defensive infantry

Sword Sisters

3 light cavalry

5 offensive infantry

5 defensive infantry

5 horse archer

6 archer

7 heavy cavalry

Good:

 light cavalry

Mediocre:

 offensive infantry, defensive infantry, horse archer, archer (but may be good for siege offence), heavy cavalry

Poor:

DaElf says:

 I just re-read your summaries of the Cavalry forces, and I must say that the major thing that stood out to me was the fact that what isn't mentioned is how easily obtainable Sword Sister units such as the Kenau and Black Widows are compared to their Faction-based equivalents. You can hire 10+ of them at a time at around 600 denars each to have them fully-trained and ready to fight instantly, which simply can't be done with the Hashams or Mandugais of Calradia.

Mercenaries

3 defensive infantry

4 heavy cavalry

4 offensive infantry

5 light cavalry

7 archer

Good:

 defensive infantry, heavy cavalry

Mediocre:

 offensive infantry, light cavalry, horse archer, archer (but may be good for siege offence)

Poor:

DaElf says:

 I6 Landsknecht and Grosskomturs - Again, much easier to obtain good amounts of than I7 Aethelings or Condottieri.

Miscellaneous

4 Black Khergit horse archer

6 Slaver Chief heavy cavalry

Good:

 horse archer

Mediocre:

 heavy cavalry

Poor:

Of course, we're looking only at the top tier units in each faction and early-game and mid-game characteristics may be different.

As well, a single-rank summary discards a lot of information. For instance, we see that the Rhodoks are ranked 4th in foot archers. This might lead us to conclude that they don't have good ranged units, but the truth is that their ranged units are awesome in sieges and pretty good in the field. If nothing else, they are tough little buggers capable of going toe-to-toe with heavy infantry. So these numbers are useful merely as a first step and we'll need to dig a little deeper for the nuanced truth.

MONEY AND STARTING GUIDE

The first thing i try to do in the beginning is get a few manhunters and level them up. Not so hard to do since most bandit groups usually drag a few of them around. Having manhunters/slavers in your party means easy money because they give you a bonus to your Prisoner Management skill which is pretty awesome for the following reason: having 40+ slavers gets you +3 PM so that means 15 more slaves to sell. You can find slave traders often enough so this is the one of best sources of income in the early stages of the game.

Also, when leveled up a bit they pack quite a punch, a band of 50 Slave Crushers can crush double that amount of bandits easily and considering bandits are 130 denars a pop that's a nice chunk of change for low risk adventuring.

What i do is set them in a separate group and send them out when i'm done softening up the enemy with my archers, they just mop up and i always have full prisoner slots for sale.

When battling lords i tend to choose tier 5 and above prisoners, because lower quality troop just aren't profitable and are just taking up valuable space. If you have 3 or 4 battles between every visit to a town you'll easily fill up on tier 5+ troops or bandit prisoners. Actually anything above 130 denars is profitable because bandits are easiest to catch and you can always go pick up a few if you're short on cash, everything else is just bonus money.

They are also excellent for getting them tier 7 troops which are so hard to train since you can just look for a bandit group that has high tier prisoners, with the bandits in 2.5 that's not that hard, they rape every lord they can get their hands on 

 then it's just a matter of luring that gang out of reach of the main host of bandits and there you go - with a little patience, tier 7 troops rescued and recruited.

There's another way to get tier 7 that i found just now but it involves being farther into the game. When lords change faction they still keep the original faction troop preference, so what i do is i try to find lords who have changed sides and are in the enemy faction, then you just send in your slaver crew and imprison their higher tier units. When you finish fighting you just go to camp and recruit prisoners, and you don't get a morale penalty if you use only that factions troops (which i normally do, not sure about this if you have a multi-faction army)

So anyway just remember this: 

Prisoner Management at 10 gives you 50 slots for prisoners, with bandits/sea raiders that are 130 a pop you get 6500 in one go! How bout that for easy money

First - look a spot on the map where u are going to settle - i mean like I did - Praven/Suno...

