[CMDBob]

I read through, and I (someone with no military experience) came to a pretty much identical conclusion. No point fighting if the objective can be secured with diplomacy. Granted, you always have to be ready for a fight, so having overwatch is paramount. But yeah, going for a hearts and minds approach seems the most sensible way of completing the objective with a minimum of fuss, given the situation presented.

[XorNot]

Same here. The tactical options feel like a red herring: because up front the big detail is that the town, and the militia, are not necessarily hostile - though individual members might be. So top priority really is avoiding a fight at all: particularly because your only long range options (the mortars) are going to wipe the town out entirely, and likely lead to having to fight door to door through the two objective structures in the first place.