Some Tips And Discoveries About Winterhome

[Oops, all Skol!]

I haven't beat the winterhome scenario quite yet, (I'm on attempt #3) but I figured I'd share some tips and discoveries I've made while playing so it'll hopefully help everyone else struggling out :)

**VERY IMPORTANT**
Here's a link to a really helpful map with suggestions how to improve/expand Winterhome!
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1890/44849896181_cae47d53cc_o.png
A huge thanks to ExplodeySquirrel for the map!

-Use Gathering posts to clear the ruins. The ruins function exactly like resource piles so gathering posts will be very effective in clearing them out

-On Day 1 in Winterhome, there are 3 'hidden' Gathering Post locations which can be uncovered by deleting the right roadways. These seem to be intentionally placed to offer very good coverage for most of the ruins you need to clear.


-If you asign an automation to a gathering post, you won't need to worry about heatzones other than maybe a hub nearby so doesn't need to trudge all the way back to the generator to refuel.

-Tech Rush the Infirmary. If you do this fast enough, you should be able to prevent the gravely wounded from dying, and free up some engineers from medical posts.

-MOVE THE CORPSE PIT. Like most of everything else in this god forsaken city, its in a bad spot.

-Build an additional gathering post for each Coal thumper. They gave each thumper one gathering post, which isn't optimal.

-Stockpile coal. Just trust me on this one. You need 5k of it.

-As far as I can tell, there's no outpost location to produce more steamcores.
UPDATE: It is confirmed that there is no steamcore outpost. What you can find is what you'll have to work with. Spend them wisely!

-MOVE YOUR BUILDINGS INWARD AS RUINS ARE CLEARED. This is very important, as later on in the game, conserving resources will be very important and with the given layout of the Winterhome, Steam hubs will suck you dry from trying to keep everything covered in a heat zone.

-Try to save as many steam cores as possible! This is also very important later on in the scenario.

-Engineers will become a real pain in the♥♥♥♥♥♥later on. As far as I can tell, the ones stationed at the exploration center in the far west dont contribute much, so recall them home if you're in a tight spot.
UPDATE: The Engineers to the west will connect you to New London at somepoint, which is probably key to getting a good ending in this scenario.
UPDATE 2: Only take engineers unless you're desprate on manpower!
UPDATE 3: To trigger the canon ending, revisit the research outpost anytime after day 25 to trigger it. Departing before then will NOT trigger it!

-Stockpile Iron! You will likely need to do this if you wish to save everyone in Winterhome as building cabins can become very pricy in terms of iron.

-RESEARCH AND BUILD THE REPAIR SHOP WHEN PROMPTED! Don't wait and cancel and research you're working on! This can leave to an early game over due to your generator biting the bullet.

-Automatons, while reliable in the early game, instantly become useless scrap heaps when the generator malfunctions later on. STEAM HUBS WILL NOT WORK WHEN THE GENERATOR IS OFFLINE. This means that Automatons cannont refuel, and therefore will not work until the generator can be repaired.

-Do not take the Automaton from the bridge. As tempting as it is to grab yourself a free robotic companion, you will need access to the iron outpost if you have any hopes of saving everyone.

-Other than the people you find burried in rubble and the engineers working at research stations, there are no additional people who will join your cause. So think twice before sending fodder off to get executed with your fancy New Order contraptions.

-Take Radical Treatment and Overcrowding. Just swallow your pride and do it. Otherwise you will literally drown in amputees and sick people!


-This is more or less my personal opinion, but Order seems weak in this Scenario. Its good if you plan on abusing the hell out of emergency shifts but otherwise, not so much. I haven't tried Faith yet but Im hoping it yeilds better results.

-People WILL die in this scenario. Your escape transport can only hold 500 out of the 600+ in your city! If all else fails, keeping engineers alive should be your top priority.
UPDATE: Use Triage if things are looking a little rocky towards the end. You will lose some people as a side effect, but it will keep your population alive and kicking until you're ready to depart.

-Don't invest too much into coal mines. Thumpers should be able to carry you to your 5k coal goal along with smart steam hub management.


