The starter biome Royal Woodlands is actually more difficult than the other three

[lukeliu]

The Marshlands - Gathering Knowledge is potentially one of the most powerful modifiers.
Coral Forest - Woodcutting contains all critical resources: fiber, stone and dew bar. It is hard to get deadlocked.
Scarlet Orchard - Doesn't have powerful modifier like the previous two, but archaeologists still provide powerful bonus at late game

Most importantly, NO MINE at Royal Woodlands. Being a starter biome, I wonder if Royal Woodlands is supposed to be the easiest one?

[Narandia]

not nessesarily the easiest one, but the most simple. Getting more wood from trees is as simple as it gets, making it easy to get started building up your settlement.
Though since every other biome has two innate modifiers they could make use another simple one. Bit less hostility from opening small glades maybe.

[Kyresti]

Depends. The marshlands just kicked my tail because it's not nearly as forgiving if you can't work with whatever gathering nodes come up (and rotten rain completely defeated the purpose of the one fertile patch I found).

And if no one's buying your copper or coal, or selling you things you need, good luck actually living off that.

I don't think any are harder or easier, just require different things and often different blueprints. Except Haunted Woodlands, at least early-game. The trees drop less, the glades take more work since they're further apart, and the glade events take more work because of how demanding the ghosts are.

[Usage Critic Bilge]

Royal Woodlands is easiest because you have infinite wood.

[Ghostlight]

Originally posted by lukeliu:

The Marshlands - Gathering Knowledge is potentially one of the most powerful modifiers.
Coral Forest - Woodcutting contains all critical resources: fiber, stone and dew bar. It is hard to get deadlocked.
Scarlet Orchard - Doesn't have powerful modifier like the previous two, but archaeologists still provide powerful bonus at late game

Most importantly, NO MINE at Royal Woodlands. Being a starter biome, I wonder if Royal Woodlands is supposed to be the easiest one?

The simplest and (easiest to discover) "economy engine" to set up early is Wood -> Planks -> Building Materials. Almost everyone starts there, and such an economy works best in Royal Woodlands.

With Beavers. To this day I hate runs that lack beavers because I still love my wood economy.

[ACS36]

Your'e right. At higher difficulties there is zero reason to choose to play on royal woodlands. Mines are generally a very sub optimal strategy not worth pursuing. Mines are a last resort. Woodlands are the least flexible if you get bad buildings or cornerstones.

Low level difficulties are not challenging once you understand the game mechanics. So it doesn't really matter which biome you choose at lower difficulties and royal woodlands is as winnable as the rest of them.

It really only matters when you start getting above prestige 10, or 15. Choosing royal woodlands is going to see you win less often, especially if you get bad rng.

It's not advisable to play on scarlet orchard, woodlands, or marshlands if you want to get the prestige 20 achievement. Coral forest is simply the best option because of it's consistency in giving you resources and especially the ability to farm bars from trees.

[Maddin]

Royal Woodlands is better early on into the game. At low levels you can't yet build a smithy or a smelter. So dew bars or copper ore does not matter as you cannot use them anyway.