Hi,
I try since some days Banished North 7.1.3 with “Ironman” = Yes, climate = “harsh”, terrain-type “lowland” shepperd” ( 6 people with 3 children and 22 sheeps) and Seed = 741658912.
And my bannies have no chance in the first year – all of them are dying (starvation).
I can manage with micromanaging to build a turf-store house, 3 goathis and a chopper and campfire,
And I know now all the hunting spots existing on the map :) – but the 3. little home is always without any food, because the other homes are quicker in filling up the inventory!
If the people needs really 200 food per year then this is in my opinion not possible with the food available.
Or is there any trick I do not know?
Ironman on harsh is indeed a bit tricky. If there are any tricks to survive the first year, I don’t know, it’s rather doing the right things in the right order and not doing anything not absolutely necessary that’s important.
You said you have 3 goathis, a turf storehouse, a campfire and a chopper.
From those things, I would only have built one goahti and maybe the campfire the first year. I try to build as little as possible so that they need to spend as little time they can to collect building materials and build and of course, don’t cut one more tree or stone than absolutely needed. Instead of the turf store, I would have built first, one and later to the blueberry season a second of the smallest store huts a bit apart from each other, close to where food is collected. They are faster to build and need less stone.
As you’ve noticed a critical point is when a house is finished and the inhabitants fill it with food. That need to be planned to a time when the stores are filled. You might need to stop building shortly before it’s finished and wait for a better time. With shepherds and other starts where they have clothes from the start, you only need the hut before it gets cold in autumn. If the first spring is so cold that some freeze to death, change the map. Don’t build a second hut until your food store is safe. To wait with the second also helps to survive ironman long term, you’ll get fewer children and not several at the same time.
Use all instant tools for food production. Plan the work so that EVERYONE can pick blueberries in autumn (maybe except one or two instant hunters if a big herd comes close). Even if a gatherers hut doesn’t give much food on harsh the instant tool does (unless it’s an extremely cold summer and in that case, I would consider changing the map) If the food store gets down, use a couple of trout fisher but not all the time, only when needed. If there’s a close stream cray fishing is good.
I usually let most of the blueberry picker pick deadwood when the first frost comes, you can get one years’ supply fast, can plan the logs you need to cut better and need no chopper. Here I’m not sure if it’s better than to use the chopper, only I feel I can plan better this way.
Again, focus on food production and it will work. Good luck!
Thanks for the tips with the homes and food production!
I made another detection: when I start in Winter there is no food in the near and I have to build 4 fish points to use them fast and instantly – but the fisherman does not transfer their cups with trout into the log shed ( even nearby). They have collected in one month 24-30 trout but their food is never transferred into the shed!
My fisherman are dying with 2-3 full cups by starvation.
I plan now to switch every 5 minutes (time level 1-2) the fisherman to zero to build laborers to let them collect the stapled food from the fish points into the log shed – and vice versa back to fisherman.
I hope this works better and let the log shed be filled..
Try to have venison (and blueberries in autumn) as your primary source of food. It’s much more productive than fishing, use fishing just for an emergency when food drops and no deer are around. I know, these bowls of fish, crayfish, even big pieces of venison no one care to carry to the storage. It’s like always in Banished, you need labourers, and they do labourers work in the “right” order. You don’t always understand that priority order but eventually, your bowls will be carried to the stores but maybe then too late.
Always keep one or two labourers and don’t assign more work for them that they have time to carry the food into the store as well. I don’t think it’s a good idea to change professions often, it may lead to unnecessary walking around, rather one fisher less all the time. You can also use the priority tool but that doesn’t always work the way I want but better to use it than not to.
OK, I have gotten to enter the second year with my 6(+3) people – always driving the laborers to collect either wild food berries, or one of them as a hunter to collect venison, or max 3 of them fishing at the beginning of the year – in Winter. The most dangerous moment is at the end of May , when the existing food (+ new venison) is eaten , the new berries are not yet to be find and the fishing spots have managed 25-30 trouts as the last reserve- eating themself.
But in the meanwhile there were 2 log-sheds build and at September ( not to late!) the first Goathi built.
Also dangerous are the long ways the hunters have often to go to the hunting spots – dying by starvation on the long way. But the collect of the berries with as a minimum 3-4 laborers is working well.
After May I stop the fishing spots and let the fisherman be again laborers – collecting now the fished trouts , waiting at the fishing spots.
Newest situation is the fact that I have build a Tar-Kiln to get Tar for the fishing “piers” – fishing Salmon and not trout , and there are at the moment 3 Tar built and are waiting to get transferred to the new fishing piers not yet finished.
And the 1. child is born in the hut also – as you have warned me :)
It is an interesting experience to overcome /-live these starting situation!
Now there is the 6. year and the last missing Goathi was build – when the reserve on food was high enough . ( all 3 fisherman were working in winter as long as they could.
First child was old enough for laborer – 1 people more to eat..
always changing between hunter for campfire (venison + 20 %) and hunter for venison, between woodcutter ( if firewood is going low) and laborer (or builder).
Now there are 7 people and the next child will become old enough in 2 years.. and I have to manage the work between them more and more.
Now I focus on smithies workplace for getting fittings for the smoking shed ( or hous? – it take a long time for building) to get smoked salmon ( + 20 %).
One question: if in November some wild berries were marked – are they existent in April – if not yet taken by collectors?
First to your question, when the frost takes the plant away, the mission to pick is also gone.
