Well, these forums seem to be dead. So yeah, there wont be much answers for your cry of help.
Now about the difficulty. This game is made having loses in mind, it is one of its main points. It is hard to not lose people, especially at the start. You could have noticed that the starting guys and the cheap ones are pretty weak. You better get used to losing men and even if you dont lose them but they get a lot of perma injuries you will have to let em go. What could ease your game is to be cautious.
Try to get 1 skull quests, and even maybe avoid caravan defenses since those are a bit harder. Y
ou should equip your people with shields that is a big boost to defense especially at the start. And not the smallest one, but the bigger round ones. Also consider tactical choises like having people with weapons that reach further for attack and the shielded ones mainly for defense, with some supporting xbow or bowmen.
Always have food, money, medicine.
If you see semo extra cheap guys, get em, even tho they are weak and need equip they still a body to hit which can save a more useful unit potentialy. Dont attack goblins, orcs, brigands, marksmen, they will hurt.
Try not to attack into forests cuz then your people will start at shitty positioning.
Still the main problem is that you are used to games where you always win and save all the people. This is not a game like that. You will lose men, you will flee (by going to the edge of the map and pressing the flee button so they wont get hurt or die) and you will hire more and better dudes equipping with better equip when the money is aviable. That wont save your men tho, just ease it a lil bit. If you want to have it as easy as possible, cheat up some gold and buy the best stuff that the men can wear (fatigue is very important stat). Still they will die, just less frequently. To get to the point where you can be safe, is very hard, you need strong people to begin with (like swordmasters, hedgeknights, etc) which cost a lot, then you need to lvl em which is hard, you need to get them the right talens for the chosen purpose, and you still need the equipment.
Welcome to the Battle Brother.
