Updated for North 7 on December 24, 2019
Your banished people have a hard time surviving tough conditions in the North? Here you can find some tips and hints to get a viable start – especially in a Survivor or Anders & Ella scenario with Ironman mod in addition. These are more or less serious but everything hopefully helpful.
So let’s get started! :)
Build shelter before anything else and as fast as possible. Also, people help the homeless to warm up in winter. One home will save a whole group of survivors from freezing.
Hunting deer is the most efficient way to get a surplus of food in a short time. This enables you to focus on other important tasks. Make use of the flexible hunting tool from the removing toolbar.
Send your laborers out in time for good winter stocks. Best time to start is midsummer until autumn. Making firewood and crafting this or that can wait for winter season.
Use a campfire as first idling location and as a place for your hunters to make first clothes. Both will save your people from panic, leaving their work and meandering through the woods.
The yield of fish highly depends on tools and will drop to about 20% without. Better to collect some mushrooms or firewood with bare hands than being frustrated with slippy salmon and trout.
Don’t start chasing a big herd far away if you can take one or two animals near the camp. Focus on feasible tasks in general and keep the to-do list of your laborers short.
Temperature drops fast in autumn and frost can hit your crops already in September. Short distance to food storage is key. Also, consider starting the harvest manually and call more workers to the fields.
And can end in a race to the bottom. Iron working is a long production chain for a few people who also have to care about food and things. Start with it early and keep an eye on your stock of tools.
Living trees spawn wild fruits, firewood and herbs as well as new trees to grow. Cutting only small spots for logs you really need (instead of clearing huge areas) will preserve your main resources.
Slow down and plan your actions. Keep track of your people’s work and walkways. Adjust and optimize your settlement in time. Micromanaging is the way to survive the first years.
Preservation of food increases its available amount. Sounds only logical in a generalized view but that’s the game. Learn about different ways of food processing to improve the efficiency of your town. ➜ Food
Unhealthy people are hit by diseases more often and modern medicine is unavailable in old times. So keep your people’s diet balanced over all types of food and compensate it by trade and herbs.
If you play with disasters on, fire can hit your town with a higher chance than in vanilla Banished. Build wells early and close to houses or barns to stop fire spreading when it happens.
Search for gold nuggets at streams and river banks. It gives you a nice seed money to pay the first merchants for a boatload of food and equipment.
Scientifically proven by Nilla and really relevant. Master the Banished happiness system with markets, wells, chapels and horns of ale. ➜ How-To Happiness
If your people still starve and freeze to death after all these points, don’t give up! A thingstead or village hall will attract new volunteers for you, if at least one last man is holding the fort.
vidholf
Thank you! This, plus the Food and Happiness guides, have given me new things to try (less to get by, more to do things better). :-)
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This is a good rundown, esp. #1, #2, #8, and #10. I want to enthusiastically support the Survivor scenario, and I really hope it remains largely intact for version 7, which I think is the one I want to start my next serious game with. On Ironman Survivor I’ve found it’s basically a race to whether you can get tools before you starve. Usually it can be done, but not always – I had one where I had a river on two sides and mountains on the other with limited stone in between – not enough to get the infrastructure going and building a bridge took too long. That’s rare though, usually it’s about whether you are in a good location for the herds or not and timing everything out. Once you get those first tools everything is better and you can gradually improve. I think you’ve really hit the sweet spot for challenge with Ironman + Survivor + Harsh start, and I’m looking forward to the next version of the North!