Build up an elite cadre of troops, do task for the guild masters and lords, and buy up profitable businesses. Instead, spend the first two or three months as a small warband. You almost always get some desolate village on the border that is constantly being raided, and trying to defend it will get you killed, either by attrition or by attracting an entire army. That little village you get is not, in the least, going to be a source of income for you. Don't go straight into getting vassalage.
