Contrary to M&B Warband, With Fire & Sword is alot harder to get started in.
In my guide i will describe some of the things i used and which worked out for me.

One of the hardest parts of mount & blade is often the beginning. You get thrown in and you ask yourself, now what?

So, at first you start killing bandits. Be careful which ones you choose since some are alot stronger than you might expect.

Once you have some money, you can start hiring companions to ''steal'' their equipment, since these are quite expensive in m&b wfas.

In my guide i listed 2 strategies which can be used after you level up a few times, spend your character points appropriately to the strategy you wish to use.

Some things to keep in mind before starting a game:

• Originally posted by Skullthug:

  Just a tip for the players who are starting out as a trader ctrl+space will make your journey so much faster.

  
  
• Charging straight in on to enemies who have muskets/bows or lances is almost certainly a death sentence.
  
  If they have ranged weapons, keep circling them and take out enemies at the edges of the pack who are reloading. Also keep in mind the timing of the fire coming from the others.
  
  For lances, just stay out in front of them and use your pistol/bow. If your horse isn't faster, make alot of turns.
  
  
• Keep in mind the length of a weapon, spears generally have more range than a sword.
  Be extra careful around pikes !
  
  
• Early game, insulting a pub visitor and killing him, is a good way to get a better sabre. It costs nothing, as opposed to hiring a companion and stealing his, but does give you negative relation with the city.
  
  
• Always save before you go into battle, no one knows what is going to happen...
  
  
• You can press tab to skip the tutorial of a new game. You will lose nothing in terms of equipment.
  
  
• ...

One new feature of With fire & sword is the difficulty setting you choose at the beginning of the game.
While most of these can be changed later on in the options screen, they do influence the start of the game in terms of equipement.

• easy : 1000 thaler, mathlock carabine + bullets and a saber
  
• normal : 500thaler, pistol + bullets and a simple saber
  
• hard : 100thaler, handmade firearm + bullets and a carpenter axe

All other equipment stays the same. ( Horse, clothing & food)

Pressing tab to skip the tutorial results in no loss of any equipement.
Advised is to choose the easy option, since the difficulty of the game can always be adjusted in the menu.

The choices you make before the stats of your new character show up, have the option to be exploited to make a character with much higher stats and more starting gear. (Extra bullets/food and clothing).
Due note, that this is cheating trough exploiting a bug and this will render the rpg element of game useless.

It's a very simple process wich i discovered by accident, after sometimes gaining a character with lv9 attributes and higher stats.

These 2 screens appear before the stats page.


If you simply choose a difficulty and upon reaching the gender page, hit back, 2 points to all your attributes will be added and your stats will increase. This can be done indefinitely.
This is the result of clicking back 5 times and then choosing a gender.

Your main source of money early game will be killing bandits and maybe doing some quests.
Be careful which bandit you attack, since some are armed with muskets.

Looters: Low tier bandits with only bad melee weapons and dressed in rags.

Brigands/Bandits/Rebels: Melee with bad armour and weapons but they do have a firearm, some dodging skills are required here. Just avoid riding right into a bandit/rebel aiming at you and take out the ranged bandits first.

Tatar raiders: Mounted with bad armour and shields/bow&arrow. Quite tricky to take out, would not try these as they have beaten me more times than any bandit when i solo early game.
Although in low numbers and if you are in luck, with no bows they are fairly easy to kill with your pistol if you have a decent amount of skill in firing from horseback.

Deserters: Depends on the type of troop, check m&b wfas wiki before you attack if you are unsure.
Desired troops are infantry without a shield, and not too high armor which you can kite with your pistol.

Scottish troops are very good for this, if they have musketeers, focus on them first with melee and then wear the others down with your ranged until they run and then kill them with melee.
They have good weapons like the claymore & scottish broadsword and armor like the pikeman uniform.

Be sure to carry enough ammo, or else you will be forced to pick up rounds off the musketeers or use melee, which won't be very effective against pikes and claymores...

After you have gained a starting capital of about 3-4k thaler, it is time to get some equipement.
Now this may sound weird but some companions in m&b wfas have gear that is more expensive than their hiring price.
Don't bother looking for them in fortresses, search in the cities.
You can either keep them or release them after you've done robbing them.

