Strategy General Planning

In my opinion, we need some advantage on our "allies," and something hidden. I see that in one of the last offers they were offering Hunting Crossbows, given enough training, we could use those men as a spy network, hunters and all make for some decent ears, as well as keeping meat and game stock as one of our steady gains through the time ahead, but we would also need to exercise caution as to how much land we farm, how rigorously we farm the land, and how long we give the land to recover. All of these things can eventually lead to small harvests and the possibility of no harvest at all, which would be a rather heavy cause for alarm. Fishing, Game hunting and Farming all need to be kept a close eye on for these reasons. We should also allow for easily accessible arms on fishing vessels in case of raiding parties or whatnot that may occur. There are the possibility of small bandit parties that could be patrolling fishing waters looking for some slaves to sell off to the market.
These are all just thoughts running through my head for the moment being while trying to understand our position as a super power in this destroyed world, as well as wrapping my head around the possible motives behind our neighbours actions and requests.