Best embark items for Seal Forest P15

[Samseng Yik]

So I going to fight this soon after few weeks of effort.
I really don't want to lose it (both the game and my composure).
So the seal forest hostility is based on tree chopped.
And the only way to win fast is target aim seal objective and make a bee line for it.

What is the good enough embark item for 5 + 9 ?

[不思議種]

Plantation is good for risk reduction. Villagers for faster start. Stone for caches. Amber is always useful. Cheap food if there is anything left over.

Probably safest to start working with trade routes early for level 2-3 and blightrot for last order, just be careful with corruption year 6.

[Luciole]

I would say :
-More people
-Bricks
-Plantation or farm
-cloth
-planks
In that order of priority.
It gives you a very strong and fast start and a garanteed way to feed your population and fuel when you unlock an oil building.

[Samseng Yik]

I am surprise plantation get multiple mention.
It must be really quite something special in seal forest

[不思議種]

Plantation just guarantees that you always have food. Overall I find sealed forest pretty easy but better safe than sorry since it takes so long to get there.

[Luciole]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

I am surprise plantation get multiple mention.
It must be really quite something special in seal forest

You are P15 , i assume you already know most if not all of what i am about to say from experience, maybe even looking at some wiki. But if not , i hope what i am about to say is useful to you and maybe for other players who are not there yet.

Farms do the same thing with porridge for guaranteed food , you just need any geyser or a rain collector . The best thing about the farm is the possibility to have 3 insanely good cornerstones that makes grain incedibly strong : Moldy grain seeds (autopick) , Grain bags (autopick unless Moldy grain) and Filling dish (autopick if the 2 previous are not available).

Just from the farm alone , you have access to the best fuel in the form of oil , flour for complexe dishes and PORRIDGE , which is a good source of food.
But with the Moldy grain seeds you even unlock Wine , Tea , Skewers and Pickles all in ONE BUILDING . And if you are lucky, you may even cheat your fiber sources with Pocket knives from a trader (although, it's really cheesing at this point.)
Since you play on Seal forest, rerolling cornertsones is easy so...

If you have humans in your caravan , it's a must pick in my opinion.
However it is generally costly to embark a farm blue print.


That's where the plantation shines as a starter because it is cheaper to embark and allow you to take others boni while still giving you access to basic food and oil .
I can't stress it enough about oil . This is a must have fuel on a seal map because cutting trees is generally bad without some very good cornerstones , which makes wood from basically free to expensive.
Both gives you access to oil , so both are very good on that department.

However it is not as strong of a building and fall off quickly because you only ever have access to 1 type of complex food ; Pickles and 1 type of luxury ; Wine .
You always need a 2nd food production building to draft at some point , which takes more workforce overall.
The only reddeeming quality is the weak cornerstone : Accumulated Dew for free tools and tea.

On a timer, when you rush the seal, Plantation is very good , allowing you to have guaranteed food and fuel while allowing you more bonii .
Farms are slower and costly , but bonkers in mid to late game , used right you can rush, but it's more risky.

Hence why i would take Plantation if i'm in a rush, unless i have humans where i always always picks farms if i want to guarantee a win.

[el Darkness]

Plantation is cheaper than a farm? I am pretty sure they cost the same amount of embarkation points. Have something changed? All farm type buildings used to cost the same.

[Luciole]

There is +- 1 fluctation cost , but generally , the plantation is around 4 , whereas the farm around 6.Honestly i like that , it makes the game more interesting . Would love to see the same for the other bonii.

[arjensmit79]

I think they are both 4-6

Interesting to note is that a farm or plantation produces 30 raw food per year.
28 food for 1 embark point is sort of the average.

So it takes 4-6 years of farming before you even get the same food value per embark point. (yes i know you can build 2 plantations)
Consider that you wont be farming in year 1 and whatever you farm in the last year is useless
Add to that the fact that you need workers to extract that food. (very significant fact)

So to make a long story short. Nice embark when you got way too many points to spent, but if not, better bring food, all the food you can get.

[Luciole]

Heh?! A farm usually work between 13 to 15 tiles , i assume 14 here as an average.
That's 84 grains a year baseline.
Assuming the base 10% x2 (with humans it's 20%) you should have about 100 grains.
Using the field kitchen , the 0* star take 113 seconds. You can make in one year (12 minutes or 720 seconds) so about 60-70 porridge /year +52 grains leftover for oil production. Far from the 30 raw food /year you are claiming.
Workforce needed 2.5 farmers + 1 kitchen cooker . Add a second cooker and you net 120 -140 porridge /year, but at the cost of leaving only 4 grains for fuel, which is not really good.

So....assuming you don't farm year one and use 2 embark points for food, so 56 food, it take 2 years and not 4-6 to overcome. You usually have enough basic food to hold 2 years anyway so...i prefer getting some clothes , planks or bricks in that case.

A camp would be better for fast food generation and lead to very fast victory, but the gear cost is very high and food+ fuel is very RNG dependent and i prefer to have something certain if i want to win safely in a reasonable amount of time.

Maybe your math was off or i am missing something.

[arjensmit79]

Oh yes, i was off. Its 30 per farmer :p (a farmer does 5 tiles)

Still, i really like embarking with food. Its a top pick if you consider saved workertime per embark point.

[Samseng Yik]

Yes, I agree embark with food is straight forward.
So my very next settlement will be seal forest. I just checked the embarkation.
I have 4 + 13 total embark point.
There are 2 food with 1 cost. 42 + 28, acceptable.
Then I bring extra 2 pop, cost 3 (acceptable for seal forest need for speed, I encountered an event kill 2 pop, but reward 4 embark point, still break even)
Plantation cost 5 (acceptable to make the pool smaller and 1 less worry)
42 wood cost 1 (just for a slightly early kickstart and save some wood chopping)
42 stone cost 1 (no brainer right?)
Brick Cloth Plank each cost 3 (Should I plank for saving more wood fuel ?)

Coal is 5, will not consider (bad luck cost roll)
Provision cost 4 (still considering but this actually help me save some food and workforce)

So look like 3 star oil recipe will be the main blueprint to hunt for ?
What about Kiln if I can choose it on year 1 ?

[mtgninja]

Well, the thing about Kiln is that it requires wood... which in the process raises hostility in this map. Oil and marrow is better, but it's not like you've always got a choice.

[mtgninja]

Also, you got stone at cost 1? You lucky dog.

[Samseng Yik]

Maybe I remember it wrongly lol.v Maybe the stone cost 2.
I am now in office, maybe 2molo I will check and try the seal forest P15.
Now just need to focus at doing my homework and preparation.
My last seal is without the "special seal objective" during early access, hence my fear

[Ares]

I've been picking Training Gear delivery line (along with people and soil building) for my Seal Forest attempts. While it certainly is expensive, first of all it 100% guarantees you can open caches. 42 stone is often not enough if you're going for the 3 cache opening. Secondly, if you're going for the final resolve goal it's pretty likely Training Gear will end up being useful. And lastly, having a delivery line going from the very start of the game is amazing for Amber.