Money making help

[Vortex]

I need advise for making money in early to mid-game. I’m on my first play through currently, I’ve joined Vlandia as a mercenary and own two caravans. But honestly the caravans aren’t making the money I’d want to be making. So I just need advice for how to make money more efficiently.

[Ruffio]

As a mercenary all you should focus is do things that earn you influence, that influence get converted into payment you get. Take out enemy parties, capture lords and donate to the dungeons of Vlandia.

Caravans and Mercenary work doesn't necessary work well together, your caravans will be at risk of get defeated, and they need time to recover investment and build up.

If Vlandia make peace, and have no wars, then you should just move on to where there is wars and work for someone else.

[lar unuruur]

do not waste your wealth on caravans or workshops, instead build better party.
and even in the long run, both of these "enterprises" are borderline useless.

focus on fighting lords and at first keeping you units at best promotions, yet not topping them yet. as an example, many third level units are best in terms of gold turn out. especially wasteful can be promoting melee and mounted frontline units to the top.

fight lords, train on trash. know commands. you can win almost any battle, if you use right tactic against right enemy.

have stewardship.

try avoid having personal army, just have top level party. 200+ elite units will kill anything and everything for you.

have best possible medic.

try be ranged in combat, fians are by far best, safest, cheapest units. they die rarely and kill at safe distance. can be best frontliners. very similar with khaan guards.

[kristianjakob]

Mostly as above.

Spend every dime you make on building a warparty, and the horses to support your mobility, untill you can reliably hunt enemy lords.

Beyond that money never really have to be an issue again.

If I had to disagree with something it would be

1) I would never take stewardship on my main. It takes time to level and that extra troop-limit you can get from having a steward will get you into lordhunting so much faster.
2) I wouldnt go with a party of 200+ before reaching a point where I want to set up a kingdom. I prefer a party of around 100+ elites; it just strikes a good balance between power and mobility.

[Teralitha]

If you joined a faction then your caravans are toast. Only use caravans when you are not in a faction. Otherwise the best way to make big money is blacksmithing. You can also do quests for notables and destroy bandit hideouts.

[TruXurT]

Level up roguery at least some (I find 150 to be a sweet spot, but even 100 is good).

Join faction as mercenary. Fight easy battles (pick up stragglers, don't get into battles that will bloody you up, be opportunistic).

Sell all the equipment and prisoners and that's pretty much it. (You could ransom lords too, but very soon you'll find out it is better to release them to level up your charm and future relations, then the money, as money is no longer a problem here).

[flyingscot1066]

Get some good fighters for companions, including your brother, spouse, and sister in law. Get them into decent armor (Mail or better).

Go tournament hunting.

When you find a tournament where the prize is a weapon, one of the horses (Not Husenphree the camel) or armor pieces other than helms, enter that tournament. Decent resale value if not needed on one of your fighters, and the weapons yield pretty good results when smelting for recipes if you're doing smithing.

When you find a tournament with a helm or a banner as the prize, leave the arena and have your entire party stay in the town. Go back into the arena and join the tournament, but make sure one of your companions wins the prize. For some reason they sell those items for 50-60k when they win.

You can also do this with the higher end mounts, but the increase in value isn't nearly as drastic.

If you're feeling lazy, like I get, you can also just watch the tournament, if you have a lot of faith in your companions to win routinely.

[Zhorge]

Originally posted by Vortex:

I need advise for making money in early to mid-game. I’m on my first play through currently, I’ve joined Vlandia as a mercenary and own two caravans. But honestly the caravans aren’t making the money I’d want to be making. So I just need advice for how to make money more efficiently.

Caravans aren't worth it. I only use caravans to send kids off to get trading, scouting and charm skills.

My early-mid-game strategy is:

1. Harvest looters. Use them to upgrade equipment so I can take on bandits.
2. Sell captured looters to 'Need Manual Laborers' to villagers. (They buy at premium prices). Otherwise ransom them at the Tavern.

My usual hunting grounds are near Pravend and Galend as the Valandians really don't take on the bandits that often. When that is cleared, I moved over to Ostican as the Sea Raiders will have likely built up. Then I go back.

I do NOT sell the weapons. They are all smelted and use them to forge two-handed swords for sale as I find that moves up the fastest though is not really the most material efficient. At this point of the game I feel that time is more important than efficiency. Later you can make different weapons that are more efficient like two-handed pole arms and javelins.

Smithing works well into end-game.

I do not do mercenary work. You can make money. But if there are no wars, you back to bandit hunting.

I only do tournaments for the fun of it and for reputation building. The rewards are nice and you can sometimes get a big chunk of money. But unless you're really good at fighting and have developed tricks to over-come the excessive blocking, you're not going to have the built-in combat speed boosts the game gives as you level up.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Best money maker is getting sieges done honestly. I tried everything else, but just managing to win battles against well armed opponents and win massive battles with a huge participation will earn you more money over time than anything else ive tried.

Maybe smithing but meh, the only reason I like this game are the battles and knowin you grew that army somehow, kinda "army rpg". So the smithing part is EXTREMELY boring for me. Maybe on a new playthrough.

[Friends with Benedicts]

War horse collecting is also A MUST. Rakshaa said it best, but Ill add that you should look for escorting caravans early on. That way you'll get attacked by a lot of cavalry and if you win, a lot of horses for you. Those help with weight and infantry can use your horses for increased movement. Its not bad to have infantry, cavalry takes 2 spaces iirc, sometimes youll want more infantry depending on the terrain. Versatility is king.

[Vortex]

I’ve started smithing for the first time and have 1.3 million denars now. Also I have 4 workshops, and 3 caravans.

[lar unuruur]

right, money comes easy from all directions, except where you would normally expect - business.

[kharille]

I'm in late game and clan level ... 5 I think. I get most money from doing the most damage with armies. Helps if you have experienced cavalry to get to the front first.

Maybe build up a small cavalry force and hit their archers from the rear. It'll show your percentage loot after the battle.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Originally posted by kharille:

I'm in late game and clan level ... 5 I think. I get most money from doing the most damage with armies. Helps if you have experienced cavalry to get to the front first.

Maybe build up a small cavalry force and hit their archers from the rear. It'll show your percentage loot after the battle.

Basically this. The income from battles far outputs the income from business

[Vortex]

Originally posted by kharille:

I'm in late game and clan level ... 5 I think. I get most money from doing the most damage with armies. Helps if you have experienced cavalry to get to the front first.

Maybe build up a small cavalry force and hit their archers from the rear. It'll show your percentage loot after the battle.

Yea I’ve kind of learnt that too, but having passive income is good to counter the wages of a large army. I’m doing pretty good financially now and I’ve been assisting in wars as a mercenary.

[Hark]

Stay indie. No kingdom, no vassalage, none of that.

Take a fief with 100-200 man army, pay for peace... or if things look fine atm, just keep banging on that one enemy, collecting/selling loot til they siege your fief[s].

For example, if you take Ortysia less than 100 days from start of a fresh run, that will be cooking like 8-10k a day. Passively, no effort required after winning that siege.

Restock get the fief in order, prepare for next short war, declare on your time/whim, AI cannot declare on you unless you go kingdom.

Do this a few times and you're making what, 20k a day from a few towns, and you could in theory sit there forever in peace just stacking cash while AFK. You'd make what, a million in an hour just letting game run while you go eat sandwich.