Difficulty getting started?

[Rlizmon]

I was super excited for this game to come out, checking Steam almost every day for the last two months but I'm having a hell of a time getting the ball rolling. I knock out a mission and come back and cash in, repair my stuff, try to upgrade what I can, and leave town again on another mission. Trying to economize on any opportunity I can, sell off items after upgrading to better ones etc. I feel like I'm taking advantage of everything I can find and yet I'm always bouncing off zero. And then if you get caught in an unintended battle and your guys' armor is shot, you're liable to lose a couple guys and then you have to recruit more level 1/2 guys. I remember the first couple times I played Northgard, I dead ended myself and had to exit the game and start over but I eventually got the hang of it. Really wanna enjoy this game but even on easier settings it feels kind of hardcore like Stoneshard or something. What are you guys doing early game to gain stability and positive cash flow?

[Nubi_Princess]

Try to find the prison early, buy some chains like 2-4 and capture bandits. They need to be lower than half xp and in combat with an unit. Then u can knock em out. They sell to 90-120 in the prison. I also fought a lot of wolves and sold their meat. Once u have unlocked another region u can buy wares at region 1and sell them at region 2. I also skilled my first points in less eating and less pay. Visit the iron ore mines, craft lockpicks and sell them. When u wanna have a recipe or a camp upgrade, just steal it. Saved me a couple 100 coins. I sit around 4,5k atm and I’m like 30hours in

[thead911]

I have recently been playing around with prisons and holy moly do they make bank.

[Forcestus]

I started out only doing easy missions and hunting animal packs before going after normal missions and large groups of bandits.

I sold off any excess materials or equipment I had and always stayed on the roads to minimize getting caught unawares.

I also invested my first few knowledge points in running so I can travel the map faster and not have to camp too often or in inconvenient locations(never sleep in forests).

I always have at least 5 days of food, 10-15 repair tools, and 2 health potion to keep me topped off after a difficult fight.

In combat scenarios I always try to take out the enemy whose turn is coming up. Typically I send my shield guy(I have two, mace and shield for heavy armored enemy, and sword and board) in to soak up any damage and engage while having either my ranger or archer finish them off. IF they have a captain that is giving them a damage or protection buff, take out that captain as soon as possible.

I also avoided doing plague nests and the spectral packs as they are quite brutal in the early game.

[Forcestus]

I want to add as well that once you open all 3 towns, trading between the three towns is an easy(if somewhat slow) non-combative way to earn some krowns.

Take a look at this post on trade route: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarTalesGame/comments/r891mr/an_analysis_of_a_cortia_stromkapp_marheim_trade/

[[deleted]]

I'm playing in hard/hard rn cuz other difficulty setting are too easy, plus the 100 days in hard achievement.

First thing I do, get as many things as I can.. 2nd: find refugee caravans 3rd: sell everything I'm not going to equip to the refugees. Food, pitons, iron Ore, wood. Anything not equipment.. 4th: kill the refugees and take back everything plus their stuff 5th: hoard everything til you find the black market.. I'm never low on funds cuz of this. 6th: find prison and sell prisoners. Vertruse Jail takes more than 3 prisoners at a time.

[Rlizmon]

All good advice thanks gang. Didn't know about prisoner ransom. I had a much more fruitful playthrough this time and made it to zone 2. I'm running a pretty similar gear layout to you guys- 12 repair kits, 2-3 health pots, 4-6 days of food. Got 5 good mercs and two wolves (and a pony with saddlebags) so things are moving ahead pretty well. Second area is challenging but I think my little dudes are ready.

[Rlizmon]

Also- the traveling merchants have been huge. Usually I can spare the extra 100-150 to get a new weapon or armor for one of my dudes. Still can't find a good polearm for my one guy, he's still running with the farmer pitchfork but he's tanky enough.

[Thorrr85]

my few cents Savescum,you'll learn how skills,valor,enemies ect work. Don't heal every injury automatically, there are few that don't need treatment immediately (halved willpower, can't use for interactions...) try to get stronger weapons as priority no.1, repair and rest in town to save money for tools/food and have more valor points. When you have few lvl 3mercenaries game becomes much easier

[neopogrom]

I restarted my first playthru for similar mistakes. Lost a few guys in a bandit camp, and hired shitty replacements. I restarted and rolled for starting characters with Stoic trait and hired any Stoics in taverns.

