First of all thanks for playing and your comments. The goal of the game its the crafting and commerce, so, if you will send your mercenary to a destination, you should have a shield, a sword and some heal potions (that reduces the healing time).
But, in order to your comments, I have noticed that the values of the combat statistics and the prices of the objects and mercenaries can be improved. You should not be able to employ a mercenary of that level without having at least some products produced. Some npc are harder to kill than they should be because of their location, etc.
If you liked the idea of the game and the dynamic, please follow my contributions, I am working on a more complete and improved version of this game, where, of course, all comments (like yours) will be taken into consideration.
Again, thanks for playing.