Yeah I got wiped the first time against looters too (lol) - the new improved looters will carry armor and have better weapons than vanilla, so in the beginning you simply need to outnumber and overwhelm them. Hire more than 12 peasants (around 20 will do the trick), sell their loot, then hire more peasants as many of them will be dead. Or, you can hire some better muscle in a tavern. If you make a character with the "goods peddler" background, you can start with around 1300 gold. Good luck

Yeah I'm quite new to mount and blade and started with this mod and got creamed by 5 bandits (I had 12 farmers with pitchforks though so I guess that's reasonable).

I restarted with gather companions, merchant, shopkeep, peddler, and started with quite a bit of coin and an item worth $1k (though I haven't sold it - apparently it helps with trading).

I hired a bunch of companions and did some trading - didn't get bothered by any looters or bandits (but I made sure I have 2/3 pathfinding to outrun them).

Entered a tournament and made some more gold (then lost it due to bugs), but my squad and I walked away with some xp and renown so not all bad I guess.