Question about security and defending your stronghold.

[Coldhands]

So I fixed up my keep, and the barracks, and hired about 4 dudes with an eye towards security over influence. It said they were unpaid, but I read that's a bug.
Anyway, I got a message saying an attack was coming up, but I was busy poking around Defiance Bay, and I figured this is what I was paying my hirelings for, so I let it auto resolve.

My ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ keep AND barracks both got destroyed. Way to go hirelings.

So is there a specific upgrade(s) I need to focus on getting first to get the rest of my stronghold safe? Should I have hired MORE guys? I don't want to take this kind of hit every time somebody attacks, but I also don't want to dash back to my keep every time some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ decide they want to fight it.

[Red Shift]

I took part in all my defences and each time my hirelings got butchered.
While I wouldnt say the fights were particularly tough, they were obviously far to much for my hirelings to handle.
Assuming the the enemy is the same without me there, then my troops wouldnt win in a month of Sundays.

[STiAT]

That depends on the kind of attack, some attacks are serious, some you can auto-resolve having a good defense squad.

Money won't be the problem, they only cost like 400 / week. That's like selling the loot of a few monsters. So always hire 8 of them.

I personally usually go back for attacks. They don't happen that often, and it's a safe resolve ;-).

[Trench Rat]

Yeah man, I made the same mistake early on and had my stuff demolished. Re-loaded and now do all attack manually. Plus your hirelings join you in battle, kinda neat although you don't control them.

[Coldhands]

Huh. Well, I guess I'll hoof it back to base to defend it every time.
And I'm going to bump my current treasury into building security focused upgrades and higher a bunch of soldiers.

Does having companions back at base effect anything when it comes to security and repelling attacks?