I’m also sure a child needs a full ration of food from day one, not as it becomes an adult. That’s why you should try to keep the number of children down on Ironman. The way I play, it works well as long as the number of children is less than 50% of the adults. But of course, you need some children for the next generation.
I seldom build smoking sheds or use the campfire others than to make coats. I rather use that worker for primary food production. Do you have a small hunter’s cabin? After some time, it’s more convenient than hunting manually and normally gives a lot of meat and hides.
I also hope that you take good care of your sheep. Sheep are the “trick” to survive Ironman on harsh long term. Let the sheep breed faster than the people and you’ll soon have a constant good supply of mutton and wool and you can sell a surplus of vadmal and wool coats for food.
Thanks for the answer ! And for the hint with the sheep run – I was lucky enough to build at the first year a little sheep run ( 10 x 15, 11-12 sheep) and to switch some month a stockbreeder to this ( for saving a minimum of the herd anyway..) .
Now at the 7 year I have 2 sheep run working , but only from tome to time a stockbreeder – and it seems to be time to create a 3. one to split it perhaps.
I am at the moment fixed on the herbalist hut, because 3-4 people have no more healthy on their hearts ( and return from any long way as unhealthy back to search for a herbalist) – and every visit to a working herbalist at this hut they get a 1/2 heart more in their healthy. I consider also a well as the center of the huts.
My question now: is it necessary to let the herbalist work at this moment or can he do anything else ( collecting resources), let the hut alone for such visits?
I am also considering to stop 2 of the 3 fisherman and let them hunt or collect wild food berries.
The 20% more food the smoking shed/house is generating as not so much as they can collect with hunting – the same with the camp fire . I think it is not really worth the time a complete hunter is fixed with it.
Now the 3 log sheds are going to be too small for all the food to store. Sometimes I have more than 1000 food in reserve and the hunted venison is laying before the log sheds in the snow. I have also stopped the black smith after creating the iron tools missing. and after creating the fittings in reserve.
It is really interesting and to concentrate on the map and the people i better than every movie in TV!
I have added 2 attachments – the screenshots at this moment year 8 and 1 year before ( yesterday evening) with and without UI.
An then the year 9 with the well in the midle and 2 stockbreeder working – food at 1600 …
What size have your pastures? At the very beginning, I build a small, like you for something like 10-12 sheep but as soon as my Bannis has time to clear enough ground I always make them the maximum size (or close to). I see no reason for smaller pastures after some time. If I really need mutton, I can set the maximum number of sheep down, but in the beginning, I try to increase the number of sheep as much as I can.
If you have no herbalist working, no healing is done. I’m a well known anti herbalist person. I usually don’t build any. It takes too much productivity away. A person with poor health leave work, pick a herb in some store and walk with it to the herbalist, regains a heart, walks back to work (if the walkaround didn’t take so long that he gets hungry and need to go home and eat). If the diet hasn’t improved, he soon will lose the regained heart and off to the herbalist again, a never-ending loop. If you have no herbalist, he doesn’t search for one, just stop work for a brief moment. There is a higher risk for childbirth deaths and illness with poor health but with a really bad diet, you’ll not reach full hearts also with a herbalist.
As you’ve noticed, after some time you’ll need more/larger stores. Locate them close to production sites. I find your fishers are too far away from stores. Think about your logistic, generally. ( I see a big stockpile in the middle of nowhere instead of close to chopper, tar pile, blacksmith) Every step a Banni need to take, takes time away from production. Normally, it’s no big deal, it works also when everything isn’t perfect. But with Ironman, you should try to make everything as efficient as possible. Maybe not locate all houses together, instead a bit spread, close to the workplaces. It may make sense to locate houses together in the North if you want to improve the happiness, but in goahtis, turf houses and longhouses, that has happiness detraction, you will hardly be able to get any effect for the happiness anyway.
Don’t take my criticism too hard. It looks like you’re doing fine. Ironman is a different kind of game. I like to play one from time to time, too.
Ah, fine! Thanks for the tips I was uncertain about the herbalist and tried to stop the walking “searching for a herbalist”. You are right, it makes no sense – it takes a long time.
There is a “little” stockpile behind the smithie and blomery, exact for these reasons of the interrupting long ways. Now I think about the 3. (great) pasture to split one of the old sheep runs, where to position it with the 4. home ( goathi again) nearby. I do not switch the hunter away to laborer, but stop the working of them to let them pick up resources in the meantime when there are no wild life nearby. And I have stopped the 2 fishing piers with the smallest income of food ( I think the stream/water-size is not good enough at their position).
When I think from the beginning of “ironman” – when all my people were dying after short time or in the second year with low food reserve… it was a bad expreience.
Now I start also to collect boulders from time to time to create a thing place – not for nomads to get at this early stage but for the controlling of the food and materials.
Nomads aren´t bad if you have some work for them that makes sense. Say you have those 2 unoccupied fishing docks. Each Banni eats 200 food. If one of the nomads fish 400 salmon each year, he supports them both and you have one more worker for other needed work.
But you are right about the statistics, it´s more necessary on ironman than usually.
Sorry for the long time I was not playing – I was on vacancy in carinthia in Auatria (Kärnten,Österreich) and at Florence/Tuscany/Italy ( Florenz/Toskana/Italien).
And after return I had to work till yesterday.
Now I will try to go forward with my Ironmen and later to reach the teacher/school – which should be a hard job to overcome the pressure with such many eaters..