Population above 2000 at year 30 a possible goal?

[irrelevant]

@Nilla harvesting orcchards for logs seems counter-intuitive to me, but I know you use this tactic a lot so it must be profitable. How long do you let the trees grow before you harvest them, and what is the exact procedure you use for doing so?

[Nilla]

@Nilla harvesting orcchards for logs seems counter-intuitive to me, but I know you use this tactic a lot so it must be profitable. How long do you let the trees grow before you harvest them, and what is the exact procedure you use for doing so?

I use it a lot at the beginning. I find it an efficient way to get logs. I use to make the first orchard very soon and let the initial farmers plant it immediately after the first harvest. Than I close it until it can be harvested. If I need logs, (I normally do all the time, so there is seldom more than one harvest) I demolish it (not cut) and let it be cleared. I make at least one new big orchard each year.

[irrelevant]

I use it a lot at the beginning. I find it an efficient way to get logs. I use to make the first orchard very soon and let the initial farmers plant it immediately after the first harvest. Than I close it until it can be harvested. If I need logs, (I normally do all the time, so there is seldom more than one harvest) I demolish it (not cut) and let it be cleared. I make at least one new big orchard each year.

If you don't wait for a fruit harvest, can the trees be harvested sooner?

Two 4x15 orchards would have one more row of trees than one 8x15 (and the same as one 10x15); three would have two more rows than a 12x15. No big deal, but worth considering.

[salamander]

Two 4x15 orchards would have one more row of trees than one 8x15 (and the same as one 10x15); three would have two more rows than a 12x15. No big deal, but worth considering.

That's a good point.  If I remember right, it also makes a difference whether you make, for example, a 4x15 vs a 15x4 orchard, because of the different spacing of the trees in the north-south and east-west directions.

[irrelevant]

That's a good point.  If I remember right, it also makes a difference whether you make, for example, a 4x15 vs a 15x4 orchard, because of the different spacing of the trees in the north-south and east-west directions.

@salamander yes, never make orchards oriented N/S, always E/W.

This town is moving much faster than the previous one. Got a partial harvest from the three mature orchards there, decided to leave them as I was in good shape for logs at the time. I'll cut them this fall. The upper ones will need another year or two.

For comparison, my previous go at this map, some 18 months ago 

[Nilla]

Two 4x15 orchards would have one more row of trees than one 8x15 (and the same as one 10x15); three would have two more rows than a 12x15. No big deal, but worth considering.

It might be this way, but I'm not sure. I studied the fruit harvest, as the game was new and as far as I noticed, the harvest was correlated to the area of the orchard, not the number of trees, we can see. We must remember; this is not life, but a programmed computer game. The gameplay and the graphic could be separately made. But as I said, I'm not sure, it was a long time ago as I tested, it might have been wrong and I didn't test the number of logs, that could be different. And anyhow I see no disadvantage in making many smaller orchards with more trees. (except more micro management work)

If you don't wait for a fruit harvest, can the trees be harvested sooner?

Yes, of cause, but as far as I've notice it gives less logs.

I played a bit more yesterday. This game is still faster than my first. I have more food, but clothes is a big problem. I haven't got any wool delivered yet. I wanted sheep fast, so I ordered them from the chicken merchant, and couldn't afford to buy more than 2, and they breed slow. But finally, I've got a lot of logs, so the orchards will be replaced with fields in the next years.

[irrelevant]

@Nilla I have about as many extra girls as you have boys. They don't seem to want to move into houses on their own though; when I build an extra house a family splits up.

[Oenanthe]

I finally managed the full 30 years with a viable population, unfortunately at the 30 year mark it was only 437, so not even a quarter of the required amount.  I could probably have made 500 if I had accepted the Nomads that turned up but I am always wary of Nomads, they seem more trouble than they are worth a lot of the time.  A major fire at the docks caused a problem about year 15 and destroyed 2 trading posts, 1 store house, 1 brewery, 2 woodcutters, and several houses.  I did manage to rebuild but it cost a lot in resources and trading time.  I know I could turn off disasters but for me they are half the fun.

Tools, Iron and Stone were the normal problems and indirectly logs and firewood as it limited my ability to trade for what I needed.

I have learn a lot from this attempt and hopefully my next one will  go even better.  I will probably go back to the easy start, this one was the middle option, and be a bit more choosy about the map i start on, normally I can't be bothered messing about and just accept what i get, i was too far from the main river so it took too long to get a trading post in place.

[Gatherer]

Try 585 070 167 - Right next to a lake connected to the main river.
Plains
Large
Mild/Fair - shouldn't matter
Disasters On/Off - shouldn't matter
Easy

You get: Pumpkin, Wheat, Walnut, Chestnut and Chickens

[Oenanthe]

i have no idea of how the map seeds actually generate the starting conditions, i just keep starting over until I get one that doesn't appear too bad.  The latest one looks quite hopefull, beans, potatoes and plums, and sheep for livestock.  I was only a short distance from the river and across some nice open plains, plenty of resources, and then some nice land for farming.  I always want sheep to start with, the wool is useful for coats for wearing and trading and is produced far quicker than cows produce the leather.  The plums can be used to make ale for trading once my food stores are looking a bit better.

[irrelevant]

Toukay - year 13 - pop 230

This one is coming along pretty well. I just fell slightly behind in housing; took in some nomads without having a hospital built, and before I knew it 50 of my guys had the flu. Crash program to build two hospitals, and now I'm ten houses behind.

