The exception is when I face an archer-heavy group of enemies (forest or tundra bandits), then I prefer to have everyone charge.

I usually order my non-heroes to stand their ground while I soften the enemies together with my NPCs. Mounted troops with blunt weapons will knock out anything. The manhunter tree is also good when coupled with prisoner management, but manhunters are a pain to recruit (they need to be rescued from someone who captured them).

I've had good experience of using Khergit (flexible and fast troops that can be used as shock cavalry or dragoons) at this stage. Once you are a high level and have a few high level companions with the trainer skill you'll be able to level up quickly. You share 'non-killing' experience with the rest of your men and this allows you to level up faster. I usually start as a freelancer with relatively few men and spend the early game levelling up my character and the NPCs. One major complaint about their bowmen is that they at certain levels can possibly spawn with javelins as a ranged weapon, making your Archers line a bit weaker (generally you'd want javelins in your infantry) I would say that their cavalry are about equal to the Swadians' cavalry one-to-one, but they use swords instead of lances and thus have a bit of a weaker charge en masse. Sarranids: These guys have so-so infantry and bowmen, and strong cavalry. If you play 'em, make sure your Khergit Veteran Horse Archers can be switched to Archers, so you can direct them separate from your Lancers. They are very unwieldy to control, however, due to having only 'Cavalry' types. Only the Swadians freak me out when I player Khergits. They're a lot of fun, and can be the strongest in the field as long as the field isn't too obstacle-strewn. Khergits: All-horse, except their recruit troop. A bit weak during sieges, but not as bad as the other horse-heavy faction, the Khergits. They have incredible melee cavalry, however. Swadians: Their foot troops are a lot like the Rhodoks, just a bit crappier in skill and equipment. Definitely best to use archer-heavy armies with these guys, and use the horses and infantry only to support them. Their infantry and horses are all quite weak in comparison to other factions, but some people like them for their versatility. Vaegir: These are supposedly the best archers, though that is argued (bows run out of ammo a lot sooner than crossbows, for one factor). I find them quite weak in sieges, attacking or defending, because of a general high-damage low-armour setup. Their longbowmen are decent (3rd best after Rhodok and Vaegir), but can defend themselves in melee best of any, I think. Very strong melee, and infantry generally have a few throwing weapons. Poor against strong infantry, patricularly Nords. Excellent against cavalry in the field, and at sieges due to their excellent crossbowmen. Strong and steady crossbowmen who aren't half-bad in melee, very sturdy spearmen infantry. There are better resources than this forum to answer your question, google the mount and blade wiki or the taleworlds forums and you'll find a wealth of information.ДЇor a few cents, instead, here is what you're in for:

I wait a long time before going independent king though, so at that time I often have a large and good army, several companions and I'm high in levels myself, so I can often cope with trouble that I wouldn't be able to cope with on a new character. When building my own kingdom, however, I will nearly always try to go for Swadian lands since their soldiers (Cavalry especially) is tonnes better then the other options, and as long as I can defeat any other single army on the field, taking their cities and castles will become much easier. Rhodoks is only bordering two potential enemies at first and will be better able to cope (Most of the time). That means that Swadian villages often have trouble with enemies plundering them and that is a hard blow to counter for a starting player. My other point is that Swadia is very central and I haven't seen a game where Swadia survives and flourishes unless I join Swadia, since it will often be under attack from every possible direction. In my experience the best country to start as is Rhodoks because their infantry is very excellent (And Swadian Knights are very expensive), so unless you want to join another faction I'd start in Rhodoks and build up from there.

Mount and blade warband playthrough