Lose everyone to super hard random encounters

[Freedom_]

So the second I leave my village with an expidition I get a random encounter that kills off all my people that I have just waited 20 turns to get, I have really good gear, dragon bone swords and stuff but everyone just dies to dwarfs after being away from town for 1 turn.

Why are there random encounters happen all the time?

[Bäumchen]

Because they are random.

It's the survival-factor of the game. You're in a postapocalyptic world and it does everything to kill you, while you're trying to survive.

As for dwarves ... if you can, try to tackle them in social challenges, because they're really bad at that. Same goes for Orcs. I'm not entirely sure what event hit you and if you had that option though. Anyway: it's always safer to go for the non-fight challenges, if you can!

Good luck for your next game!
Also, if you think it's to hard at your current settings, try to adjust difficulty - you can adjust EVERYTHING and starting with easy settings really helps to learn game mechanics!
You may want to check out this difficulty-guide:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=598130484

It's old but for the most part still valid!

[Stormfox]

There is random, and then there is random ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ;-)

This game luckily has only few of the latter kind, but still has those. Some unavoidable encounters are hugely out of depth - the best chance you have with those is usually to fight, concede at once and hope everyone recovers. Such "save or die" events were no fun 30 years ago in D&D and are still the epitome of unfun.



To adress the other part of OPs compaint: Most enemies could use a tuning pass. The really small ones are too weak to even pose a threat to the weakest villagers and could use a bit more damage potential (bees, spiders and broken skeletons all have lousy damage values that are largely inconsequential).

On the other hand, some enemies are too strong and tend to oneshot even tough characters on realistic challenge levels. The normal skeletons, for example, deal about 20 damage as a mob that is a typical challenge for chars that have just left their village. The aforementioned dwarves and most giants and trolls have the same problem, just worse: they have so many HP that killing them before they strike at least once is unrealistic, their damage is so ridiculously high that even with a few shield others, they will still oneshot your tanks, and their level is too high to be countered by counter or confuse.

Of course you can overpower those groups, and most of those groups are very easy to beat via any of the alternate challenge types, but actual combat balance is a bit off and can lead to frustrating events or steamrolls when it should not.

[Darren]

Dwarves are usually quite killable before they hit you. By that stage you usually have good equipment and enough people that you can stack like 2 to 1 on the standard dwarf groups. Add in extra damage (or first strikes) from your tactical characters (or massive 20+ shields) and you can usually get by with not a huge amount of damage (although I have had times I've gotten a few guys wounded from them).

Skeletons are the same you want numbers also to start with there are only a few of them. Have a few guys that can move your guys to the front of the attack queue and you'll kill most of them before they hit you.

[Siight]

There are only a handful of events sofar that i've come across that I really really hate:

1. The one where a party member is kidnapped...and they end up dead. I haven't found a way yet to save them (pretty sure i've tried all options at this point)...no matter how fast I get there or what i've chosen...it just seems you can't get them back (they're always dead), I believe one of my choices gave me a child.
2. Any event that turns a child into a spirit or beast....they're just so much weaker than if i had of turned them into a human of some type.

Most of the other events I've learned to mitigate.

Also, if you have buildings up, I find that generally speaking if you have a low person count, you tend to get people pretty quickly...or your children start growing up fast.

[Saiko Kila]

Originally posted by Siight:

There are only a handful of events sofar that i've come across that I really really hate:

2. Any event that turns a child into a spirit or beast....they're just so much weaker than if i had of turned them into a human of some type.

Ech, I'd choose a child wraith over any human. Besides, this event is not an alternative to growing. Usually by the point it shows up to me, normal children don't grow anymore (too low a chance), so turning one of them useless brats into a magic user with high Leech and Poison (and usually higher Strength than Witches/Sages) is rather appreciated. Also, when starting as crafters, it's hard to run out of children.

As for dwarves, they are OP. 3-skull dwarves beat any 4-skull enemies in my book. Heck, the shadow giant encounter which is 7-skull looks easier to me, though it usually happens when my people are more buffed already. However:
1. It is usually possible to just run (or use non fight challenge, which dwarves suck at).
2. Their number is limited (3 or 4), and it is possible to use a meatshield to protect more valuable members, and slaughter the dwarves.. Spears and First Action skills are good for that.

My favourite encounter is with dwarven bandits. If you are weak, use Social and get almost fre Mithrill (for 10 food only). If you have a meatshield and more than one strong character, or a group big enough, use Social, and THEN fight them anyway, for another bunch of mithrill. Enough to build for example Blessed Paths +2 with this and just string. Sometimes this single encounter nets me more than 25 Mithrill. Risking a Rat or Bandit is worth it.

[dergefata]

Originally posted by Siight:

2. Any event that turns a child into a spirit or beast....they're just so much weaker than if i had of turned them into a human of some type.

This one can be handled several ways, the most direct and reliable one being that you make a Herbalist's Hut early on, get a healer, and when this event happens, your healer - if skilled - will be able to keep the child alive.

OTOH, you can often get some neat stuff if you have some of the other options available. Last game I had gotten a goblin warrior somehow, and when that event triggered, it gave me an option that ended up with the child becoming a Goblin Boss, which is a very nice creature, especially relatively early on.