Ok, so when I make a settler start a supply line. Does he/she get bodyguards?

Is there some way for me to hire them?

Can I outfit them with better weapons?

If I send more than 1 from a settlement to the same settlement, do they travel together?

This game needs more tutorials!!!!

I don't think they get or that you can give them bodyguards. They should be essential though.

You can give them better gear and weapons.

I don't think you can send two settlers from the same settlement on the same supply line. The option will be greyed out.

no, your provisioners don't have gaurds. You can give your settlers weapons and armor and make them equip it through trade dialog.

no they dont

1) no they dont

2) no, (not that i have seen so far)

3) yes you can outfit them with weapons/armour same way as all other settlers

4) i dont think you can send multiple supply lines from one settlement to the same settlement? if you do set up supply lines from say 2 separate settlements to the same destination settlement or 2 different settlements but paths cross etc if the routes they travel cross paths then they will end up meeting each other but wont travel together (they may end up traveling together a bit but this is purely because they ended up there at same time not intentional)

Fantastic. Now they should be helping all the settlements balance out issues on food and water, right? That's my hope anyways.

It might have just been a glitch, but I got a few complaints about water after I had set up supply lines even though I had an abundance of water at Sanctuary Hills from an industrial purifier. They may or may not be happy with water from the shipment and that is just to indicate there is a shortage and they are pulling from the other settlements' reserves, but I'd be careful about just making a massive food/water settlement to feed all your settlements through supply lines.

Supply Lines are amazing for getting a new settlement built up with defenses, structures, etc quickly since you can store all of your materials at one and use it for building after you set up a new line back to it.

Keep in mind that the settler still counts against the population limit at the settlement they started FROM, so be careful about going to Santuary Hills and sending one of your people to the new settlement, etc. It can be pretty difficult to catch them and reassign them to something other than supply lines afterwards, since they are often travelling in the world and not at the source/destination settlements.

It can definitely be a pain trying to reassign a Provisioner, equipping them with a weapon renamed according to their route can help identification.

Learning their routes is a plus, they'll tend to follow the roads like any caravan, naming them according to route will help with that.

Designating centrally located settlements as hubs for supply lines eases the confusion, and allows other settlements to focus on resources; for example I have over 20 settlements, all but one are connected to 2 main hubs(Oberland Station and Taffington Boathouse). Red Rocket is the outlier, it's linked to Abernathy's Farm, which is linked to OS.

Never been able to find the Provisioner for that route, or I'd reassign him to OS. I have sat and waited for a full day repeatedly, yet he never shows up, in either settlement.