I haven't made a damn thing this gen, playing siege a lot on x5 with practically peasant gear and a long spear (not that expensive). It says on website the max upkeep I'll pay is 833, but I still seem to not make any money.
Something is weird here.
Unless you win all the siege maps fast, siege has the HIGHEST chance to loose money. As break chance is PER MINUTE, Siege is always 6 minutes long. Battle is much shorter(4-5 minutes unless you get stuck with hiding archers, or big maps), and have less chance to repair stuff.
I pay 2,429 gold upkeep, and that's mainly for Katana, horse, and xbow(or lance which ever i decide), medium armor and I can do decent as long as i get a x5 streak for 1 map every so often.