One fine example of this is Karlsson.
His Half-Cuirass is quite expensive, so early game you are better off taking his armor and letting him go with a replacement robe or ... naked.









This strategy goes up for some other companions like Victor De La Buscador who has a very good complete set of equipment:

Helm: Simple Morion
Body Armor: Bodyguard Camisole
Boots: Infantry Boots
Gloves: Infantry Gloves



Others may have horses or other more relevant weapons for your character, but always be sure to check if their hire price isn't too high if you are going for their equipment.

(Fedot -> Musket , Yelisei -> Horse/Sabre)

List of the heroes and preferences.(Click the link above the picture after you open it to view the full image.) The site is http://mountandblade.wikia.com/wiki/Heroes_%28With_Fire_%26_Sword%29

There are different ways to recruit men:

• Villages
  
• Taverns
  
• Mercenary camps
  
• Commanders

Villages yield low cost/low quality militia troops wich can be further upgraded as they gain experience. These troops are not advised to use as your main battle units.

Taverns yield mercenary units in random numbers wich can also be upgraded as they gain experience. These are stronger than the village militia but weaker than camp mercenaries.

Mercenary camps yield mercenary troops of your desire (infantry/marksmen/cavalry).
These are also upgradeable as they gain experience but remain the same unit (recruit-experienced-veteran-elite). Their equipement will not change through upgrading.
You can equip these mercenaries to your own choice within the options the camp commander offers.
Just be sure to remember, the better equipement you equip them with, the higher the recruitment cost becomes for these units.

Commanders can be found in cities in the town center. Depending on your allegiance to a faction, they can provide a large variety of units. These are the strongest* units wich are obtainable.
The commander will give you a price in thaler and copper, thaler for the price and copper for the amount of days needed to train them.


*If you are a member of a faction, you can recruit the faction's units and the quality of troop diversity will depend on the type of commander present.
More info here: http://mountandblade.wikia.com/wiki/Commander

The beginning is the same as the trader, but for this strategy, you'll need some forces to get started.
This strategy also prepares to get you an army for later on.

Basicly fight bandits and earn yourself some thalers to hire cavalry units.
Cavalry is advisable since you will be raiding and don't want to be too slow when an army chases you.
If you have around 30 men, just pick 1 faction and start raiding its villages.
I prefer the mercenaries from the mercenary camps since they are decent fighters, unlike the cavalrymen you hire from taverns.
Keep around 30 men at all times and put the profit in the bank.

+ Attacking patrols or bandits who have captured cavalry units of any sort can come in handy in expanding your numbers to the desired 30-ish men. (Only do this after upgrading your troops)+

For faction choice, the Polish work the best for me personally (unless you want to join this faction later on of course).
They are often at war and centered on the map, which gives you more sell points for your goods.
Since they're constantly at war, they won't pay much attention to you.

• Fight bandits until you have enough money to hire companions and steal gear and to recruit cavalry (around~30).
  
• Select a faction whose villages you will raid.
  
• Be sure to put money in the bank to generate intrest
  
• Level up Inventory management, pathfinding, spotting & looting for easier looting & better results.
  
• Make dosh.

This is the non-argression strategy, you don't harass or steal from a faction which is advisable if you haven't decided what faction to join.
Basicly what you do is kill some bandits and get some starting money. Meanwhile level your trade skill until it's 3 or 4. Pathfinding & Inventory management are a must. Then you start at one side of the map, either in the Swedish cities or in the Crimean Khanate. Acces local prices and see what goods deliver a good profit. Don't go for anything less then 80 thaler profit and be sure to check ahead which goods are present. Travelling half the map for 1 unit of wool that gives 89 thaler profit isn't worth the time. One smart thing to do here is to take a screenshot of the price screen, so while buying, you can check wich goods you need.
Continue to do this and put excess cash into the bank where it will generate intrest.
Having several horses in your inventory will also increase your travel speed, which is important at the very beginning when you have no money to hire any troops as escorts. (Or when you wish to stay solo)

• Fight to earn starting money & Level up trade, inventory management & Pathfinding
  
• Access local prices in the nord or the south ( Swedish or Crimean side)
  
• Stick with cavalry units for the speed and also carry horses in your inventory for faster travelling with goods ( Any horse will do)
  
• Make dosh.

Special thanks go to KillySG10 for correcting my english.