Once you reach the northern shore and have some of your troops lvled up a bit go nuts. Equip your companions with horses if you find them.
Check every town you pass for companions, and cheap horses with a riding skill of 1 or 0, and if you can win them, tournaments as well. Get 10-15 guys in your party leveled up 2-3 times. Kill all the bandits you can on the way there and as your troops die keep replacing them with more from villages. Keep about 1k on hand.Īs soon as your finished pimping out, head north. And then buy the most cost effective armor you can.
First buy a double handed weapon, my personal favorite is the Bardiche. Take this money to the nearest town and use the majority of it to pimp yourself out. As soon as you do you should get anywhere from 3-8k. Once you get that sweet tax quest make sure you have 10-20 guys and go collect them taxes. Always check the towns for companions and hire them if you can. Take all the gear and equip your companions or youself if it's better, if not sell it all.
Capture any survivors and sell them at towns in the taverns to slavers. Fight any bandits you can find nearby with the exception of sea raiders. As soon as you leave the starting town start picking up some requites form nearby villages. In general stop and ask every lord you find till you get it. If you don't get the tax quest from the starting town then start visiting towns nearby to other quests you already have so you can complete them and on the way see if the lords there will give it to you. Check the tavern for any companions and if you can afford them hire them on. Take any you want to but look for the one that asks you to collect taxes from a town or village. Afterwards Go to the castle and talk to all the lords and ask for quests. If your not sure then just enter and do the best you can without betting. Once at a tournament, if your comfortable with tournaments and you know you can win bet everything you have on yourself. If the tournaments haven't spawned yet knock out a quest with the merchant and then check back. Immediately leave and head for the nearest tournament and dodge any bandits on the way. At the town you spawn at 'Enter the arena' and see where the nearby tournaments are. Pick a Caravan to Swadia and meet the merchant, get the starting quest so he pays you and then bail. Put 1 or two points in Prisoner Management and a whatever you have left in looting, and Training. For skills max out Iron Flesh and Power Strike. For starting Attributes pump up your strength to 12 or 15 and then put everything else in int for extra starting skills. You can do iron man runs later, but if your having trouble starting you need to get the system down first. Set the game to let you quit without saving. If you want an optimized character follow the backstory steps, if you want to roleplay go crazy, it's really not a big deal. These steps are assuming your playing on 1/4 or 1/2 damage to yourself/allies. This is by far the best way I've find to get a good start. This may not be a perfect guide and I don't claim to be a master, but I've started near a hundred campaigns and conquered the entire game-world over twice.
So you've had this game and you don't feel like your playing it to it's full potential? Or you feel like the learning curve is crazy and your just not sure where to start in this huge world? Well here's an outline for your first two hours that will get you setup with some great weapons and all the tools you need to start your kingdom in Caldria.