Then the nearest 4-5 towns use the new banking system to have money in the super late game when if u have like 10 000 - 15 000 or more gold to pay in a week to troops so u can pay them without always selling bandits/ captuered prisoners. I mean that so late better to get rid of all (walkaries,slave crushers - or u can also put them on the bottom of your party window when you don't fight and the opposite also. But this way u loose like atleast 40-50 people to get prisoners AND against enemy lord with really good army or a lot of enemy troops u need 6-7 tiers of strongest units in the game.) So like i am for now - day 100(third optional try) i get like from Suno/Praven/UXhal like 40 000 and i will max in Veluca to get 50 000.This way every 2 months u get like 40 000 and u pay for the army(my army - 160man almost all tier 5-7, + around 20 companions) - 8000-1000 money per week or something. This way you will have all the money u need in the super late game(ofcourse late contioniue to invest in the banks(money landers...).

This was my advice for the money system ( I still hope to see a new patch that u take all the money from 1 place... 

 )

So about the entire begining of the game.

First like i do with this character just get to level 10-15...Max your archery(if u want to in later game) and Power Strike,Iron flesh to 6-7 atleast.

Then u max your inteligence to 35-40(i am still like to 25-35 or something...level 24-25 ...)When u have like 40 inteliggence Per a kill I THINK(not sure did not play since 4 days) - u get from a tier 6-7 troop like 560xp and because of the intelligence u get 700-800 or smh. I think that I explained everything here like an idiot but still this is one of the best tactics i think.In the super late game u must not wait like 20-50 days for a level u know..this is easier and faster and Ofcourse THE most important thing:

with this intelligence max - the party map speed, party see range,wound treatment,the bonus after a battle that heroes regain hp,the 4% per level chance a dude get's knocked out rather than go to god.<<<!!! also some other important intelligence stuff(persuasion at 10 > 100% !!).For the all left use like Artimennter and Jeremus - for engeniiring,and alll...(play with them max them same way...have all PARTY skills to 10 If u can.)For looting and foraging pick a random guy max 6-7 PW,IF.THen only agility and theese 2 + other bonuses for him.So after u max inteligence to 35-40 then max all IF,PW,PD and all to 10.Then u coud max shield,athletics,horse archery - Agility skills and other to 4-5-10 BUT then it will be still so hard to get levels so better just go to straitgh Charisma and other skills(LEADERSHIP!!!). Forgot to say - before that all to level 4-5 atleast... YOu can max PM to level 10 in char expor (easier but so frustrating to sell 20-30 prisoners per course rather than 50. If u are like to day 500-1000 ( I never  made it so far

) U will have almost everything needed at MAX. U can either max all agility fighning bonuses OR STH so u are like 120hp ++ OR ofcourse to spam CHAR for more army(i am talking about level 70+ or smh iv'e seen really nice pictures ^^)

I think i only explained all the skills and money in the early/late game. There are simply so so many things but I think this is the basic of the basic in this nice mod

 . I hope i helped and that u will understand most of the things i said.

Early Game Guide for Floris Expanded v2.5

As others before have said, the Early Game is all about:

1) Making money 

to build enterprises and buy land to create tons of 

residual income 

to pay for your huge late-game war machine. The easiest way to do this is by:

1a) Capturing bandits

, looters, sea raiders and deserters; and selling them to ransom brokers. To do this you need the Prisoner Management skill--1 level lets you grab 5 prisoners--so build it up quickly. And get a blunt weapon to knock them out with, like the military hammer, empire hammer, etc. Being mounted is really useful, too, as you've got more mobility to close on and chase banditos using ranged weapons. Being mounted also allows you to do drive-by hammer strikes, which are roughly 200% more powerful--useful in early game when you're weakest. Supplementing your party with 15 or more 

Manhunters

 will not only boost your Prisoner Management skill, but net you more captives, as manhunters are all mounted with blunt weapons. Other hammer and maul equipped troops are: Vaegir 

