Have I just ruined my game?

[Tom Kent]

So I have been palying this for the past few hours, got through Island 1, built a boat to island 2, practically cleared island 2 as I knew more what I was doing. On island 2 I got gems, so when I finished my boat I assumed that island 3 would be harder than island 1 & 2 and instead opted to go back to island 1. I didn't build a lighthouse on Island 1, and because I'm new to the game I didn't exactly build up my defenses on Island 1 to a reasonable level (it was fine when I left but... decay...)

So I drop back into island 1, my boat is destroyed, I have a pouch full of coins and a few gems for the gryphon. My island is in pretty bad shape, but I think "its ok I have coins". Night 1 rolls around and I instantly get wiped by 30+ greed with masks. This make about 50 citizens into vagrants and I run out of money faster than I can rebuild.

At this point I now have 0 citizens, no money, and because I just lost my crown I assume my second island is also ruined. Honestly it puts a bit of a damper on my experience with the game...

[HughManatee]

You keep most of your buildings when you lose your crown, so your island 2 shouldn't be a total loss. Also, how long were you on island 2? Difficulty increases the longer you've been playing, but it resets when you lose your crown. So while it may seem hopeless, it should be easier for you moving forward. When you return to island 2, it won't be completely empty, and you should be able to make progress faster, thus keeping enemy difficulty down a bit.

[Tom Kent]

The problem is I am stuck on Island 1 with no money and no citizens and no ship to get back to island 2. How can I get money when I have nothing?

[Howru]

Don't buy gryphon! Use gems on Archer statue - it's one of the best upgrade in the game.
Boost both your defence and gold income, because archers now will be deadly preciese.

About your question - loosing crown will do a "soft reset", where you restart from beginning, but with all upgrades open. It's like your child continued your work :)
There's no way you could survive now, so it's easier to restart game from the beginning.

You should have returned to island 1 with at least 1 squire + 7 archers and 3 workers. And bag full of money + 3 gems.
This will allow you to quickly rebuild walls, activate Archer stature and safely fix your ship again.

So either you didn't took much from island 2, or didn't fix walls upon return.

P.S. Yep, game don't have tutorials, you need to learn upon your mistakes. This is the sharm of this game)
On my first attempt I restarted doesn times, until I understand how to play it properly.
Now I could clean all islands in ~80 days without issues.

[Crusher Von Splattenheim]

I don't see any problem getting the archer shrine and the griffon on the same return trip to Island 1. It's only six gems. There's three gem chests on Island 2. I always get both when I return to Island 1.

Griffon is probably one of the best mounts in the game and it'll certainly be awhile before getting a more worthy or equally worthy mount until Islands 4 or 5.

[Tom Kent]

Yeah, I did bring a full boat back, but because I didn't know what I was doing I spent about 40 days on island 2 - which meant that even with upgrades to my outer walls I got steamrolled on night 1 when I returned to island 1 - most of my walls were destroyed, not just damaged.

I didn't want to rush the game, because I like just building up my islands, I didn't realise at the time that this increased the games difficulty...

Well I guess I'll start again xD

[LaChouette]

With literally no coins and only beggars, I think you have to restart. Can't buy farmers or archers or pikemen, can't even buy builders that might give you an extra coin when cutting down trees.
You have three possibilities: a coin chest you might have forgotten the first time you were there, having given money to the banker previously (meaning you can get money back) or the merchant having money when resetting (which would give you enough for an archer and a builder, and hope you get enough money from the archer to build the walls). If the merchant does not have his pack when you lose and you have neither chest nor money stored in the bank, I think you're stuck.