Besides housing, my emphasis is going to be to replace the forest circle there in the second image with a market supporting a second manufacturing/trading center, and to expand across the river into that huge forest in order to spread farms and orchards far and wide.

[Nilla]

@irrelevant; as always, nice looking settlement (with many barns). Are they really all full after the harvest?

I played a few more years. No changes. More people and more food as in my last game. Another thing is the same: there´s always lack on something. This time logs! I need more trading ports. The big boats arrive too seldom. But the problem is to fill the one I have. That´s the big struggle at the moment.

[irrelevant]

@irrelevant; as always, nice looking settlement (with many barns). Are they really all full after the harvest?

I played a few more years. No changes. More people and more food as in my last game. Another thing is the same: there´s always lack on something. This time logs! I need more trading ports. The big boats arrive too seldom. But the problem is to fill the one I have. That´s the big struggle at the moment.

@Nilla no, the barns don't fill up; they are there for the convenience of the farmers to insure that my 1-farmer fields get fully-harvested. I am not using as many as I used to!  Three houses between each rather than just two 

It is indeed hard to get enough logs, ever.

You have so much more industry than I do!

[Nilla]

@irrelevant, Do you really get less harvested with less barns? Of cause in games where you store a lot of food, you need a lot of of barns, and of cause the farmers need a barn somewhere close to bring their crops. But in this case? I don't know.

Look at my first picture. In this farming area there are 4. It's far away from the city center, so these barns will be emptied last) OK, one is full, but the others are the way I want them. There's as good as never any crop left on the fields, as the frost arrives. I micromanage the fields; start the harvest manually at 95% and move the bean-farmers, as the field is done. This is a lot of tedious work (I must stop the game and reorganize the farmers the first thing I do now). Can you manage to get a full harvest without this with your many barns? If you do, it might be a good idea for me to build more, too? I have two farmers on about 80% of the larger fields (8*15, 12*10 and bigger) one farmer on the smaller. (Don't have enough people for more). The problem to me, seems more to get them started fast enough in spring, than to get everything harvested fast enough.  There are always some fields not 100% grown in early autumn, as the harvest starts automatically. I lose more crops that way, than by frost.

You can see my new strategy trying to get 3000 inhabitants in 30 years; the schools. It's a new challenge to suddenly send all 10 years old to school. First I made the mistake to build too few schools. They do fill up fast. I had everyone educated so far, but some schools are full and that means; some students have to walk far and get educated late. Second, there are no new adults for a long time and I need to increase my farming areas; not enough people to clear the land, not enough new farmers. Third; how do you prevent students to move into empty houses (even more?) far away from their schools?

In any case, there is no food crisis, yet. I can't increase the stores anymore, but they are never empty either. I hope it will stay that way!

And to my industries: Even if it looks like a lot, it's not enough with these uneducated. There are not enough goods to fill the ports to buy enough raw materials to produce more goods. A "Teufelskreis" as the Germans say.

[irrelevant]

@irrelevant, Do you really get less harvested with less barns? Of cause in games where you store a lot of food, you need a lot of of barns, and of cause the farmers need a barn somewhere close to bring their crops. But in this case? I don't know.

Look at my first picture. In this farming area there are 4. It's far away from the city center, so these barns will be emptied last) OK, one is full, but the others are the way I want them. There's as good as never any crop left on the fields, as the frost arrives. I micromanage the fields; start the harvest manually at 95% and move the bean-farmers, as the field is done. This is a lot of tedious work (I must stop the game and reorganize the farmers the first thing I do now). Can you manage to get a full harvest without this with your many barns? If you do, it might be a good idea for me to build more, too? I have two farmers on about 80% of the larger fields (8*15, 12*10 and bigger) one farmer on the smaller. (Don't have enough people for more). The problem to me, seems more to get them started fast enough in spring, than to get everything harvested fast enough.  There are always some fields not 100% grown in early autumn, as the harvest starts automatically. I lose more crops that way, than by frost.

Before I started using barns like this, I used to have all sorts of problems with barns filling up and fields not getting fully-harvested. Do I need this many barns? I don't know. But I do use fewer than I used to, and I am using only a single farmer per field, and the harvests are going quite well. Maybe next time I'll try with four houses between each barn. But I consider my method to be tried and true.

You can see my new strategy trying to get 3000 inhabitants in 30 years; the schools. It's a new challenge to suddenly send all 10 years old to school. First I made the mistake to build too few schools. They do fill up fast. I had everyone educated so far, but some schools are full and that means; some students have to walk far and get educated late. Second, there are no new adults for a long time and I need to increase my farming areas; not enough people to clear the land, not enough new farmers. Third; how do you prevent students to move into empty houses (even more?) far away from their schools?

In any case, there is no food crisis, yet. I can't increase the stores anymore, but they are never empty either. I hope it will stay that way!

And to my industries: Even if it looks like a lot, it's not enough with these uneducated. There are not enough goods to fill the ports to buy enough raw materials to produce more goods. A "Teufelskreis" as the Germans say.

I think there is no way to prevent students moving away from their schools. The only thing you could do would be to not build so many houses that students were becoming homemakers. And of course that slows pop growth, which is the whole point.

Maybe you are trying to have too much industry? How much less would you need to import, if you were not needing to create and support all that manufacturing infrastructure? Easy for me to say, of course; my pop is far smaller at the time.