Early game battles

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

I've always had trouble getting into the game, mainly because I get into a fight where the enemy has about 30 troops, my guys don't stand a chance, and then I spend 10 minutes doing driveby's or sniping at them with a crossbow. Am I supposed to just move from village to village recruiting guys until I have an army before I engage anyone on the world map?

[BigCrimes]

The general strat in warband or VC (until you get to "mid game" and you're flush with cash) is beelining for the villages and recruiting as many dumb idiots as possible to become your money making meat shields.

[Sirius]

Nah, depending on where you choose to start, there should be enough small bands of looters around.

But I know what you mean, there are sometimes mid-high level deserter parties which can be a pain, also the more "advanced" bandits like Sea Raiders or Mountain Bandits (not to mention Steppe Bandits...ugh).

My advice would be to avoid them at all costs. Especially early in the game, only take on "trash mobs" like looters or low-level deserters.

Even when your numbers are balanced, going up against 20 Vaegir Archers with 20 fresh recruits is usually not a good idea. (really bad idea, in fact)

Take out looters first, until you and your troops level up a bit - once you think you get the hang of it, move up to the next "tier" bandits. Take care what kind of deserters you take on (see above).

A squad of Nord Veterans might be more managable than a troop of Swadian Men-At-Arms.
In effect, learn about what the troops are before engaging them.

If they engage you and you can't avoid them, think about the options of leaving men behind to bind the enemy so the rest can get away - A cowardly tactic, and damaging to your morale etc, but better a coward for five minutes than being dead forever, right? ;)

[Eratosthenes]

Smaller armies are faster, generally. Early game you can either beeline for all those villages, and recruit a bunch of recruits, or stay small, and do some early trading here and there for quick cash. And then recruit a bunch of scrubs.

Also, if you take the Training skill, your troops will level up without combat, which is nice. Level 2 units tend to be much, much better than recruits.

[BIG R]

In all honesty....and I love the game....but the beginning can be a real pain in the ass. You start with jack squat...which would be ok except it takes FOREVER to get from jack squat to competitive.

I mean...at least if you and a couple buddies kill some guys in chainmail, you should be able to get some chainmail! You spend hour after hour grinding for chickenfeed before you even get equipment good enough to stand a chance against anybody but the weakest opponents.

A lot of the time your hired mercenary army guys are FAR tougher then you are. And thats even when you can afford any mercenarys....which takes forever.

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

I've always had trouble with equipment. I always mess up with starting choices and end up with a crossbow, then I have to hunt down a bow. But it's tough to get money without doing a tournament, and sometimes I spend 20 minutes in a tournament and then get screwed over in some team battle. Game can be really boggling.

[Sirius]

Originally posted by BIG R:

...
I mean...at least if you and a couple buddies kill some guys in chainmail, you should be able to get some chainmail! You spend hour after hour grinding for chickenfeed before you even get equipment good enough to stand a chance against anybody but the weakest opponents...

Raise your "Looting" skill from the beginning. Try to take on small bands of Sea Raiders.
They usually leave very good starter gear, like chainmails and stuff. They also drop quite pricey javelins and such. The higher the looting skill, the higher the chance for a really good item to drop.
Edit: Plus, while quite hard in the beginning, Sea Raiders have a good mix of equipment, from bows to javelins to chainmails to axes and shields, so you can gear up pretty decent by hunting them. In fact, I believe most players do it this way - Looters, maybe low-level deserters, and then Sea Raiders.
They are just that profitable in the beginning. IF you can handle them, ofc.

Also, go for negative prefix equipment - Meaning:

When you want to buy a, say, Leather Armor, and you can choose between "ragged" and "thick", and you have low funds (early game, etc), buy the "ragged" one. It will still be better than your starting gear (most likely), and it doesn't matter much that it has -2 armor or so compared to the regular or postive prefix ones. Plus, they are usually much cheaper, I save thousands of Denars buying some equipment I want with a negative prefix.

Of course, some items become pretty useless when bent, ragged, etc, but usually it's a nice trade off.

Similarily, never buy the high-end prefix items unless you have way too much money. The benefits can be nice, especially late game, but I suggest avoiding the expense, as the benefits are not that huge compared to standard version of a given piece of equipment.

Like with the negative prefixes, the benefits are usually just a few points that don't matter that much (always depending on the item, ofc)

Edit: Then again, the difference between a negative and a positive prefix can be substantial, but my advice was for you struggling beginners - If you know what you are doing, certainly you can - and should - buy at least regular quality items.

[Draa]

Early game can be a ♥♥♥♥♥ so I try to get 15-20 Swadians in hopes that I can get them leveled to Man-at-Arms status fairly quick. Being Cavalry they give my unit enough speed to out run most bandits/raiders. Adding a couple of horses to your inventory also helps with map speed.

The Deserters can be a pain early game but I have no problem (if I'm forced into a fight) leaving a couple of troops behind as I try to get away. Better them than me lol. Oh, and Sarranid Mamlukes are decent early game as well depending on what area you start in. IMHO all Cavalry is best when in the beginning stages of building your army.

[RunfromChron]

early game is where all the fun is - once you get a big army and get going its just a matter of finishing the map and that gets boring - so boring in my 400hours of playing i have yet to do it. i start a new mod but now i think i have ran out of good mods to play

[Royal_Tenenbaum]

It really takes no time to build a large army of poor scrubs. Just loot man. Make money from looting then hire a few mercs. Scum save if you need to. Do quests and get nord and vaegir archer recruits asap. Then get cav.