Starting Out Tips?

[Aramazon]

Hi! Can any of the better players provide some tips on what their first 20 or so turns look like? None of the guides really address it and I feel like I must be doing something wrong. Everything just feels really hindered. With the warrior start I don't get a lot of gatherers and the loot from events and fighting is pretty much useless. Is the warrior start just ♥♥♥♥♥♥?

[ilikemadeupnames]

I like the gatherer start, but I've started with warrior focus too. If you go with warriors, you'll probably want to go around killing things and recycling the loot for crafting materials. Other than that, it's basically a technology race to keep up with the difficultly modifier you're playing. Hopefully the first resource you research is close by so you can gather it easily and start crafting items from it to produce more research.

[Miradus]

I'll throw out some tips while I'm waiting on the better players to answer you. :)

1. Clear the immediate area of lairs and reveal the terrain so that when you do research some better crafting materials you'll be able to see where they are. Some good basic materials may be near to you as well.

2. 6-12 man expeditions only. Don't bother leaving with just a couple of people. They'll be monster fodder.

3. Start building pastures or cabbage patches (your choice) right away. Use all ten spots. You can destroy them as you need to make room for better buildings later on but the population growth is indispensable.

[Black Raven]

Research as much as possible.

If you idle materials your not using craft something with them even if they useless to you, but make sure the craft gives research (represented by science bottle on craft screen)

You can always scrap the junk to get 'some' of the material back to keep crafting, but be aware they will be a loss

[76561188078797539]

Build a Well from Granite and Spider Silk ASAP (alternatively, if you're lucky, Ancient Wood and Spider Silk does the same, but far more difficult to get the 25 pieces needed.)

+5 random resources EACH TURN

That means you have a chance of getting highest tier materials each turn. Early on, you'll probably find use for anything it brings anyway, and its a risk-free gain (unlike gathering).

Resources very much well spent.

[dudeworthington]

I would agree with everything written upthread but would just add one minor point. Your turn 1 expedition seems to start with something with other than wood as fuel (probably random?). If they're using elven or dark wood as fuel, those are actually tier 2 resources so you may want to adjust your approach. It isn't a huge deal, burning 10 dark wood isn't going to make or break your game but it is something to be aware of. Technically you don't need to campfires, it is just that going without prevents healing and reduces gathering. So, one approach would be turn off fuel comsumption entirely in the supply tab, spend a couple turns raiding whatever treasures are nearby and then heading into the village to grab some actual wood. This is just a for instance, not saying that it is the optimal strategy.

[40+GAMING]

Hi everyone =D

I thought I’d throw in some of my observations on getting started. I’m soldiering through the 300%+ difficulty at the moment, but I guess this will work on lower difficulties too.

My main problem was getting enough villagers to actually be able to do anything useful, favouring a warrior start in planning for my later game high level defence.

But then I started building cabbage patches.
NOT for the babies, I’ve only once, in all the 255 hours I’ve played, had a baby pop up due to cabbage related romance, but because having 10 cabbage patches, built from ordinary 37 wood and (20? 40? units of) the food-source available, will give you +2 attract human each. With 10 initial cabbage patches with +2 human attraction from the start, you quickly get a village of both fighters, gatherers, hunters, medics etc. (all professions are attracted), plus some bandits and scavengers that are sometimes surprisingly hardcore for early game.

I dismantle the cabbage patches as I manage to research new materials to build some nice/useful versions of the other buildings.

And then, as others have said, just cannibalise loot for materials and craft, craft, dismantle, craft some more from the recycled materials, to expedite your research.

[Airship]

Wilborg, you don't happen to have some tips regarding what kinds of materials one should research ASAP, do you?

[mk11]

I usually play at 350% so with realism true and a 7 villager start. I usually do a crafter start.

Given a normal Cabbage/Wood start.

This is what I usually do.

On turn 1 leave a gatherer (not the hunter) in the village who can gather wood every 2 turns and set to work on gathering wood (gatherer should have only a weapon). Check the expedition to see if you need to move wood or food to it. Take everyone else and have them join the expedition (using the inventory button to join the expeditions together). Keep about 20 meat in the village and make sure the expedition as at least 3 wood or straw, also move the children to the expedition. Set the food and fuel used to not use any new stuff and use only meat or cabbage.

Distribute gear in the expedition. Put the armour on those who can wear it and then try and distribute everything else. Ideally, spears and blunt instruments go with those with the best strength/innate damage. Put the bow on someone who doesn't have stealth. Check how much gather you can get from the expedition - is it enough to gather wood/fruit etc. in 1 turn - if it is then try to end the move with 1 move left and next to such a resource so you can set camp and gather something.

Then move the expedition around to: explore the area, complete the first 2 of Thea's quests, eliminate 1 skull lairs and parties (using alternative challenges that you should play out). Beeline for ruins and explore any that are 1 skull - the fights should all be winnable, end turn 9 back at the village and disband.

