Nillas isolated town Loomfield

[Nilla]

I have followed Red Ketchup's latest blog here on this page and I find it very nice and interesting. We play this game in such different ways. So I thought it might also be interesting for other people to see how I developed a settlement. (If not, at least I practice English writing, I am Swedish and I learned English in school a loooong time ago)

My latest towns were very much based on trade, so this time, I will do one with NO TRADESMAN. I do not have a super-computer (or maybe I am not patient enough to go on playing, as it is getting very slow and boring). That is the reason I choose a medium map. For sure, I can reach a bigger population on a big map, before it is getting too slow, than I think is possible on a medium map,  but I really want to play to the limit.
 
Do I have a goal, a prognosis on what I can achieve?  1000? For sure, I donīt think that would be a problem. 1500? Yes maybe. 2000? I donīt think so. I will go for it, but I donīt think it is possible. We will see.

First problem; Finding a good map-seed. And in this case it is really hard. I will have no tradesman, but  I need sheep, one vegetable and one grain. I have now tried a lot of maps and only found 2 with these resources from the start.  No one of them is really good. But as I said; I am not a very patient person, so I have chosen one of them.

Seed 861625685
Medium
Valleys
Fair
On
Easy

Do I have any plans?  This planning; that is what I admire by Red Ketchup. I couldnīt do that, and I do not want to do that either. Of cause I have plans, but I do not lay them out. I let them grow as the game develops. I will have a lot of farming. That will be the main food resource, that poor people will have to mainly feed on corn and squash.  And also a lot of fish, unfortunately there are 3 lakes. I donīt really like orchards (haven't looked yet what I can plant) but I sure will have to have some fruit as well, if I like it or not. I will need wood for heating and building, so of cause I will use the forest for gatherers and hunters. As I said I have sheep. I will try to balance the hunters and the herdsmen so I can produce enough warm coats for the people, but not too much. As well as I cannot buy anything, I cannot sell anything neither, and I do not like my barns full of wool or leather .

I have some plans for later as well, but that can wait.

Let the game begin.

[RedKetchup]

I cant wait to see your blog and your city development . Also, dont worry, your English is perfect (I am French). For sure i will follow your blog with care

Good luck Nilla. Be your town prosperous and have alot of children

[Nilla]

I started the game yesterday but I was too lazy to write.

The picture shows how I usually start a town. And I can proudly say; in this town no child grows up uneducated.


The fields north, are not meant to be used for a couple of years, but I always try to think a bit ahead. In fact; to be ahead of the development=playing Banished successful. If you start to construct the fields when you need them, you are too late.

I made one small mistake at the start. Look at the red circle. That poor sheep! I built the pasture too small :-( It stayed there near the house of the herdsman, summer, winter, rain and snow . Maybe it was the pet-sheep of his children, but I never saw anyone playing with it, or perhaps it is the mean father-sheep, necessary to be kept apart from the mother-sheep and their lambs, who knows. The good novel-writer of you could probably make a nice story about this. Anyhow; after a couple of years as the essential buildings were finished, I felt pity for it and built a larger pasture across the river. All sheep swam gladly to their large new residence (why use a bridge?) But I am not sure it felt at home among the others, look at the last sheep picture.

[Nilla]

The new pasture is ready

[Nilla]

At the beginning I want to expand fast=have a lot of babies. Before the town hall is built, I look a lot into the houses in order to have a new house ready when a young girl leaves school.  Here you can see odd things.

Brother and sister moving in together, yes. Teacher and student, of cause. Both at the same time (Brother the teacher and sister the student), for sure. Happened in this settlement.  But I would like to know: "What is wrong about Ennie?".

Ennie and Berryl grew up next doors. As Ennie left school I built a house for him to move in with Berryl . Beryl moved in there, oh yes, but not with Ennie. She choose the 13 year old student Aman.  Maybe Ennie will wait for one of his sisters to grow up (or maybe they arenīt his sisters, look at the age of the mother. They do have children early but at the age of 7!?). So I built a couple of new houses right away. The first one the sister Thalie took, with her mate the student Napoleonel and then,  finally at the age of 23, Ennie moved out! But do you think he moved in with one of the adult young females? No, the only one who wanted this strange guy, was the student Alley. No babies there for a while.

[Nilla]

Anyhow the years went on, the settlement celebrated its 10 years. I build farms in the north and northwest (again some prepared for later).

South of the starting position, next to the new pasture, I built a small settlement beside the quarry. I think I ought to call it Cougar Town!

[Nilla]

At this point there are a couple of decisions to make, important for the whole game and the endplay: Do I build graveyards or/and churches? Stone houses or wood houses or maybe a combination? Here I cannot buy any stones and quarries are a not very nice, so you got to use the stones with care. As I said I want to test the limits So I consider the life of the last 500 Bannies more than the life of the first 500, if you understand what I mean? That is the reason I decided; no graveyards, no churches only stone houses.

Churches and graveyards make the people happier and more productive, but they need a lot of space. In the endgame I will have a lot of people so I could put more people than necessary on every production plant but the space will be rare.

Now I have a lot of Wood. I definitely do not need any stone houses now, but later I will need the woods for farmland and houses, so I plan to heat with coal, and that will be much easier in stone houses.

Now I want to play again, I reached 20 years yesterday. Letī s see what the next 20 will bring.

[Nilla]

By the way I forgot to tell what happened to Ennie and Alley. I kept an eye on them all time. They lived together, got a bunch of kids. Once as there was a couple of houses more then families, she kicked him out, but I forced them together again

As Ennie died at the age of about 80, believe me or not, Ally got a considerably younger man and ---- moved to Cougar Town.

