How to kill humans: Ambush and Hit and Run (NOT run: walk!)
- Attack from long range and lure a single enemy towards you.
- As soon as the enemy runs towards you, back away walking. The purpose is to get the enemy to run itself into the ground and become incredibly slow.
- Once the enemy is sufficiently slowed down, kill it with arrows from a short distance, and make sure to maintain a distance.
- Make sure you have no fatigue when starting the engagement and also drop everything you don't need during the fight beforehand (water skin, food, etc.). Never attack while injured, as that causes additional penalties.
- Heavy armor is very helpful if the enemy manages to catch up despite your back pedaling, but you're doomed if you try to run wearing it. Also note that it's not a guarantee: an enemy can always get a lucky hit.
- It's usually better to try to move away even when the enemy manages to catch up with you, as attacking racks up fatigue.
- You can use the cover of darkness for surprise attacks. It CAN work to be lightly equipped and run away into the darkness, but you run a significant risk of getting hit by an arrow.
- Enemies wielding bows are extra dangerous as they can fire at you as long as they have arrows. Tiring them out can impair their aim, but you still run the risk of a lucky one shot kill.
- Shields and heavy armor can help against bow wielding enemies. You'd basically have to weather their attacks until they're out of arrows. Also don't be surprised if they are able to pick up one of your arrows and fire it back. Flee if injured (NOT running in your heavy armor!) and come back when healed.
- Using water craft can allow you to tire out enemies on the shore, and lying down on your craft with a shield at the maximum range can allow you to get the enemies to expend their arrows with the lowest risk (but it's never risk free).
- Getting injured and ganged up upon is a death sentence. Run them out of breath and take them on one at a time and leave when injured.
The above applies when you are the one attacking in a controlled manner. For a robber quest I'd suggest recruiting twice as many henchmen as the scouted number of robbers, and then you'd have to try to take things from there. It used to be suicide to equip henchmen with bows (they shot you and your other henchmen in the back more often than they hit enemies), but that's supposed to be fixed. However, consider whether you should really take the risk of this quest. I haven't for quite some time.
Before actually performing the robber quest with henchmen, it's best to locate them alone quipped with spare garbage equipment you can afford to lose, give up and let them take whatever they want, be told to get lost, leave, recruit your posse and equip your character with the good stuff, and then return. However, you should really have consider whether to take on this quest at all.
There is one situation where running may be useful: when you encounter robbers/njerps at a distance it can work to run away and escape to the overmap. However, if you fail, you'll be tired and facing enemies...