I3 Grid

-->

I4 Mladshiy Druzhinnik

 line, which can eventually upgrade into the mounted

 C5 Druzhinnik 

--->

C6 Elitniy Druzhinnik

. Also check out the Sarranid 

I3 Cemaat

--->

C4 Kapikulu Suveri

--->

C5 Beylik

--->

C6 Sekban

. These are the two premier mounted troop-capturing lines in the game, and should form the core of your army, until you are filthy, stinking rich. In Floris v2.5 there is a new Sword Sisters cavalry line that ain't bad either: 

I3 Hospitaller

--->

C4 Beritten Jungfrau

--->

C5 Schildjungfur

--->

C6 Walkure

.  To actually capture a bandit party in combat, I prefer my party to be 100% mounted, then approach bandit party at a trot [use commands F1,F2]. If enemy party is too strong for you, stop [F1,F1] and thin them out with arrow fire. Then charge [F1,F3]. Using command to 'use blunt weapons only' [F3,F3] is also useful here. Against 

mounted

 desert and steppe bandits, avoid their lethal lances by veering off to right as you approach them, hopefully pulling them all off to an angle in pursuit (they will charge you 

en masse

), then [F1,F3] to have your riders charge their now exposed flank. Experiment until you get the timing right, as it will allow your boys to het the enemy in the flank and not get couched. Use your bow to shoot the horses of those bandits that aren't taken out in the initial scrum. Once on foot, you or your boys bash 'em on the head. 

1b) Soloing Sea Bandit Parties for Loot

: in v2.4 Sea Bandits were arguably the toughest, baddest banditos around, and had pretty pricey loot. Starting out with 

noble background & squire

 gave you a starting horse + lance, which you could use to inflict 

couched damage 

(means one-hit-one-kill). You'd go out, ride around those mangy vikings, waiting for them to fire all their axes; then start taking them out with your lance. Soloing a party of 25 could net good loot, a few prisoners, and 30 or so renown. Personally I preferred to go the horsearcher route, killing some (their archers and 2H axemen) until my arrows ran out. Then doing rapid drive-by strikes with a military hammer to thump the rest. Either way, in v2.5 Sea Raiders have more bows, which makes them more dangerous to a lightly armored horseman. And they have less loot. It's a different world...

1c) Winning Tournements

: if you've got smokin' hot fighting skills, then following the tournement circuit is the best way to make tons of $$$ in the early game. With the new tournement system in v2.5 you can make around 8,000 per; or disable it and use the older native version to bag the winner-take-all pot of 26,000.   Either system can be daunting until your fighting skills are good, but you can make it much easier by selecting 

1/4 damage, poor combat AI, slowest combat speed

 in game options tab. Winning tourneys is a great way to win $$$, gain 20 renown per, and impress the ladies--as you can dedicate your success to 1 single or married lady in the castle after the match.

1d) Freelancer

: in v2.5 you can now join a lord's army as a ranker. Many players find it a great way to build up the gear, xp, etc. of a new character to lvl9 or so. 

1e) Trading

: in v2.4 this was an excellent money maker at all stages of the game. Now, with the new trading system, I see it as a waste of time. But go form you own conclusions. There are several guides out there for the old system that still largely apply. After about day 7 when commodity prices and volumes stabilize, try 

Iron

 from Curaw (to Reyyavadin or most other cities).

Once you've started earning dough, quickly invest it in Silk Manufacturies, which in most cities net ~550/week. Make placing factories in all/most cities your first economic goal. After you've done this, start buying land, the rents for which you can collect every 2 weeks. Having a ton of residual income is essential to training up and maintaining your high-tier units later in the game; especially during times of peace when there's only low-value bandits around to capture for ransom.

2) Accumulating renown and honor. 

These are essential commodities on your rise to becoming ruler of Calradia. 

Renown

 determines many things, especially the max size of your army, and how much 'respect' you get from other nobles. Get it >500, or even >1,000 before getting really political. Fight battles--the steeper the odds against you, the more renown; win tournements; duel for ladies; and rescue villagers from bandits to win renown. 

Honor

 is what you get from doing, well, honorable things, like releasing enemy lords you capture in battle or not accepting the quest reward from a lord after killing an outlaw. Raiding villages, refusing ransom offers for captured lords, etc. loses you honor. Honor is very, very useful when you get it >300. Then watch every single 'honorable' personality-type lord in Calradia (it's about 30% of them) develop a huge liking for you. 

