How to Gain Wealth Early On?
You can make money from your level 2 and 3 homes. More upgraded homes mean more money each month. But better families need more stuff.
You don’t need a trade route to start trading. Trade routes are for special traders who only buy and sell one thing. You can trade with regular traders for free. Just pick what you want to buy or sell next to the resource name. Choose how much you need.
To get personal money, tax your people through your manor. It’s a percentage taken from the money your town makes. If your town has 1000 gold, a 10% tax takes 100 gold and puts it in your account.
Trading without a big trade route isn’t obvious. You can make small trades from the left side menu. It won’t be a lot, but it’s enough to get spears for your first unit before bandits come. Picking berries each season isn’t clear either. The number shown is the max, but pickers get way more as they grow. Your first 10 houses can live off berries all year.
Don’t buy plot upgrades until you have money coming in. You’ll need money for a spear trade route. Later, upgrade a house to a Joiner for shields. He needs a Cobbler too. It’s good for your leather from hunting. Then plan what you want your town to focus on.
Take bandit camps with your first unit and a group from building. That’s how you keep up with the duke. Block with spears, attack from the sides with knights. In medieval times, you made extra stuff for your people and the king, not just for money. Your job is to make the land good for the king.
If you can’t trade basic stuff for money, you’re in trouble. It’s better to restart than keep going. I didn’t know that and got stuck in a hole I couldn’t escape. Had to start over the first time. Make sure you have a trade route or way to make money before spending all your starting cash.
The trading post makes you money. Put a family in it and they’ll get the stuff to export. If there’s no trade route, they’ll leave the village to trade on their own. If you have a trade route, traders with carts will come often to buy the exports.