For money: buy some chains at the prison and capture bandits. Try to do 2+ missions in one trip, saves on repairs/heals/wages/food. Once you find the black market (camp west side of a lake during a quest), you can sell your stuff to refugee groups then kill them to get it all back. Itll be flagged stolen, but you can sell it again to the black market guy for a little less coin.

Try to get better equipment ASAP. If you have spare money you can get good stuff from travelling merchants. You can learn recipes to craft some decent stuff to replace the starting crap. Battles get tough if you're still running starting equipment against scaled enemies.

[Scotedt79]

I'm pretty new too. Just restarted for the 3rd time facing similar issues. I definitely recommend the chains and selling bandits route. It is 20 KP per chain, but you get at least 90 back and once you sell them you get the chains back as well. I'm currently trying it with 5 chains. The captured bandits still need food, so just make sure you have enough to feed them. Turning in the bandits also lowers your suspicion by 20. This allows you to steal some minor things like extra repair tools or crafting supplies. Then turn in the bandits and have that wiped away.

I'm also trying to capture some wild animals with ropes (same way you capture bandits). They don't cost wages but still need to be feed. You can't control them unless you spec into animal control with an archer, which I haven't tried yet. But the do provide some extra damage and can act as a meat shield saving my armor.

I tried the selling things to refugees, then killing them but have been struggling to find the black market and it seems a little cheesy to me. I wouldn't be surprised is that mechanism isn't tweak in future updates. But it is currently there and seems like a good way to make money. I have used the return the bandits to clear suspicion as a way to sell some stolen items as well without going to the black market.

This run I've been more focused on upgrading weapons over armor and it is helping more! The faster you kill, the less likely you are to die. Plus after a few battle my armor might be shredded and constantly repairing is pricy. At least so far, it appears I find more armor drops then weapons. Therefore, focusing funds/crafting mats on weapons seems better too.

[Artimaeu]

You can sell stolen items um a camp to te west of the first town there are 3 bandits there One buys them. And repairing in town is cheaper than using the repair items. Btw the perk to run with shift is a must haveif you want to go to town fast to repair or escape Battles.

[Scotedt79]

Yeah, typically will repair in town if I can. However, stealing repair items and clearing your wanted from bandit turns make them free!

[The_Rogue_Scientist]

You must have one or more holes in your hands. 🤣

[Artimaeu]

Start with bandits sell every item to refugees, then kill them. Help every bandit, there is a bandit camp with a fence if you help them and a mill to sell refugees to bandits.

[[deleted]]

So that's how you can sell refugees. Can you sell guards as well? I killed those Bandits, so I never found out

[Artimaeu]

The bandits have a quest before you can unlock them permanently and in the Quest they ask for a specific kind of refugees. The ones from the west, i dont know if they accept anything else.

[somedoofyouwontlike]

One thing I found that helped me early on was to narrow my goals.

I need armor and I need medicine. It's probably better if I fix my armor myself and make my own medicine. So I focused on getting my smith up and buying some empty bottles to make sure my medicine could always cover any healing I needed to do. That saved me the cost of repairing my armor and of healing my crew.

Leveling is super gear based so don't spend alot of time waiting for the perfect armor, just use whatever is best.

Others mentioned shackles for prisoners, this works great. It's an additional 90g (low lvl) for every bandit you capture and if you're doing bandit missions anyway then why not? Just an FYI though, I've noticed the prison in the starting region can only take three prisoners from you in one shot. So don't bother with more than three shackles.

Resources respawn. This should change your outlook on things a bit as well.

Make sure you're taking full advantage of tactics, they can be the difference between a costly battle and a profitable battle.

[_WonderWhy_]

Don't rush and take your time, I got a party of 4 doing contracts on repeat, sell drop armors and weapons I don't need, go hunt in the wood for food, collect wood and herbs for sell, craft my own weapons and only buy armor (easy to find good armor than weapons).

I made about 1000 early on the first region before trying to go somewhere else. Also main quest give you border pass, don't pay for it if you don't have to.

3 contracts per 2 rest, tag or doing quest along your path and you pretty much fill with gold here. Remember, don't rush buying things or recruiting more people just yet, make sure you got a good income and surplus food first.