My vote is to avoid them as they are well prepared, even if their numbers were closer to our own. My guess is, they are going to harry us if we engage them based on the spears and thrown weapons mentioned. Provided that, and that it seems to be we could just avoid them - we have enough rangering sorts to keep tracking and moving through the environment without exclusively going this way - there is no reason not to. We were planning an infiltration type route now as it were too; less opportunity to be caught.