I slay thousands, I make friends with the lords of the realm and I capture dozens of enemy commanders and yet none of it nets me any reward, I only have a single village to my name.

Post your bugs or problems in this thread. This will help us to track and fix them. You remember to check this before: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,319760.0.html

without putting points on weapo master, does companions improve skills just from combat?

I'm getting pretty strong now and I'm not sure which infantry to use. I put high tier Viking units (Ship Captain, Danish Elite Vikingr, Northmatr Vikingr and Svear Elite Vikingr) in my refuge and troop quarters and have Norse infantries (mostly bodyguards) in my party. I'm thinking of having only one type of infantry in later game, which ones should it be? Which of them are the strongest?...

Hey, as someone who only played a few hours of this game many years ago. Should I even bother playing vanilla to learn the game? And what mod would be recommended? Or should I just buy Bannerlord and play tha instead?