Step by Step to total Victory?

[RenWex]

Sooooooo it has been a while since I played M&B:Warband a lot and I want to restart now.
Do you folks have some advises for a restarter like me?
Think of me as one who has forgotten everything (though its not like that actually :D)

So what should I do after creating a character

[Nappa]

Hey
I would advise you to try out some mods. There are some great mods out there, that significantly improve the gameplay, and adds tons of new stuff to a already great game.
For example, look up Floris mod, or Prophecy of Pendor. These two mods are huge and among the best there is.
You won't regret it

[RenWex]

Okay. I'll take a look at these mods you mentioned, but I had gameplay advises in mind.
Something like what to do, when and where....

[White Knight]

Which faction to join and how to set up an army is all personal choice stuff, one person's opinion will be as valid another's and none of them will be as good as what you figure out for yourself.

For example, I'm a big fan of heavy cavalry so I tend to go to Swadia early on. Someone else will do just as well by going to King Graveth. I've had tons of fun hanging with the Nords or whatever else. It really doesn't matter. Just don't start out as a Khergit unless you like being swarmed by bandits that move three times your speed - that is a hard start to be sure.

The best advice I can offer you is to start early at building relationships with the other lords. That means keep your village raiding to a minimum, leave the caravans alone, don't go trying to steal someone else's fiancee, don't take those weasely missions where some loser asks you go and start a war, etc. When you capture an enemy lord, set them free instead of putting them in your prison.

Since you have total conquest on your mind, you know that you will need to befriend every single lord in the game at some point. If you don't manage these relationships from the beginning, you will be stuck with disloyal lords who hate you later on. The only relationships that don't really matter are the other Kings. They will never join you anyway so their hatred is irrelevant.

Another thing is investing in businesses. I start that as early as I can and then try to have something in every city. You lose a lot through corruption of course with so many businesses but you make more in profits anyway...consider it a tax on your great success.

As soon as you are able, go to the coast and start hunting Sea Raiders. That is the best stuff available to you and you can sell the bits you can't use for a tidy profit. It will also get your troops much needed experience and help the economy to grow and prosper (although this won't benefit you directly until later on).

That should help some.

[kevinshow]

As far as money goes, I tried 2 ways of starting. First, get some companions whenever you can, since it's good to start levelling them up and they won't die like many of the village recruits you are getting. This means you will depend on loot or quest rewards for your finances. Or second, ignore companions (other than the free ones), save your money, and start businesses first, in as many towns as you can.

The second option was able to provide me more money in the early part of the game, partly because I also used gear that I got from battles, no buying armor yet -- so I would definitely do that way again.

If you work on your finances early, including grabbing every loot and prisoner that you can, then it won't be such a bad issue later when you do need lots of money to pay for your increasing army size.

If you want more money, then join some faction as a mercenary. You still get to do what you are doing anyway, but now you get paid for it.

Otherwise, if you want to start collecting rent as another form of income, then you'll have to be a vassal to some king. Villages that you get usually are run-down and bad but in the long run, they can give even more rent than castles. And of course, towns are the best fief to get rent from, as long as it gets more and more prosperous over time.

So just keep doing these things until you have decided that you want to help a certain faction or usurper take over everything, or maybe you want to be your own king. I know that as the player kingdom, I usually begin to overwhelm the factions anyway, so I give myself a challenge, such as going independent by day 200 or day 150 or even day 100. It means that I have less and less build-up and infrastructure to support my independence but it makes the early game kind of fun to see how I can handle all the factions and lords who aren't ready to support me yet.

[Sohei]

Get money, get gear, get skill, get help, conquer the world.