Education For All

[Kaldir]

Ever since I found out about the benefits of education, I check up on the few uneducated citizens I get at the start from the first grown up kids. And somehow, they always tend to become forester and woodcutter when I really need more firewood. Those few uneducated always annoy me somehow.

So I decided to do the opposite of the Uneducated achievement:



With all, I mean really all. Never anyone uneducated.

--

On the first new map I started (random seed), one of the kids was already 9 years old, and aged 10 when it was still early spring. That was a bit too early. So I started a few more games until I got one where the eldest kid, a girl named Hely, was 8 years old. That should give me a few months to build a school.

The random town name I got from the game sounded like Bad Luck, which I took as a good omen.



Building the school was the first priority.



The school was finished in spring, just in time. Hely aged 10 in late spring and became the first student. Now food, shelter and fuel were needed. South west of the school was a perfect fishing spot, and I decided not to build a forest hub this time, but put my citizens on a diet of fish and chips, at least for now.



It's now autumn, and the town looks like this:



The building order for this town so far was totally different from all my previous towns:
1. School
2. Road
3. House #1
4. Storage Barn
5. Fishing Dock
6. House #2
7. House #3
8. Woodcutter

The resources don't look too good now, with one fish in stock and no firewood. But the three houses have enough supplies for a few months. With a teacher, woodcutter and four fishers, only two citizens are available for labor and building until Hely and the others finish school. With one baby already born and several on their way, will this town survive the coming winter?


(I hope this is the right place for this; I get confused from the many forums we have now!  )

[slink]

Welcome to the club.  With my medium-level starts, my order of building is similar.

1.  Four 8x8 farms with one farmer each, in the open area in front of the barn
2. School
3. One house

After that, things proceed as they may, according to the geography and the seeds that came with the start.

[solarscreen]

You should blog this build!

[mariesalias]

You should! I build schools early but I usually get 2-4 uneducated kids age up before I build it. It is a pain trying to make sure they stay laborers. I'll be interested to see how your town turns out.

[Kaldir]

I'll see about it. I'm not sure yet if I will play this beyond year 10, when things (should) stabilize.

[rkelly17]

Outstanding @Kaldir. The best I ever did was two or three uneducated--in the Allberger Diaries town. You do have to get lucky with the ages of the original kids.

[Kaldir]

Only luck I was going for, was not having one at age 9.

[Kaldir]

Quick update. We survived the first winter. Firewood was no issue at all, with an educated woodcutter. (S)he was often fired to become a laborer.

Food though was going up and down a lot, fluctuating between 20 and 400. And the potatoes are long gone now, going from a fish and chips to a fish only diet. Health is going down pretty fast. It's now early winter year 2, with 3 hearts and several adults down to 2 hearts.

Getting my gatherer's hut built took a while. It was a bit far from the current houses and barn, and laborers would often walk away from the building site to gather fuel and food or just to idle.

It's the start of the second winter. The fourth house is built and the forest hub is taking shape, with the gatherer's hut finally finished and the barn being build. I still have only 8 workers: 3 fishers, 2 gatherer's, 1 teacher, and 2 citizens job hopping between laborer, builder and woodcutter. 5 Students in class now, with the oldest being 17. It won't be long before I have a few more workers on my hands, giving room to a blacksmith, market and tailor soon (tm).

[mariesalias]

@Kaldir  Looks like your town is progressing! Good job! Hopefully you can build a Blacksmith before you run out of tools.

[Kaldir]

@Kaldir  Looks like your town is progressing! Good job! Hopefully you can build a Blacksmith before you run out of tools.

Well, usually I don't.
The blacksmith is always crafting the first few tools without a tool her/himself. But that's normally just a minor delay, and not a real worry.