For taking towns first you need to build up some quality troops (Rifleman ,LMG,Snipers class types) and equip yourself with a decent scoped rifle,bring alot of ammo,medkits,grenades etc
Most towns can be taken with a 7 man squad setup once you get the best armour /weapons but it can be painstakingly longer then if you rotate your squads with the reserve forces.



-Bring a mixed force of 2mg 2snipers 3 veterans and the same force as a reserve
-When my squads drop to 1,2 troopers i retreat them and i deploy new squads to reinforce my position,that way i dont loose the units themselves
-High first aid skill (5ish) so your troops get wounded instead of killed and you save up squads and money
-Take up good defensive positions (because positining is everything in this game) ,which means :

COVER(trees work the best )
ELEVATED TERRAIN
LINE OF SIGHT on your approaches
TROOP DEPLOYMENT
deploy in semi circles(eclipse), works better then lines and you can reinforce other points more easily
do not bunch up your troops to much

-The defender will most likely attack you with a bigger proportion of his force and you need to is survive and pick of as many enemies you can( try killing their heavy hitters first LMGs), provide suppresing fire on the enemy

-After surviving the inital rush spread out your troops and try to encircle them in a wide semicircle formation from front ,left and right flanks.Advance as one, use terrain to your advantage and tighten the circle.

-Sometimes (rarely tho) the enemy wont attack or will keep to the red circle.
when playin vs bandits and uman its np but the 3 major factions present a tougher nut to crack

-So what you do is bring a nice scoped weapon, and try to pick off on the enemy force

-If your engaging larger forces its usefull to deplete their numbers before the final battle.
-Sniper squads are also useful for this tactic

for instance
I am attacking a ARF force of 80 ish
for the first engangment i bring 4 snipers 1 lmg and 2 veteran squads for CC support
i position my snipers at a good postion and start to engage them by little
If they push with all their forces, retreat
the key is to kill more of theirs then to loose and squad circulation from reserve.

after all the game is called freeman GUERILLA warfare ;)

hope this helps

By NukeCola

Defending towns can be easy or tough depending on number of factors :

STARTING POSITION:
You are usually positioned somewhere in the middle of the map with enemies coming from 1 or 2 sides .
Some town maps are more flat some more hilly with less and more foliege but the principles are the same .
As for now your troops dont have the ability to use the buildings for cover ( to my knowledge atleast)
so your BEST TACTIC is to behave in a way like open battle; which means deploy troops on ELAVATED & FORESTED area in GENERAL AREA you want to DEFEND minding the directions of the enemy attack and try to have an even line so no units are exposed to the enemy before the rest of the force .
Sometimes its better to even depoloy outside the town if the terrain is bad

BUILDINGS:
Use BULDINGS as COVER & HIDING PLACE for YOURSELF but for your enemies and your own units treat them as BLOCKS OF UNPASSABLE TERRAIN which your troops can hide behind and therefore lure enemy closer .

TACTICS:
There can be many diffrent approaches to defense ( il upload some screenshots later for examples) but some stuff always works.
The enemy attacks you at start with most forces 99% as your outnumbered so going toe to toe with him isnt a smart idea. (except bandits, they r not really good when you have the levels, gear and troops )Use snipers to pick off enemy at the distance and use the buildigns for loosing lines of sight , cover etc.

You can set up AMBUSHES by hiding troops behind corners so when the enemy comes charging into that courtyard he gets fired apon from diffrent angles therefore maximizing the firepower effect ( position the troops so they can get line of sight (and enemy also ) when they enter your traps.

also
i found it rewarding to pick a good spot in a building so you can open fire on the enemy, kil some, change windows, repeat etc. It slows down your enemy because they are shooting at you (not atyour squads ) and also gives your squads a fighting chance in an open battle ( if they switch fire for 10 secs to you alot can happen)


WHAT TO BRING

Most of the time in town defenses youll be outnumbered to some degree.
So bring alot of AMMO, MEDKITS and AUTOMATIC weapons with good magazine size so you dont have to reload often like the 100 bullet LMG (and can gun down scores of enemies on auto or lay down supresing fire on an enemy unit moving so thery forced to take cover.
Having MAX health and possible armour (111) is also recomendded but not necessary.

For town defenses i personally like to go with 1 - 3 ARF LMG squad
2 poznan commandos
2 FCA greandiers
1-2 pozna sniper


Thats it for now
Il update this with some additional text and screenshots for refrences

Happy Killing !
oh and rate the guide if you liked it ( or didint like it ) :P