Since you are new you will want to still make money, so make sure your equipment total is under 25,000 gold so you don't bankrupt yourself through repairs.
Don't know what theme you are going (knight,eastern etc) for but I would recommend using :
difficulty 9 - 11 body armour
any head armout up to difficulty 12
mail mittens or mail gauntlets for the hands
leg armour is very cheap so any will do, but i would avoid plate for now.
The Sword of War has quite steep repair costs so if you find you lose money I would use a cheaper 2hander for a while. I recommend the Heavy Bastard Sword.
Have fun!