Even if they've never met you

. 

3) Sucking up to nobles

--preferably entirely of the faction you wish to eventually join, so that they will let you marry their daughters, and more importantly support your being awarded the cities you capture. To actually have the king of the faction you join award you the city or castle you so painstakingly captured, you will need to get the support of 5 or more lords of your faction. Usually only lords with whom you have a rating of 20 or above will support you. Other tan being a goody-two-shoes with super high honor, such good relations must be earned the hard way, by doing quests for them, or more easily, by rescuing them if they're prisoners, or capturing then releasing them after battle. 

Rescue a faction lord who's getting his butt kicked by an enemy party, and get a relations boost proportional to how outnumbered he was. You also get a relations boost with his faction. 

A great strategy I often use is to scan castles and cities of a faction you're not a war with to check for captured lords. When present, go to the castle dungeon and take out the jailer and all nearby soldiers. Then enter dungeon, speak to captive, have him 'stay behind' you. Exit dungeon, kill remaining sentries. Then captive lord goes free, netting you a personal and faction relations bonus. The I'll become a merc for faction whose dungeons I just emptied, so I can have chance to meet and beat very same lords I recently freed. Capture and release, for more relations boost.

Also: every time you defeat an enemy lord, go speak with your faction king for +1 relations. Every time you go to a feast, speak to the hosting lord fo +2 relations. Once you have a castle or city, you can host feasts, and speak with every guest for a +1 (or is it +2?) bonus. 

Giving away quality troops was a great way in v2.4 to gain massive amounts of relations. Seems to be diabled for v2.5

4) Details:

4a) Gathering, Sorting, Training Companions

: the early game is also about collecting up all of your companions, from the taverns of Calradia. There is a method for how you create a stable group of companions who aren't at each others throats. There are plenty of good guides out there for native; but Floris 2.5 has several new ones. The quick and dirty way is to a) recruit every companion you find (you can always dismiss him/her, then ask a Traveller in a tavern their location); b) fight a battle ASAP--even against 3 looters (this will trigger an 'I like so-and-so scripted event by 1 companion for the 1 other companion they have an affinity for). Usually I retain them in pairs, waiting until each of a pair expresses their liking for the other, creating a "stable pair" before starting on another pair. Any companion who likes 1 companion will put up with another he/she dislikes. If you carefully assemble your team pair by pair, you can have 17 no problem (unless you raid villages and walk the dark side). Don't know if this approach works for v2.5, where there are 5 new companions added.

Regarding training, I prefer all my companions as Heavy Horsearchers, and train up their skills accordingly. All will have high to maximal Trainer skill--essential to rapidly train up peasants into elites in the mid-/late-game. Most of them will also have a 'specialty', like Jeremus for surgery other medical skills. Rolf, Baheshtur, Mattheld, Alayen are nobles, and I usually groom some or all of them to be future vassals (with good Trainer + Leadership + Tactics levels). Ymira & Katrin I'll make my backup medical speciallists. Then I'll have 1 primary, 1 backup for Spotting, Foraging, Looting, Engineer, Trading, Persuasion. 

4b Yourself

: Regarding how to train up your own character, there are plenty of good guides available, and all address different playstyles. Floris v2.5 is a huge sandbox and Calradia your oyster. Personally, I ensure that by late-game I'm close to maxed out in Leadership, Persuasion, Tactics, Pwerstrike, Powerdraw (I like bows), and Athletics (didn't use to like it; but now find it gives huge benefit when fighting on foot in battles, siege assaults, & tournements). Riding & Horsearchery: 4-6 is enough. Ironskin & Shield: used to max out; now 2-4 is enough. All others are not needed, as long as you have companions with them. 

4c Village Relations

: every thirty days or so you can do village elder quests Train Against Bandits and Bring Cattle. Do them. Every month. Extremely important, as a high village relation will let you recruit more and better recruits--even if at war with village owning