Mount And Blade Warband How To Make Money From Castles

bushwhacker2k: I've been trying to figure out how weekly pay works for these things (if you have some kind of comprehensive guide that I haven't been able to find, please link) and it's a little confusing.

Troops get paid on a weekly basis and their wage depends on their class and rank and is displayed in the party screen. If they are stationed in a castle or village when it's time to pay them, their wage gets cut in half.

Fiefs revenue is based on their type and a number of other factors, but basically as long as village and paesants aren't constantly harassed by the war or bandits, the economy should prosper.

bushwhacker2k: As far as I can tell, villages can be raided by enemy lords or occupied by bandits, reducing its 'prosperity' to zilch (not that I could find an actual numerical value of this) quite easily. This means you need to babysit your villages to have them make any real profit.

Villages are the worse type of fief you can have, for a very simple reason: once they get raided they won't produce anything for the better part of a week, and when your faction is at war they get raided all the fucking time. They're the prime target of Lords who have just been defeated or exiled, simply because their forces are not strong enough to do anything else. Not only that, if enemy Lord holds a personal grudge against you, they'll be happy to cross half the map just to raze your village out of spite.
They're simply impossible to protect, unless you're willing to stick around them 24/7.

Bandit events aren't that bad imho, they don't happen all that often, and they are a great opportunity to increase your rep with the village (which affects the number and quality of volounteers you can recruit).

bushwhacker2k: No units can be stationed/garrisoned at villages (are there exceptions? some towns seem to be more fortifiedy than others).

No exceptions. Towns and castles can (and should) hold a garrison, villages can't.

bushwhacker2k: It seems like prosperity can be aided by building things (especially the Mill) in a village. You can only build things if you actually own the village. It's possibly also aided by doing quests for the village elder (does this require you to own the village too?)

Financially speaking, village improvements are just not worth it. Not sure if doing quests can help them economically, but either way as soon as they get razed their prosperity drops to zero, so...

bushwhacker2k: By monitoring the 'Locations' that are linked to my character page in-game, I'm quite confident that the prosperity of a castle is entirely dependent on the village associated with it...

It is, but it doesn't make that much difference. Gameplay wise, I think castles are meant to serve as a place to station your troops, rather than a source of income. Sure, they yeld about 1k per month, which is not bad at all, but that's really not enough to sustain an army of tier 4+ soldiers.

bushwhacker2k: I actually don't own a town yet! Emir Nuam took Dhirim, WHICH WAS RIGHTFULLY MINE! >:(

Grats to Nuam then! :D Did you capture the city yourself? Fiefs are usually awarded to whoever has started the siege.