At the start of the first night use the inventory screen to create a new expedition. Add all the characters and some food and wood. Save that expedition. During each night turn reload the expedition, use all its move points to wonder around near the village ending on the village and disbanding. Allocate gatherers to optimally gather (usually wood is more important that food), use crafters and all others to make cooked foods.

Typically, by the end of the first night you will have enough food stuffs to get a +1 move boost, have gained another villager (gatherer unless something better offered), and have a good stock of wood.

In the next day leave 2 (or 1 if you still only have 7 villagers) crafters in the village and send the expedition out to work on more ruins or lairs but aim to be back by early night. Take children, excess gear for them, wood, food varieties with you. Set to not use found food and wood (although you can use nuts).

Rough order to craft is: at least two +2 or better craft tools, then a smithy, then some gathering tools. Quite often you won't get the materials for the smithy until the expedition returns at turn 27 or so. Use iron as catalyst for the smithy as wood can be in short supply.

I will usually want to research 1-h sword, light armour, shields, smithy, well, sacred tree before anything else. Priorities are to build best smithy I can, at least a +3 well, sacred tree with cheapest materials, 2 enchanted bone shields (to get the ability to use hex against undead).

After that I will mix up research on buildings, materials, or crafting depending on what resources I have. Materials: go for anything in village gathering range and otherwise those materials that show other resources on the map: elven wood, scaled leather, monster bone, quartz. You can save gold and elven wood to make attractive buildings or use them to make lightweight items.

Note that a well will only provide materials you have researched. If you have a good well then things like elven wood can turn up and are worth researching. Until you have a well you get only the initial 5 points of them so, unless they are close enough to gather, have little value.

If you get any herbs don't use them to make food until you have over 40, then leave 20 in the village and add 20 to the expedition.

[Airship]

Very nicely explained, Mk11. Thanks!

[tiamats4esgares]

@Airship: I almost always research Wicker first. Very important to make a +4 (or at least +3) gathering basket ASAP. With my 2nd research point, I put it into Nimblewood if I need it. If I have a Gatherer already at 7, I usually don't. Another option is Gold to get a +4 crafting hammer. I guess if you needed it for a 2nd hammer, could also go with Steel (not Silver, as it's 2 research points and not worth). Then I NEVER put any more points in resources, after the first 1-4 (Wicker, maybe Nimblewood and Gold, and maybe even Steel) but that's it. I don't find it worth it to gather resources far from the city. In almost all circumstances, it's probably just better to get them from killing monsters.

[tiamats4esgares]

Regarding mk11's post:

Obviously I disagree with the researching materials, and I also think getting gathering baskets before smithy is, definitely, important.

But I'd also like to add that you should prioritize spider's dens first over other enemy camps because spidersilk is important to make good gathering baskets.

I usually leave 2 gatherers and 1 crafter in the town until I have plenty of supplies, then I leave 1 gatherer and 1 crafter. That's another thing I do different from mk11. But once the gatherers both have 7 gathering, you can give the baskets to the expedition to help them gather with their last move point.

When you have enough food for +1 move, what I typically do, is micromanage what food they can use each day, letting them use the minimum they need for the +1 move (or maybe a bit more if I feel I need more bonuses), prioritizing the foods you have the most of. If you do this, your food variety lasts way longer. If you start with Lada (I'm a major Lada fan), you can easily get +1 move from your very first turn (of course, it doesn't take effect until turn 2) and basically you'll never lose this bonus without even trying, as long as you play normally you'll be able to replace the food by the time it runs out.

Note that your bonuses are based on the food you made available LAST turn. So if you start a turn it says you have 6/5 move that means you can move 6 this turn, but next turn it'll be only 5, because you lost a food source. So that's when you would want to go in and make sure it goes back up to 6 (if you can).

[mk11]

I prefer to have just one person working on a crafting project so would, usually, be working on the smithy and gathering tools in parallel. I usually find I have the metal and materials for craft tools and gathering tools without needing to research anything. As a pessimist, I 'know' that if I research Wicker then the gathering tools I make will be bad quality. Clay is quite good for gathering tools, but they are much heavier.

Quite a few of the gods, if you have them well developed, would change the start. Lada because of an extra character and food; Mokosh because you can put more emphasis on gathering and have access to grain; Perun because of the smithy and you can dismantle the palisade for wood;

Agree with micro-managing the food and do it also at the village during turns when you are going to be sending an expedition out next turn.

I like having the gatherers in the expedition, and able to stop and gather 2 or 3 sites, because of the value they add to hunting challenges (Perun not so important because of the extra crossbows that can be used for Support Attack and Mokosh because everyone can do some damage.)