[solarscreen]

Nice! Thanks for posting!

[Nilla]

30 years has gone, everything goes as planned, some minor issues with the food supply.

The first drop - fire on the market. About 1/4 of the supply gone. 

The second drop - not enough attention on the food production and several bad harvest due to bad weather in a row. But now I have everything under control.

[RedKetchup]

wow already year 30 ? thats going fast ! what speed you mainly play ?. i cant see the first picture of your post (the 3rd post of the topic)  it says : '' h t t p : /// ''

but..
good work, keep it up *thumbs up*

[Nilla]

wow already year 30 ? thats going fast ! what speed you mainly play ?. i cant see the first picture of your post (the 3rd post of the topic)  it says : '' h t t p : /// ''

I have much time to play. I am an old sick lady and cannot do so many other things anymore.

Generally i switch between 5X and 2X. And remember, I never halt the game to plan in advance    It is almost better for me to play 5X. I have noticed that I build too much if  I play slow. But if you like to notice funny things, it is hard if you play fast.

I will give the picture another name, and save it again. I have called it something with får (=sheep in Swedish) and the letter å might cause some problems.

[Nilla]

This picture illustrates a couple of things;

1. Look at the education; 99%. It is good BUT I had 100% right from the start and all the way until now.
A new school built too late . That is a real good example of what I mentioned in may short reply yesterday: When I play slow, I always give too many building assignments away. I even think I had 2 schools in commission, but none of them was built in time, because there were many other things to build as well, probably also a lack of stone. You can definitely see that I have played 2X-speed for a while; no stones, 56 projects for 20 builder, hm...... Thatīs me playing 2X.

2. Farming.
In this game there is a lot of farming. Since I first played Banished, I have thought a lot about, how to get as much as possible from the farms. What size is the best? How many farmers on each field. What form of the field? Which direction? How can you use the fact, that they always start to work in the southwest corner and that they donīt walk through a planted field, but through an empty field. I have made a lot of experiments. Conclusions? Not really . Other things are more important (weather, housing, barns...) so I build my fields as I please. They walk through orchards, so I use them to make the access to some fields easier. I also always "micromanage" the field, changing the number of workers. I often build fields for 2-3 workers . At the start, when I have few people, I want to get as much as possible from each farmer, 1 farmer works on these fields. Now the population is more balanced, I have increased the number, so there are mostly 2 workers on these fields. Later in the game, I must get as much as possible from the land, and I will have more workers then I need (at least I  hope so) I will increase it to 3. In a good year, 1 farmer will get maximum harvest, but there is a difference if the weather is not perfect.

3. These pots left on the fields. I donīt know why they leave them there. I have enough of free workers, there are barns, not full to the top, and the markets are not so far away. If I use the priority-tool, they are gone fast, but if I forget...... nothing that year :-(

[Nilla]

Of cause I didnīt only build 3 years yesterday . In fact I have reached year 41, about 900 inhabitants, no big problems, almost a bit boring at present. Luckily, I play disasters on, so sometimes there is a small fire, but the well was this time almost next door. Just that one house burned. Not much excitement.

I must confess, I have a little problem with the food supply. They are not starving (at least not yet) but I like to increase the stored food, but that is more difficult than I thought, without a tradesman.

And sometimes the frost comes early. As I stopped playing last night, it was that way. I will survive this year, but two or three such bad harvest in a row........hm........  YES--- excitement.
 

What about my prognosis from the start (1500-2000 Bannies)? Yes it hasnīt changed. I have built about 2/3 of the map, so 1500 will probably work. And to get there (and I hope a bit further) will for sure not be boring!

[irrelevant]

2. Farming.
In this game there is a lot of farming. Since I first played Banished, I have thought a lot about, how to get as much as possible from the farms. What size is the best? How many farmers on each field. What form of the field? Which direction? How can you use the fact, that they always start to work in the southwest corner and that they donīt walk through a planted field, but through an empty field. I have made a lot of experiments. Conclusions? Not really . Other things are more important (weather, housing, barns...) so I build my fields as I please. They walk through orchards, so I use them to make the access to some fields easier. I also always "micromanage" the field, changing the number of workers. I often build fields for 2-3 workers . At the start, when I have few people, I want to get as much as possible from each farmer, 1 farmer works on these fields. Now the population is more balanced, I have increased the number, so there are mostly 2 workers on these fields. Later in the game, I must get as much as possible from the land, and I will have more workers then I need (at least I  hope so) I will increase it to 3. In a good year, 1 farmer will get maximum harvest, but there is a difference if the weather is not perfect.

I also have put much thought into farming, and also like you I have not reached many conclusions, other than to try for as near 120 tiles as possible in every case.

Like you I use one farmer per farm early on, and at some point I will go up to two. Using a single farmer does require some micromanagement during harvest, mostly shutting down bean fields when they are done and reassigning the farmer to help harvest a corn field.

3. These pots left on the fields. I donīt know why they leave them there. I have enough of free workers, there are barns, not full to the top, and the markets are not so far away. If I use the priority-tool, they are gone fast, but if I forget...... nothing that year :-(

I rarely get this, but I see it a lot in other peoples' screenshots. Maybe it has to do with how I arrange my fields, with rows of houses and barns separating them. You can see that in my Sink Mill blog if you are interested.

Also I surround all fields with dirt roads, this may help as well.