Fort Hraggstad isn't just full of bandits, every single one is a bandit thug D:

Go level scaling!

Meh, try starting it at level 30. The Bandit's you meet then could wipe out the empire and stormcloak armies.

Started civil war at level 46 in ebony armor nearly died 20 time during the whole war that was tough

My Nord is lv 57 and hasn't begun the civil war questline or been to High Hrothgar. If the bandits continue to scale to my character, then it should be a fun battle.

Did the quest line when in high 40's tougher than I expected. wiped out my potions -fun though.

Same here. Hell of a job.
From now on, I'll do it early on.

You're playing on Master... right?

I'm level 17 should I start it? Not too sure how to start it, join the stormcloaks/imperials?

Yes, either in Windhelm or Solitude.
...Go Legion!

Why would that matter.

No one likes a difficulty snob.

I'm not doing the civil war questline until MQ is done to try and avoid bugs.

I play Adept level too so NER!

His character is probably not build for power, but fun.

To the OP: Maybe a bit to early, but depending on your build you can manage to win. Also:

Level 35, hasn't yet been to Bleak Falls Barrow. Just talked to the Jarl and then did Dark Brotherhood quest line. Bandits are annoying little buggers right now.

The Stormcloak and Imperials don't level. Start it early on if you don't want to one-shot the opposition.

I wouldn't do the civil war until you're well into or even done with the MQ.

And definately DO NOT start it until you're completely done with the Companions. There's a bug associated with the Companions and the Civil War. If Whiterun is invaded before you do the Hired Muscle quest then the entire Companions questline is broken.

I started at level 51, and never really had any problems, playing on Adept. Ulfric actually gave me a decent weapon after liberating Whiterun; a Deadric Sword of the Inferno (30 points of fire damage). That's better than anything I've gotten so far, haha.

Bandits only scale up to around 20+

No. They will not get better, true, but the frequency of good bandits will increase until 50. At 25 you'll meet Bandit Marauders, but at 40 you'll meet much more of them.

They scale up in steps of 10, it's not a continuum. So if you're at the bottom of their level, they're hard, and if you're near the top, they're easy.

To try and get the most out of the Civil War, try to break it up into 1 mission now and again. I done it all in one go and it just felt "off".

Indeed. Though I normally only have 1/4 bandits stronger then Thug after level 40 it can still be a problem in places with a lot of bandits. I don't the increased frequency though.

So do the Companions then the MQ and then the civil war?

That's what I've done. But I'm especially careful. Once, after having reached level 57 I discovered the Companions line was broken. And it all to do with the Hired Muscle quest you can get from them. It's one of the first quests you can get. It's not given every time and sometimes it's never given at all. Briefly, the quest is to intimidate an NPC but the Civil War destroys his house in Whiterun and thereafter he's nonexistent. This means that if you're given the quest, you can't complete it and therefore the Companions will never give you another quest because you haven't completed Hired Muscle.

Note that Hired Muscle may never be given to you. So while it's not for sure that the Civil War will break the line, you don't want to put a hundred + hours into it only to find yourself out of luck.

As for commpleting the MQ, I say that to make sure that you get the Cornered Rat quest. In short, there's a bug that can occur where you're never given the quest and therefore can't complete the MQ. At least get to that point in the game before going off to do anything else. That was another thing I discovered after being at Level 61. I'd done some of the MQ before deciding I wanted to do a lot of other stuff. So when I came back to it, it was broken. I don't know if it had anything to do with the Civil War, but it's better safe than sorry.

The initial quest you receive on joining the Companions is radiant. It may not even be Hired Muscle. For example, I have never interacted with the NPC to whom you are referring (I know whom), and I've done the questline quite a few times. I believe that you can even turn down the initial job that Farkas assigns you.

meh I can handle anything with my mage XD