-Take your time and remember to breathe. Unless you're playing survivor mode (You masochist!) you can always pause to take some time to look over city and production. You have a lot to do and it can certainly feel overwhelming, so try your best to keep calm and collected. If you need to, don't be afraid to save and come back to the scenario later!

I'll post more tips as I think of them. Hopefully this helps everyone!

[Fabiaville]

yeah i'm pretty sure it's day 25 or later. beyond the lore aspect of it it's useless. there was no pop-up or anything about it in the ending.

what i also discovered is that if you have scouted the sheltered cave and are on the final countdown(generator perma shut down): if you still have kids you'll get a pop-up where you can send your remaining kids and a few workers to the cave to wait for a rescue. connecting to the kid cave event from the main scenario "a new home" and explaining how they could have survived in a cold cave for an extended period of time.

[Herr Arkow]

Okay, i figured out how to trigger the event. You may not have finished preperations for the dreadnought, in my case passengers, before day 24. On day 24 i recieved a message in town view and a new marker appeared on the global map for scouts to rearch. Ironically i got a bug and i saved 521 people onto the dreadnought. I had 471 there and 50 workers went there on their own.

So my suggestion if you want to trigger the event. Mine triggered on day 24 around 5am.

-> Leave people on the storm shelter and maybe weatherstation
-> Don't finish the preparations before day24
-> In my case i had it all, but only 421 passengers on board when the event triggered. No transport ongoing.
-> The third malfunction was fixed
-> Do not launch the dreadnought too early
-> Don't have scouts missions ongoing, dismiss all scout teams, but not outpost ones.
-> when you discovered the storm shelter early in the game, never go back there
-> For some reason the event did not trigger when i had less then 1000 wood

[zpigs]

you say remove the coal thumpers (which i've never heard anyone say on any scenario), and build coal mines, yet i am currently playing with only thumpers and i have 7,000 coal right now.

that seems a mad idea to me.

[Herr Arkow]

Originally posted by ExplodeySquirrel:

Originally posted by Herr Arkow:

I

All it requires is a Scout party (re)visiting the Storm Shelter after you reach that day.

I'm thinking we talk about different events, because my event is triggered in the city. the storm shelter event never changed for me. even after day 27 they keep looking. always the same option, send to city, take to city, let them be.

[ExplodeySquirrel]

An important tip others haven't mentioned yet: On Day 1 in Winterhome, there are 3 'hidden' Gathering Post locations which can be uncovered by deleting the right roadways. These seem to be intentionally placed to offer very good coverage for most of the ruins you need to clear.

A hastily-drawn map of Gathering Post locations, with the 'hidden' ones starred[farm2.staticflickr.com]

[Oops, all Skol!]

Originally posted by ExplodeySquirrel:

An important tip others haven't mentioned yet: On Day 1 in Winterhome, there are 3 'hidden' Gathering Post locations which can be uncovered by deleting the right roadways. These seem to be intentionally placed to offer very good coverage for most of the ruins you need to clear.

A hastily-drawn map of Gathering Post locations, with the 'hidden' ones starred[farm2.staticflickr.com]

Thank you so much for this! I added it to the guide towards the top since I felt that it was a fairly important thing to note.

[xfor]

I'd recommend to delete all roads around ruins and all redundant roads as the very first action. Pause the game (if you are not on survivor mode ...) and take your time. It gives you more than 100 wood that can be invested immediately.

Each building only needs to be connected to the road system at one connection point. Ruins don't have to be connected at all. Everything else can be deleted, unless it goes further to another building of course.

Ideally (in terms of resource saving), there is only one path from the generator to any point of the map. If there are two paths, you can delete a road in one path. Computer scientists call this a "cycle-free graph". So you should not be able to move in a circle on your road system.

Some planned redundancy is useful to avoid shutting down large parts of the city by accidently deleting a piece of road. But be aware that this is pure luxury. ;-)

[Panterich]

How are the 'hidden'? They look pretty clear to me ... always use them.

[Белый Кот]

Originally posted by Herr Arkow:

Okay, i figured out how to trigger the event. You may not have finished preperations for the dreadnought, in my case passengers, before day 24. On day 24 i recieved a message in town view and a new marker appeared on the global map for scouts to rearch. Ironically i got a bug and i saved 521 people onto the dreadnought. I had 471 there and 50 workers went there on their own.

