Is there any reason to build farms?

[Gooey Prikkles]

I find that I can make more gold than I can spend by simply building archers which also double as wall defenders.

Farmers seem to do nothing to help defend the walls, they do nothing in winter, they require expensive farms and they are more expensive to build.

Let me know if I'm missing something but I cant find any real value in them.

[Pieceofcandy]

The farmers can harvest berries in the winter, other than that they don't do much. Pikemen are a better use of coins, they generate income all year and they can actually defend the walls, even if you have to restock them once in a while.

[Gooey Prikkles]

Originally posted by Pieceofcandy:

The farmers can harvest berries in the winter, other than that they don't do much. Pikemen are a better use of coins, they generate income all year and they can actually defend the walls, even if you have to restock them once in a while.

Exactly. The devs need to find a way to make them useful. Pikemen made farmers obsolete

[Shepherdmoon]

They're not so expensive if you don't upgrade the farms. I found them invaluable in the winter--one coin spent on a berry patch will net you a big profit. The pikemen are more unreliable because they don't pick up the coins they make, so if no one is around to get them they expire and disappear. Also they are slower to fish than the farmers are to pick berries.

[Freedan]

Yes, they aren't AS useful during winter but... find good farm spots during the non-winter season and activate the farm statue. I run back and forth doing maintenance and build and my coin bag is constantly overflowing. Bank is "full" and I basically use other units and coin storage.

[Time Lord Iroh]

it really depends on the island. If you have an island with even just 1 or 2 good, accessible farming spots that allow a farm to have its max amount of farmers, then they can basically make your coin bag bottomless. However, in many cases, when there are awkward spawning farms, or they are super far from the keep and with no nearby wall spot, it won't be worth it. However, if you can, getting a farm is always great because a fully upgraded one makes just so much money. It's true they don't work in winter, but that's only a quarter of the game, and if you invest half, or even all the money they make for you, winter won't even be an issue for you. Even if you don't do that, they can still harvest berries anyway. It's true they don't contribute to defence, but I think they make up for it.

[xPowsin]

I think 1 Farm and 3 Farmers are good early game, if you are lucky that

- The farm is super close to your castle
- No shop spawns beside the farm
- No wall segments spawns beside the farm
- The farm tile has enough room for a good harvest

But as you said rabbit/chicken and fish farming is the fastest

[mruuh]

Farms are probably the best coin source if you know how to build them and plan ahead. The only other source that sometimes comes close is rabbits if you have a lot of archers and lot of space cleared between your walls and first forest tree. Compared to that, farms are much less space-intensive, and probably also less manpower-intensive - which is good, in many latter islands, your bottleneck is not money, but having enough people.

The simple trick is to pick a good spot with plenty of space in both directions, and not building walls nearby, even if there are wall build spots available.
Also, only start a farm once you have the area reasonably secure, otherwise, especially early on, the coin loss from a wall breach and your farmers being wiped can slow down your economy considerably.

Farms are well worth the investment. Like Freedan mentioned above - a well-built farm will make it so that you are constantly stressed from not having enough purse space, and not having enough time to feed the banker fast enough. :)