This game can be pretty tough at times, starting out, but I found a way to get an early foothold that will carry you throughout the rest of the game. Mind you, this does make the later game somewhat less challenging but if you're one of those people that likes to get every advantage you can, this may help you out.

First, your party composition should include at least three soldiers, one scholar (not 100% necessary but makes things go faster), and two hunters. While this guide will work early on, it's much more effective when you're able to at least get the first promotions for your soldiers and hunters (so 500 total exp), putting all the stats into their highest category. This will allow the soldiers to have 9 guarding and the hunters to have 9 hunting.

With that settled, starting from Santa Domingo, head right along the coast until you find fish in the ocean.

When you camp for the night, there should be a contextual option to go fishing. What you want to do is have one of your hunters go fishing, all three soldiers guarding, and everyone else hunting (no need for patrolling). You should be able to get close to 80% guarding and hunting (both are low difficulty on the coast), though the numbers will vary based on the composition of the rest of your party, their experience levels, and the distribution of their stats.



When you camp, most times (if your hunting/guarding percentages are high enough) you should be able to gain some meat from the hunting party and some meat from fishing. If you gain more meat than it takes to feed your party, put the second hunter (the one not fishing) on preserving. So, if your hunting party brings in 10 meat and your fisher brings in 10 meat, you should be able to preserve almost all of that extra meat, creating a surplus. Never take your hunter off fishing though, just put the other hunter on preserving. There will be times when both the hunters and fishers fail but over time you will gradually increase your rations.



While doing this, you should have your scholar on tinker duty, researching all three levels of the research categories. This will take a great many days, depending on your tinker skill, but by the end you'll be able to get a lot more wood and metal, your morale will be great, your movement speed will be increased, and you should have a hearty amount of surplus rations to carry you through your adventures.