I think you are just doing it wrong. I've only played a month now and have only played solo. I can take on huge packs of grey dwarfs extremely easily. They all die in one or two hits with a club or bronze sword for me. Can put an entire group of 10 in front of me and just swing away until they die without even having to dodge.

You need to gear up and upgrade the gear you make. I'm still rolling the troll armor myself. Also, you shouldn't have trouble making bases. Do it in the meadows where there aren't any enemies, or very few. Go to the other zones, like black forest, to gather the resources and head back to your base outside of it. You can even build bases all over as meadows will pop up all over in those black forests.