[tiamats4esgares]

Well if you start with a crafting start, then they are pretty good at hunting challenge. No need for gatherers (in my opinion).

Of course, my opinion is extremely biased because I've played with Lada only a whole lot and basically forgot about the fact that me leaving more people in the village can mean I have just as much in the expedition. (Even if a Sage isn't THAT great in hunting challenges, they are an extra body, if nothing else, and they may also allow you to do sickness challenges, which are easier anyway.)

[Someone3]

I also play on 350%. Usually Horos, Mokosh or Lada.

I usually do gatherer start and raise my first 2 children as crafters. I prefer this to crafter start simply because I find I can usually get those two extra crafters around the time I have the materials to make use of multiple crafters and the extra gatherers are really useful early on.

First turn I rearrange equipment to maximise the quality of who I bring with me on the expedition. I also try and focus on equiping the warrior with a two-handed sword and shield and a +shield armour, I find this really useful vs the weak early game mobs as the total shield value is usually enough to tank 3-4 hits from weak mobs. I agree with mk11 when he says put the bow on someone without great stealth it's quite important to make the best use of your tactics cards.

For the first expedition I usually take everyone except 1 gatherer. If I've got the materials for a gatherer or crafter tool then I'll usually also leave the 1 crafter behind too. This prevents you from easily beating mobs with sneak/tactics so I wouldn't recommend it unless you're comfortable beating mobs like skeletons in combat. The gatherer I leave behind alternates between gathering food and wood. If you're starting with a maxed Lada then you can often leave two gathers behind and take the sage.

As the expedition moves out your priorities are killing mobs and exploring ruins. Stay close to town and circle it so you can see what resources are around you. That said, don't get too focused on killing things, make sure you can camp next to something useful each turn and throw your gatherers at it to get what you can. Don't spend multiple turns idling though, if you can't gather it in 1 turn then don't bother. If you're not going gatherer start this is harder so it's less important to camp each turn. Your priority early on should be getting different food types. The food bonuses are incredibly powerful early on. As night starts falling return to yoru settlement and start craftings gatherer/crafter tools and food.

My research priorites early on are Light Armour, Shields and, 1h Swords. Anyone using a 1h sword and shield can usually tank a hit from any early mob and it makes combat a cake walk. After that I check if I've got coal nearby and if so go for jewelry & artifacts. If I don't have coal I look for wicker. Jewelry and artifacts offer incredibly powerful bonuses for very little weight, I consider it really important to get them.

Some things the previous commenters have stated that I disagree with are:
1) Building the Well. In my opinion the well is useless. It's a waste of good materials such as spider silk. You usually won't get more than 3 items per turn and, when you add up all the food types and low tech materials you have researched by default the odds of getting anything useful from it are really quite low unless you're heavily researching materials. It's a waste of tech points early on.
2) Researching materials. mk11 suggested researching materials near the town and materials that unlock others like scaled leather. If you're playing with low economy difficulty then this is good advice but as you increase the economy difficulty this becomes terrible advice. On 350% it takes so long to harvest high value materials that you're never going to make use of them. E.g. scaled leather takes over 400 gathering points just for 5 (6?) pieces and takes two tech points to unlock. The only one I usually consider is elven wood. I'll usually get this if I can see some and have good resources around town you could get with blessed paths because that way you can make good use of either ancient or dryad wood. It's also only 3 tech points total to get ancient wood. The only other times I might research a material are wicker at the start for the free 5 wicker to make a single crafting basket, or if I find 2 resources of the same time right next to each other or 1 next to a bunch of good food tiles. That way you can park an expedition for a few turns and maximise your gathering by not having everyone work on the same resource at 1/2 rate.

My general strategy going into midgame revolves around getting good jewelery and artifacts. These can really boost your power in non-combat challenges.

Some other random tips are:
1) If you find herbs always fight the spiders. It's only 1 queen and a bunch of useless little ones so it's an easy fight, but you get so much from it. It frequently gives out dragon bones/dragon leather and other good materials.
2) Most of the quest locations that appear from expedition/town events are extreemly lucrative and are often very good ways of getting new party members. Once you've played a few times and know what's coming you should usually beeline for them if your expedition is strong enough.
3) Jewelry Jewelry Jewelry. It's so powerful. You'll usually be swimming in monster bones for +strength to help you wear armor and the double amber recipie is fantastic as well. Once you start adding in the bits and pieces of higher tier materials you find you start getting massive bonuses. Finding a source of coal/wicker is so important.

[tiamats4esgares]

Yes, it's very good to give bows to people with low stealth. Can't be stressed enough! Basic tactics.

Another nice tip is if there IS a resource that takes more than 1 turn for your expedition to gather, you could leave one person there, have the rest go out and explore or clear something, then come back and have them re-join the one-man expedition. This way you don't lose progress. It's not always possible to use this strategy, but it's something to thing about when it is.