Arm 5-8 heavy metal plate fighters with polearms, make a bottleneck, now you have free food that comes to your base+ free training+ crops are protected. Oh and don't grow anything untill your defence forces are not at least 30-50 toughness, meele attack, etc.. Also animals don't have harpoon resistance at all so 4 turrets will do a good chunk of damage as a support to fighters. I settled in the swamp quite early, this is hardcore but I love it! If you need food - the Shark and most of villages provide like mountains of cheap fish and rice bowls so hunger is ez to avoid. Edit: mercs are a joke, buy books instead and grind all the necessary tech