Mount and Blade, what to do?

[dangoball]

Well, you already have many strategies here so there is no harm if I add my own

First off - settings:
-Set Lance control to Automatic. Manually controlling your lance is a pain and only needed in MP. Automatic lance on horseback is one of the strongest weapons on the battlefield.
-Start of with low damage setting to you and your companions. Full damage is quite difficult and you most likely won't be able to win any tournaments till lvl 20 or so.
-If you have somewhat weaker machine (like I do), disable rag-doll physics (though they can be hilarious) and set number of corpses to 0.

Mods:
Use Diplomacy Mod from the start. It's really useful.

When in game:
-Start of slow and careful. Good starting locations are Rhodock and Swadia due to strong low tier units (crossbow power!). Do the Merchant of *starting city* quest.
-When deciding what Hero companions to choose, use this page: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount%26Blade/Companions
-Use a shield! There are many archers and shield will prevent a lot of damage from them.
-If you find a Bandit Lair, go ask a Tavern Keeper who might have a job for you. Lord of the area plagued by bandits usually offers a quest to destroy their lair and it's well rewarded.
-Avoid Khergit and Sarradin areas early on. There are powerful and fast bandits (usually mounted).
-Have a high Trainer skill on yourself and some Hero companions. Nothing beats training 50 raw conscripts into 50 3rd tier soldiers in two nights Also have a specialized Medic or two. Path-finding is also very useful skill.
-Become a mercenary. I advise joining Swadia or Nords, as those will provide you with lot of safety even when you yourself are still quite weak. If the faction you serve under starts getting too powerful (5+ towns), switch factions. You don't want anyone too powerful. It will also provide you with Right to Rule.
-After you win a battle with some friendly lords on your side, talk to them. It can be tedious, but relation increase is worth it. It could allow you to avoid future battle with them should they become your enemies and you have greater chance to get them to join your faction once you start one.
-Cavalry units are very powerful but more expensive. Swadian Men-at-Arms is a great compromise and Swadian Knight is the best unit on open field.
-Use mercenary units only when in need of getting strong units in a limited amount of time. They are notably more expensive than their faction based counterparts, however they don't suffer morale loss from fighting against their mother faction (since they have none).
-Nord Huscarl is your best siege unit and the uncontested best infantry.
-Rhodock Sharpshooter is your best fort defense unit due to powerful crossbow and a big-ass shield when he gets in melee.
-Go for quality troops rather than quantity. 50 top tier units will cut through 100 mid tier with ease.
-Don't use Autoresolve! The way it calculates is completely bonkers (how the F- did last two Khergit Horsemen kill 2 of my Swadian Knights and wounded 3 Huscarls from my 60 man strong elite company is beyond me).
-Have as many kinds of food that doesn't go bad (Salted Fish, Dried meat, Bread, Grain, Lettuce, Fruit, Honey, Butter).
-When in need of money and food - raid a village. If you need to raid again, it's preferable to raid a village you have raided before. Better have one village that hates you with passion then 10 that slightly dislike you.
-When in war with a faction, ask for toll from it's caravans. Easy money. Doing so to a caravan from a faction you are not at war with will lower your relation to that faction. You don't want that.
-Become a vassal before you start your own faction. Start thinking of going on your own only once you have a town as your fief. Preferably a castle as well.
-Once you have your own faction, be marshal yourself. Campaing AI is just plain stupid
-The strength of vassals is determined by how rich their fiefs are. Generally a lord with one castle will have a stronger army then a lord with two or three villages. Use this knowledge when giving fiefs to your vassals later on.

And most importantly - have fun!
I know I do. Over 250 hours played and still not bored of it

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Snip.

You take your game pretty slow. I never bother fighting meagre looters. I rank leadership and trainer, hire some peasants and level them up until I have 40 or so elite soldiers and sign on as a vassal asap. Then I go round looting the enemy villages, amass my wealth, get in good standing with the marshall and the king and slowly but surely get my castles. At around 130 hours I created my own kingdom right in connecting point of 3 nations, two of which hated me from looting and the other owned a third of the continent thanks to me, realised I couldn't hack it and resigned on as a vassal.

But yeah OP, start out small and work your way up. Try not to bite off more than you can chew or you're fucked. Also choose the no quitting without saving option, it makes the game shit.

 

[Seanchaidh]

-Nord Huscarl is your best siege unit and the uncontested best infantry.

Mmm... it's really good. That's a very popular opinion, and for good reason. Huscarls are extremely powerful. But the Rhodok Sergeant is more dangerous against mounted units I've found. An isolated Huscarl is likely to just get lanced: they need to be in a tight formation (a shield wall) to deal with cavalry. A Rhodok Sergeant, on the other hand, can be dangerous to charging cavalry even if isolated due to his long polearm. And the fact that his onehanded weapon deals piercing damage (it's a military pick) makes him a bit more threatening against any heavily armored unit. The Huscarl has throwing weapons, Rhodok Sergeants have polearms. I don't fear fighting AI controlled Nords on the open field because the AI breaks its infantry formation when it engages, whereas I have to think twice against Rhodoks who have excellent ranged pressure with their sharpshooters and very dangerous infantry that almost makes me want to dismount.

The thing about elite infantry is that the attributes of the unit matter less than the positioning. They all carry shields and they are all very capable when in a formation or they have a concave around one side of a chokepoint. The most important thing is telling them to stand close together and hold position where you want the fight to occur. Mixing Rhodok Sergeants and Nord Huscarls together is probably the most effective way to play a style that is heavy on infantry. One other thing about Rhodok Sergeants is that their lack of throwing weapons makes them slightly more resilient against opposing archers at medium range. They keep their shields raised where Huscarls might wind up a throw and end up taking a few arrow hits. And of course they are all near infinitely more effective if a player is hacking up whatever they're fighting with overhead swings using a giant poleaxe or two-handed sword.

Overall, I'd say the two units are about equal in strength, with Huscarls being a bit stronger in castle sieges and Rhodok Sergeants being the more versatile option on the open field. I don't think you can go wrong with either of them, and mixing them is good too. Fights between them are more about the particulars of the engagement than anything else.