At first, welcome to my guide on mount and blade: warband singleplayer. ill be covering important aspects for newcomer players and covering also some basic needs and infos about the factions, and how to raise an army, and keep it cost-Efficient. to the point!

At the start, ill cover the basics of how to get an army run more far than the few weeks. there are many ways on how to keep your army supplied with money, that will automatically be added to your fundings (denars) in a week. (You can see this in the REPORTS - VIEW WEEKLY BUDGET REPORT)

In here, you will see all the important money basics, for example it shows these IMPORTANT things.

-Net revenues
-Wages for your party, and your upkeep for troops in the castles/towns you own.
-Taxes

Next ways are for two, Honored and Dishonorable characters.

HONORABLE WAY

-Buying land from the Guild Master in the specific town to build an enterprise. (You need 0+ relationship with the lord of the town to be able to operate enterprise) Income is based on if the stuff your enterprice produces, is needed in that area, and the materials are cheap (For example, Grain is cheap in your area, and the town area is in need of either Bakery or an Brewery, then those are your choices for best income)

-Owning village, town, or a castle, which in return gives you tax money. (requires you to be either an sworn vassal of an kingdom or an Monarch yourself)

-Fighting against enemies on the map, mostly outlaws (Bandits, deserters etc) and capturing them as prisoners for selling them to Ransom Brokers in taverns.

DISHONORABLE WAY (Minus to Honor status)

-Raiding Villages (fast way for getting Denars, MINUS for faction relation, but youll make many enemies by this way...)

-Stealing Cattle (Less risky for making enemies, no MINUS for faction relations, only to the owner lord and the village.

-Threathening a Village for supplies (Minus for village relationship only)

-Taking Enemy lord as prisoners for ransom money (Minus to relation with faction and Honor only if you decline Offer for ransom.)

Both ways get you fast money, and keeps your army funded.

Gathering your army starts from an very simple point; Finding villages, and paying for villagers to start following you (10 Denars per Fresh Recruit) They are the easiest and less costing soldiers of the line, and fastest way to grow your army.

Second way to get high rank troops to your army, is paying mercenaries to join your army at taverns. they cost A LOT, and i mean A LOT of money per week on high tier, and are barely as good as swadian knights, which are less costing units. Only use if you have high income weekly, and are sure you dont run low on money.

Keep on eye on the weekly cost of the army, and see that it doesnt go over the amount you are getting weekly so you dont run low on money.

There are several different army types you can make, i wont go deep in detail with this, as its basic.

There are several factions, with different troop systems. here are all off them, with REALLY simple pro and cons, With TL:DR in the end for you fast people.

Swadians - Best Cavalry troops (Swadian knights) which will kill any other Infantry or Cavalry or Archers really fast in the game, on open fields. same with Sieges. Only troops they are having hard time against is Nord huscarls, on foot battle. Quite high costing to maintain an army. baddest archers ingame, decent to slow speed on world map. Best siege army for conquering.

TL:DR Best Cavalry, Kills anything open battle, Dont Bother using Archers, For Conquering, moderate to high cost.

Nords - Best Infantry troops (Nord Huscarls) that can rake trough anything on open field, infantry vs infantry. Highest costing infantry units in game also the slowest to train, really high cost to maintain full infantry army if wanted to be unbeatable. NO Cavalry. slow speed on world map Due to not having horses. (Best defence units)

TL:DR Best foot soldiers, Slow on map, High to Really high cost, Good for defending and attacking

Khergits - Fastest, fully cavalry dependent Nation. Khergit lancers are decent, Low costs on maintaining army and, also the fastest to raise from low to high tier troops.. Also fast on world map speed. BAD, and i mean, BAD at Attacking towns and defending them (LOW ARMORED UNITS) bad against higher tier archers and Rhodok spearmen. Good for fast capturing lowly guarded areas.

TL:DR Fastest on map, Full Cavalry army, Low Cost, BAD at Sieging and Defending, Low Armored troops

Rhodoks - Best Ranged troops in the game with Crossbows. aint nothing that can penetrate Rhodok Sharpshooter group, most damage dealing troops ingame. Decent other infantry, Rhodok Sergeant is about the same as swadian Infantrymen. No cavalrymen, as in Nords dont have either. Quite high cost on weekly basis, Slow movement on map. Good defenders, good backup on attack.

TL:DR Best Crossbowmen, High armor, Moderate to High cost, Slow to moderate speed on map, Bad attacking head on.

Sarranids - Decent army alltogether. Only good troops ive found to be is the Master Archer, and Mamlukes. Other troops tend to get killed really easily by other same tier troops on other factions, mostly due to their really bad armors. Mamlukes and Master archers are Decently equipped, although not as good as for example Vaegir Marksmen, or Swadian knights. Normal costs, not little or much. The "punchbag faction" From all the others (isnt best or bad in anything.)

TL:DR Not good or bad at anything. Low to moderate armor, Moderate cost, moderate everything.

Vaegirs - Best Bow and arrow Archers in game, Vaegir marksmen. Quite fast on the map, many cavalry based classes, vaegir knights being the lowest armored top tier unit in the game. These troops are useless against good Rhodok crossbow line, gets hammered pretty easily due to little to no shield usage. Quite low costing, Hard to play for newcomers.

TL:DR Superb Archers, Bad Cavalry with low armor, No shields most troops, only good on defence, Moderate to fast speed on map.

There you go. little information on the basics of nations and their troops and how they work out. There are other ways of getting armies together, for example making full mercenary only armies, or getting manhunters into your army (Only attainable as recruited from enemy teams prisoners) To train them as slavers (Uses blunt weapons, so you get a lot of prisoners.)

Also, the low costing highly armored unit, Sword sisters. Only attainable as peasant women, same as with manhunters (Needed to be recruited from enemy prisoners) The troop tree for peasant women are quite fast to train, but all others between peasant women - Sword sister is bad and lowly armored, + the Sword sisters dont wear helmets (1 hit KO on head)

I hope these things will help starters and newcomers to get known with the factions of the game :) comment if you need more expansion on this guide, im willing to write more in depth.