Soo... how do I get past my first winter?

[CoLS Firestar]

This seems like a really dumb question but its my first boreal forest map...

It's now the 11th of winter. All the wild animals are dead thanks to no grass and dying off etc. Do I just... hope for a passing trade ship? I don't wanna die...

[Smakit]

Well, hopefully you stored up some food to make it through the winter easier. If you had the cooling stuff you could make a freezer and store food in safely. Several kinds of vegetables can last a really long time and make it through the winter even without. Pemmican can be made from meat as well and survive a long time without refrigeration. And in case you glanced over it, in the zoning section you setup growing zones which is how you grow potatoes and the like.

Depending on your level of research and the like, you could also use hydroponics and grow food inside or possibly set up a room with a sun lamp and some crops. This allows crops to grow at times they might not otherwise be able to.

If you can't build anything to grow food at the moment, you don't have any food at all stored, then there may be some trouble. Sometimes new animals will make their way into your lands and you can ge tthose. There are also random events that give you a slew of animals that you could butcher. Trading for food could save you, or if you saved the money or have the goods to trade they might even trade animals to help you (though if you have no food to feed them it isn't a very good option).

Worse comes to worst you could always start eating human flesh. Preferably raiders that come in, perhaps some wandering tribes if you don't mind getting them mad at you, or even some of your own that are less helpful or injured or what not. If nothing else, it is a nice learning experience for next time to plan ahead =D

[octopiii]

Hydroponics to continue growing indoors (requires sunlamp and heater). The soil acts as rich soil so Rice is great to grow in the hydroponics. Geothermal generators are really helpful to offset the energy requirements of indoor grows. I usually start my research Microelectronics > Build Hi-Tech Bench > Geothermal Energy > Hydroponics.

[michaelmerlin]

Tips:

Build a cooler to store food.

Plant food right away when you land.
Harvest barries. Under Orders, Pick Harvest. Late summer/earily fall you should be able to get lots of barries from wild plants
Hunt animals to build up a store of food

When you can, build a 11x11 grow barn over fertile soil and install a sun lamp. It will need a LOT of power, but allows you to grow food durning winter, eclipse and toxic fallout. Outdoor growing is extremly unreliable in borial forest.

The good news is that 2 fueled generators can provide enough power to run the sun lamp with 400w to spare and their waste heat will rase the tempature in the grow room. Install a heater too, to keep it at growing tempature. This will allow you to grow enough rice, reliabily, to keep your inital colonist fed.

Supplement diets with meat from hunting and more wild berries. Make sure to harvest enough wood to keep your generators fed.

[BanDHMO]

As tribals without fancy hydroponics:

1. Plant lots of rice as early as possible. Get a bed, fix up a small building, gather a few berries to not starve, but other than that - just clear land and plant, plant, plant.
2. Gather berries and hunt for meat, then turn it into pemmican.
3. After growing season ends, stash away all the rice, and go pick all remaining berries on the map. They last for quite a while so should be OK until the cold and freeze arrives, just make sure to move them indoors.
4. Once the cold or freeze comes, go hunting. Bring the bodies inside, but don't spend time butchering. You are racing the clock before all animals die off, you have to get as many carcasess indoors as you can. Leave the door to the outside open and the carcasses will not rot because of the cold.

Eat all your stored food and build until the next summer. Repeat.

[michaelmerlin]

A good part about cold winters is you don't really need a freezer. A room away from sorces of heat will be cold or frozen most of the time.

[Thugs_Lander]

ok this is all bs there is no way you could have researched electronics and ac before the winter my people are barely struggling to say alive because i have no food and no way to get any i am very confused on how this is possible

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by Thug Leader ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.com:

ok this is all bs there is no way you could have researched electronics and ac before the winter my people are barely struggling to say alive because i have no food and no way to get any i am very confused on how this is possible

No need for electrionics as tribal on boreal forest map.

When playing as Tribals, your best bet is making as much pemmican as fast as possible. Don't make just a little, set it to make forever. It lasts long enough to not worry about the date it goes bad. Just make sure it is under a roof. Indoors is best so that wild animals don't eat it as well.

You need to adjust your strategy depending on your quanities of cooking supplies as well.

If you have an overabundance of meat compared to veggies, make simple meals of just meat. I usually have this condition as I have a hunter I keep busy hunting animals full time. I set it at about 2-3x the number of pawns. You don't want to make many more than that so that they don't expire before your pawns can eat them. Actually here are my normal bills in order:

Simple Meals (Meat only): Do until X (value set at 3x number of pawns)

Pemmican: Make forever

Simple Meals: (Default ingredients): Do Until X (value set at 2x number of pawns)

Having this setup lets me use the meat before it goes bad as often as possible. I also start with growing rice ASAP, and harvesting any local wild berries. Once my rice field is planted I start a field of corn for the better yield and less work.

If not playing as tribals, then no big deal as you are ready to build coolers as soon as you start.

[minetime43]

theres a reason i have a freeser full of 600 meals

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Thug Leader ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.com:

ok this is all bs there is no way you could have researched electronics and ac before the winter my people are barely struggling to say alive because i have no food and no way to get any i am very confused on how this is possible

Tribal is hardmode. Don't dive right into it, play on the crashlanding start to learn the basics of the game first.

[Zales]

If you have no food then wait for a raid and eat the dead bodies.