Am I playing Zomba wrong?

[oux]

Or is it insanely hard?
Just started a fresh character and on a 3 level a mob 10 lvl invaded my village, killed everyone and mogged me about 5 times, then I just run from him and waited 10 mins for the game to lose.
Then I created a new area, everything is going smooth I reached about level 8 and met a new clan, going forward 5 mins this new clan invaded my village again killing every villager, their mercs are significantly stronger than me or my poor sods and I had no way to do anything than run for my life.
What am I doing wrong? I didn't stand AFK for minutes instead I was playing in a hurry trying not to lose quests and waste precious time.
There were also weird difficulty spikes, once I got into a dungeon, everything is going buttery smooth and then a 10 orc ambush me and each strike takes like a third of my HP bar and there is no way to run since I am surrounded.

[Caal]

It shouldn't be insanely hard. Make sure that when you start a game that your starting monster level is 0 or 2. Anything more than that makes the start much more difficult. Other things you can do are make sure "dangerous monsters" and "raging hordes" are turned off, keep the number of opposing clans low, slow the pacing, or check "low stress". Hope this helps.