My mildly successful start is starting to snowball in my favor. I'm up to ten dudes, most of them not good at much of anything but at least they're warm bodies. Eight of them are working on my new outpost to the east of that early-game Shek town, while two are working in and around the town; one mining copper to sell, one serving as researcher and all-around gofer.
Despite being on the Shek side of Hub, this place is apparently in Holy Nation territory if the frequent prayer groups mean anything. Also I get periodic warnings of raids, but these raiders are way nastier than the normal wandering bandits: Black Dragon ninjas and Bone Warriors. I tend to abandon camp and try to lure them to the city, but it's a long run and I can never get more than a few to follow me all the way back.
Well, whatever. I have walls starting to go up, I have access to every resource (though water is only at 60%), and given time I will get some wheat farms and electricity up and running. Aside from the warned raids, we've also been hit by a couple of squads of Hungry Bandits. For the first time in my Kenshi career, my dudes have stood their ground against bandit groups and actually beaten them. Yeah, we get hurt ourselves, but at the end of the day (some of) my dudes are standing and the bandits are dead or dying. Since Kenshi runs on DBZ rules, we'll only get better at fighting as time goes on!