they will be selling grain. If an AI that only plants grain gets really big, then grain prices will be low and you can afford to buy it and use primarily dairy. Another strategy is to only raise cattle. These AI's will have more than 2X as many cows as they would need and will be buying grain to help feed troops (they can go on double rations without touching the grain or eating beef). I assume they sell cows as the price usually stays fairly stable. A third strategy I've seen them use is doing all 3. They will have 1 field planted, have about the right number of cows to feed only dairy, and have lots of sheep. They will be selling lots of wool and likely some sheep too.

Dairy: Fairly consistent labor demand but requires more peasants on field maintenance (a non-issue imo)

Grain: Moderate labor demand in planting season, very low during growing and ripening seasons, Very high demand in harvest season. It takes 100 people to plant 10 grain, which will (hopefully) yield 100 grain. It will take 150 people to harvest 100 grain.

Sheep: Mostly low labor demand and you can cram a lot of sheep in each field. But a very high demand during the birthing season, which is the same season you'll be trying to plant grain.

My take on the situation, without worrying about what the price of grain will be, is to plan to feed everybody on dairy because the labor demand for dairy is much more consistent than grain or sheep. (I raise sheep if they are in a county i take over. This is balanced in that county by doing less mining/weaponsmithing.) I also plant 1 field each year for grain to feed troops. I only plant 5 grain in each county for most of the game. Once I have money, I supplement my grain supply through traders. I aim to build the catlle herds to about 20%-25% bigger than required for full rations on dairy. Then if I need to feed double rations they can eat a few cows to lower the grain consumption. Or sheep, mutton's good eating when times are hard. If a county is in terrible shape when i get it, I might feed them all the sheep in the first year.


OTHER STUFF

I do not build castles.
In fact, once I've seiged one, I tear it down. The price of wood and stone is very stable throughout the game and this is an excellent way to raise money for mercenaries or to buy the 50 cows you'll need to feed the new county. And, like iron and weapons, wood and stone are a global commodity - meaning as long as there's a trader somewhere in your land, you can sell it off immediately. The castle can serve a useful purpose if you want to use it. (I saw someone saying something to the contrary). It can give you time to get an army there to get rid of the attacker. And you'll know his exact strength.
I play with full visibility so I see them coming. As early as I can (county population 500), I begin raising peasant armies. I split them into groups of 10 and line them up in the road to slow down the enemy. If it seems safe, I put them outside my county so I'm not feeding them. Sometimes I have to make a wider blockade, putting guys off the road so they don't just walk around them - which still slows them down. This buys time to bring a real army to the front. Aside from slowing them down, these guys also let you know how many troops you're facing (outside your land - in county you can just check the worker detail screen). If you do manual combat, you can see the troops they're bringing. If you do auto, you'll do more damage, whittling the enemy down before your real army faces it.

I kill sheep. lol
I like to send little 10 man units in all directions inside enemy territory so they can't get to all of them. In places I feel threatened by I kill anything they can eat. Sheep, cows, destroy grain. Hopefully by the time their army gets to me they will be sick and already dying. In other areas (if I can get to them), I like to target sheep because I will eventually be selling wool. The big sheep farmers absoutely destroy the price of wool by the end of the game, so I kill as many sheep as I can when I have a chance. Plus its going to hurt their finances. The downside of all this slaughter and destruction is... more ruined fields. That's ok, i"m used to it.

Hope someone finds this useful. I really like this game and have played it now and again for the last probably 20 years. I have the complete install from the floppys (long gone) on a usb drive. No installing. It will run thru DosBox right off the usb or dropped to the hard drive. Old. Simple.

[Hagen]

Spliiting and Combining Armies

Be very careful when doing either. There's a problem in the coding that makes you pay the seasonal wage when you do this. So if you spent all your gold, then started moving troops, splitting and combining.... they don't get paid and their morale drops. Every split drops the morale again. You may need to wait a season until you have gold again.

[invaderzim48]

mayhaps you should write a guide, I had to go digging for a manual because the percentage value on the peasant screen was driving me nuts.