Harder can be defeated, but demands luck
try to gather food and space first.
Next, go for research and a hospital
then, look for police stations and churches/bars
You will want at least one school soon, because many of the survivors come with no skills.
Depending on the map layout it may be convenient to change the order of priorities.
You will be forced to accept high risks, and some failures, but don't give up.
Once you have enough food and farms, use Scavengers to scout, or turn them into soldiers at schools.
The victory I've achieved was the cure. It's more convenient than constitution, because 5 scientists are more useful than 5 leaders, since there's not enough place for so many survivors neither food for that many parties. Also, destroying the evil cemetery demands too many soldiers, and you need them to hold the hordes coming every other day.
Will take a lot of patience (took me 155 days total)
Let's share some recipes, shall we? Here goes the easy ones.
the positions will be refeered as (line, column), ok?
Healing potion: wings at (1,1) and (1,2)+ amphibian feet at (2,1) and (2,2) + holy water at (3,1) and (3,2)
minor healing potion: use only the first column of healing potion
major healing potion: same as healing potion + energy stones at (4,1)
major mana potion:eyeballs at (1,1) and (1,2)+ feathers at (2,1) and (2,2) + holy water at (3,1) and (3,2) + mana orb at (4,1)
mana potion(and minor) follows the same logic of healing potions
hair coloring bread: cheese at (1,2) and (1,3)+bread at (2,2) and (2,3) + any rare component at (4,1)
burning book: fire stone at (3,3)+ wood at the 8 spaces surrounding it
beach sandals: lines 2 and 4 filled with leather
round table: wood everywhere, except for the 4 corners
The protection problem goes further.
I tried to put on equips with protection+, but after some point (45~47), the protection+ special power doesn't count anymore, just the basic protection
don't know if it's some truble in my PC, but many times the character starts to walk into one direction and doesn't respond to the controls, until i go and die or retake control after a few minutes. it's weird