how to get nice gear in the early game without cheating:
check out others mercenary bands on the world map, follow them into a battle, watch them charge into the flood of thugs, watch them been overwhelmed by the flood of thugs, watch them drowned in the flood of thugs, kill the rest of the thugs using your half naked brothers, battle won, loot the battlefield, gain some badass 2nd or 3rd tier weapon and armor used belong the other mercenary band, became a badass yourself.
