When should I start a village?

[Socrates Jackson]

I normally get them going as soon as I find a place with food and wood and preferably some other, fancier stuff to gather. After a few games though, it occurs to me that maybe that's dumb? Defending the village takes up people that I could be using for exploration, and the first island's resources stop being useful after a while. Also, the advantages provided by buildings and such aren't anything amazing. Really, the house demon is the best part, and he can't move.

So, should I wait to establish a village until later, maybe after I hit the other islands? Or should I just live the hobo life, stabbin' on people with my hobo knife? What does everybody else do?

[dergefata]

I always waited until I was off the starter island. Right now, we only get two seeds, so I like to put one village on either Ice Demon or Elf island, and the other more or less on the opposite side of the "world" so that once I get 12-15 people and have two decent-sized groups, I can run them around the world, hitting ruins and lairs and allied towns and then coming back to a home base to drop off their loot, heal up, craft some stuff, drop off suboptimal people to stay in town and craft/gather/cook/research/whatever, then replenish food stores and take off again.

There's nothing inherently wrong with putting a village down on Noobie Island but it isn't ideal for the long term.

[NoobLAN]

I usually start it when find a place with food, wood and 2+ tier 2 resources. Maybe without wood, it's not that important. Since all composites could be made without tier 3 res (moreover, using tier 2 instead of tier 3 is more profitable) I see no point waiting a lot and sailing to a new island for the first village.

[Thunderllama]

I try to settle a village as quickly as possible after the first island. That requires a good village spot, decent equipment, and enough characters to defend the village when my main group is away.

For me, the sooner a village builds a school, the sooner the free research train starts, and a warehouse causes a huge increase in gathering, really kicking your higher level crafting into high gear. A village is also one of the few ways to get cats (through an event), making them even more useful.

For timing, I like to settle somewhere between turn 50 and 100 if I can.

[Caracal]

Don't worry about food resources, they are very easy to gather away from your village. I always completely explore the starting island before making a decision on a village spot.

 A good spot for a village has at least 2 different tier 2 resources and 2 research nodes within the max gathering range (4). Two (or more) of the resources should be adjacent to each other on the resource tree (or is it a resource wheel?) such as wood and gems (Topaz and Dark Wood for example). If you're really lucky, you can get 4 different tier 2 resources and 2 nodes within 4 tiles of a village spot (very rare in my experience). I like to build a village with the max range right away - 32 Pure Stone works well. But you don't have to. Of course you will eventually build up to a maxed village. Exploring the starting island will give you enough research points to unlock one of the tier 4 resources for building your village. Gathering the two research nodes will often yield a pair of tier 3 resources and if you're really lucky they will be adjacent on the resource tree. (Of course you can always scrum save until you get what you want.) Obsidian and Mithril is my not yet realized dream.

No good spots on the starting island? No worries, just go explore other islands. The Elf island always has a few really good village spots.

Edit: If you don't start with coal on the starting island, you can buy it at the NPC villages and get it from loot - just don't burn it for fuel!! You don't need a lot to get started.

[Ulthar]

How exactly do you "Start" the village?

does it make sense to camp at the end of every movement turn?

Can I split my party initially and leave the gatherers collecting food?

[XenoReaver]

Originally posted by Ulthar:

How exactly do you "Start" the village?

While your people are camped go to the crafting tab and switch to buildings in the top left corner and construct your village idol. You must be at least 3 hexes away from other villages.

Originally posted by Ulthar:

does it make sense to camp at the end of every movement turn?

You don't need to camp at the end of every turn unless you need healing or yo want to gather some resources between turns.

Originally posted by Ulthar:

Can I split my party initially and leave the gatherers collecting food?

You can yes but your games difficulty comes into play here. On easier settings you can safely leave them on their own provided you stay within a certain distance from them for safety. On harder difficulties you can't leave them as they may get attacked/trigger an event and quite possibly die.