Alternatives

I am totally against active fight on the basis that it will create death and injury on both sides. Having injured in your group it will produce additional burden both physical and psychological. In addition if you win the fight you will have to take care of wounded on opposite side as well. For those of you who want engage with guns think again. If you lose your fight and in the process kill or injure your attackers you will be faced with revenge. Unless you have good military training, do not do it.

The best option is to patrol your area. Know who is there. Set some indicators on the trails, roads to know if there is movement (i.e. stones position on the ground in a certain way, branches etc.). Use simple warning devices. Empty cans with stones inside connected by thin wire will make a lot of noise at night if somebody drags it. Make escape routes in your camp and camouflage them carefully. Do not store all supplies in the main camp. Teach your children to withdraw quickly. Build underground tunnels with at least two entries. Such tunnels were quite effective way of hiding for many partisan groups in the past. Patrolling around your camp will require a possibility to alert others about situation. Train a dog or other pet to deliver messages to the rest of you, so they have enough time to prepare. I personally prefer pigeons.

Just to give you an example of non violent survival through war. During World War II entire Jewish families survived the holocaust living in the forest for six years with minimal or non support from local population. They did not kill to survive. As for low tech warning devices they are very effective. During my scouts years, sometimes we trained with military. One night we used cans as an early warning system quite successfully against well trained unit (I will not mention unit name here). I bet they were doing extra pushups next day.

Offered by Chris.