Fill me in on these coal hoarders please.

[dubstepdeejay]

People complain about food shortages, but the real problem is coal.

I import iron, stone and most of all, coal; learned to not build a single mine or quarry ever, as it is just better for late-game. Naturally, I don't get stone houses up until around year 30, which means whatever stone I have to build with is found on the ground, just like iron for tools.

But there is no coal for that 30 years. Zero. Everybody lives just fine without it and I'm naturally forced to stick with iron/log tools for that duration as well.

Somebody please tell me why when I get my trade routes up and running and coal starts coming in, naturally I have it for the blacksmiths to start makig better tools, but the citizens start taking it into their homes?

Is something else using the coal other than the blacksmith? I don't see how considering that first 30 year stretch when there was zero.

I have six traders up right now in a game of 900 population. Every trader is set to auto purchase between 500-700 coal just so I can keep up. I also have coal "pre-ordered" for every merchant so I don't miss an opportunity.

ALSO, whenever I have time to actually look at the trader to dismiss him and he has any extra coal that wasn't auto-traded, I grab that coal as well.

3 blacksmiths are no way in hell using that much coal.

The worst part is when you click on their homes, wooden or stone, they all have coal inside that's meant strictly for the blacksmith. And the P.S. on that is they didn't need the coal for 30 years.

So why now?!?!

[poulpy]

I'va had this isue too.
I think that the citizens prefere to use firewood in their house instead of coal. But they also take the fuel wich is the nearest from their house.

During winter the use of firewood is very high. If you have even a little shortage right when someone in looking for fuel, he will take some coal.


I don't build mine and quarry and I don't produce any steel tools. I produce some iron tools at the begining of the game then I buy all the tools I need from the Tradings posts.
I never produce nor buy Coal.
I buy all the stones, iron and steel tools in my trading posts.

[Freedom]

Part of the charm that is The Bansished. I trade for Steel tools, I am going to have to trade for iron and coal anyways...... So I just skip the whole making the tools loop. Works like a charm for me.

This last game I decided to also trade for herbs. Place a herbalist right by markets. Best idea I have seen on these forums.

[dubstepdeejay]

So what you two are saying is skip coal as a whole?

What about a population of 1000? Can they run fine on just iron tools?

[amloidmesa]

For me, before i start my coal production, I make sure I have enough fire wood to last two seasons. I also start steel tools late in the game. After I have stocked piled a lot of food and have plenty of labors (like 15). For every gathers hut I have a Wood harvester with two people working it. I usually have about 5 then i set wood to 4000 and let them plant. Once they have planted every part of the circle then i let them cut. THis does two things, keeps the supply of wood up so you dont have to use labor for wood and also keeps your wood cutters busy. There is no such thing as to much fire wood, food, stone or iron. Once you have the firewood suply chain running smoothly then start minning coal. The vendor will take some coal but you need spare labor to pick up the piles by the mines

[Freedom]

You do not use iron tools!! I mean you can of course, they just do not last near as long as Steel. What I do is go very slowly, by very slowly I mean turtle pace. IE, I will be in year 90 ish and still be under 150 pop. I do not do REX until my trade network is working 100%.

My trade phase includes, 4 trade post and 4 fully operational Forresters. With that as your base, you have no worries about anything. You get to where you can stock 2500 firewood per trade dock and continuly supply it as you trade.

1st priority for trade, imho. 4 crop seeds and 4 orchard seeds, and one live stock. That is all you ever need to maintain a healhty diet. You can really go less I think, down to 3 each. I like the looks of the differant fields and orchards.

Now you are ready for real trading. My 1st priority is to dump the blacksmith. So, I order up 200 steel tools from the 1st general trader. 2nd for me is stone, by this time you are in bad need!!!. Order up 4 general merchants one at each trade port, Stone, Steel Tools, Coal and if you are like me herbs. EVERY TRIP.

You do not have to buy everything, but 4 boats gives you a steady supply.

This whole phase is to allow you expand rapidly after this point, without much trouble. You have been building reserves for decades. I am normally sitting on 150k-200 k food at this point. *stored in 3 parts of the map, to avoid tornado wipe out* I even give my farmers a year or so off now and then.

One more thing, not sure if you aware of warm coats. Use them!! This you can do yourslef, it takes planning and a few years. You need, 3 cattle pens and 1 sheep pen. You will make just a bit more leather then you need, but not much. The extra beef is good for trade.

2-3 Tailors per ring, 4 is overkill!! :) I find 2 works fine for me. You can do later game trade with the coats also.

[amloidmesa]

I have to try the trade thing ahazflagg. I am more of a produce what i need dont trade Banish player. If I start trading then I feel like I am playing anno or partican. It could just be the way I think.!!

[Freedom]

I got over that pretty early. Luke set the game up like this, I abuse the hell out of it. lol.

[amloidmesa]

I havent got to the point of abusing certain aspects of the game. I am still playing like a newb. Trying different things.

[poulpy]

Originally posted by dubstepdeejay:

So what you two are saying is skip coal as a whole?

That's what I do.

Originally posted by dubstepdeejay:

What about a population of 1000? Can they run fine on just iron tools?

Originally posted by Poulpe:

I buy all the stones, iron and steel tools in my trading posts.

[johntarmac]

I've found once I have a good amount of firewood the villagers use very little coal. About 600 firewood usually does the trick.
At the moment I have 2000 firewood, 900 coal in storage and 168 coal in houses. Not unreasonable.

[Lady Rose]

When I mine coal (yes, I use mines and quarries, I don't like to rely too much on trade for things I can produce myself), where possible I lay it out as mine - stockpile - blacksmith. By the time that first mine is exhausted, everyone has steel tools and the blacksmith doesn't have to make as many to keep up, so additional blacksmiths are placed next to markets where they seem to have no trouble getting enough coal to keep making steel tools.

The same layout should work for importing, though: trading post - stockpile - blacksmith.

I keep plenty of firewood on hand, generally about 4x the yearly firewood consumption.

It's worth noting that my blacksmiths are educated, so they are producing twice as many tools as an uneducated blacksmith. On any map that starts me with good surface resources, I build stone houses from the very beginning, which cuts down on all fuel consumption.