So my suggestion if you want to trigger the event. Mine triggered on day 24 around 5am.

-> Leave people on the storm shelter and maybe weatherstation
-> Don't finish the preparations before day24
-> In my case i had it all, but only 421 passengers on board when the event triggered. No transport ongoing.
-> The third malfunction was fixed
-> Do not launch the dreadnought too early
-> Don't have scouts missions ongoing, dismiss all scout teams, but not outpost ones.
-> when you discovered the storm shelter early in the game, never go back there
-> For some reason the event did not trigger when i had less then 1000 wood

So I got the "south road" marker on day 24 and got there with my scouts.
I was given 2 options
- return without clear informantion about what that smoke is (maybe another generator was gone), but with some wood and steel
- go there, but scouts will not be able to return
I took the second one..and that's it. No more events, text in the ending or anything. Did I had to choose the first one? Or it's really it in both cases? Or maybe I need to survive even longer (you can delay explosion for 1 day for 5 people+core)?

[Herr Arkow]

Originally posted by ya.bym5:

I took the second one..and that's it. No more events, text in the ending or anything. Did I had to choose the first one? Or it's really it in both cases? Or maybe I need to survive even longer (you can delay explosion for 1 day for 5 people+core)?

Yup, thats the event. I went option2 as you, scouts gone and no further explaination given. Honestly, i never picked the first event with going home with wood and steel.

[Troublecore]

Originally posted by Herr Arkow:

Originally posted by ya.bym5:

I took the second one..and that's it. No more events, text in the ending or anything. Did I had to choose the first one? Or it's really it in both cases? Or maybe I need to survive even longer (you can delay explosion for 1 day for 5 people+core)?

Yup, thats the event. I went option2 as you, scouts gone and no further explaination given. Honestly, i never picked the first event with going home with wood and steel.

Thank for the suggestion how to trigger event. But i still can't. I use it all, but nothing happened at all. Can you upload the screenshots?

[Fabiaville]

i just discovered that if you research faster outpost teams, the evacuation transport travel time and cooldown get reduced from 24h to 20h. meaning in a span of 5 days you'll get to send 6 transports instead of 5.

[Herr Arkow]

https://imgur.com/a/lQy2Iof

last two pics are only image of 521 ppl saved.

Now i remember i always been honest ingame. Said i don't know where to go and admitted the generator is failing

[Static VoiD]

Originally posted by Herr Arkow:

Okay, i figured out how to trigger the event. You may not have finished preperations for the dreadnought, in my case passengers, before day 24. On day 24 i recieved a message in town view and a new marker appeared on the global map for scouts to rearch. Ironically i got a bug and i saved 521 people onto the dreadnought. I had 471 there and 50 workers went there on their own.

So my suggestion if you want to trigger the event. Mine triggered on day 24 around 5am.

-> Leave people on the storm shelter and maybe weatherstation
-> Don't finish the preparations before day24
-> In my case i had it all, but only 421 passengers on board when the event triggered. No transport ongoing.
-> The third malfunction was fixed
-> Do not launch the dreadnought too early
-> Don't have scouts missions ongoing, dismiss all scout teams, but not outpost ones.
-> when you discovered the storm shelter early in the game, never go back there
-> For some reason the event did not trigger when i had less then 1000 wood

I had Scouts camping on those scientists for the last days... Going in there, again and again, asking "WASSUP?" and nothing triggered... Now I know... very unintuitive bad design imho.

I mean, the most logical thing to do would be to ask those guys directly, if they know some place to go... like "Hey guys, you're the explorers and our generator is blowing up... You know some cozy place to go?"
Not leave 'em be and ignore 'em.

I don't like the whole scenario anyways... It starts interestingly enough, but the last quarter is just fast forward, waiting for the steel and scrapping the whole city.
It's as boring as the ending of the first level... Where you just wait through the storm and juggle with generator overload... Only longer.

[erneiz]

One thing I noticed about this scenario (or perhaps after this update) is DONT click any message bubble until a little moment before it disappears. You can't get out of the choice screen by clicking on the edges anymore, and sometimes this can really screw you over.