A Tiny Mining Colony

How to build a tiny colony for miners (a mining camp)

Intro

This guide will describe how to prepare for and build a small mining colony on an island. A tiny colony, the smallest possible for mining ore or stone (or wood).

I am assuming that you are playing with Viking and dragon attacks turned on. If not, then you don’t need to build the fortifications and the Chamber of War and the Stone Mason. And you won’t be pressed for time to build fortifications. The rest of the colony, which I describe, will be the same.

I am also assuming that your main city is stable in population, well fed and well protected. You will need to turn your attention away from it for a while to build the mining colony. Your main city needs to be ready for auto-pilot.

Colony Blueprint

From the pictures above and below, you can see that a mining colony consists of a Keep, a dock, two wells and seven buildings, one of which is the Chamber of War for ballista.

• Food is the greatest concern that’s why there is a storage granary. It also helps keep the dock free of food.
  
• Three cottages will hold 36 colonists.
  
• The tavern keeps up their happiness.
  
• No tax boosts happiness as well.
  
• The clinic cures colonists with the plague (yes, it strikes even tiny colonies).
  
• The stone mason repairs damaged walls
  
• The Chamber of War is outside the wall since it is not attacked nor burned by Vikings or a dragon.

The fortifications are designed to keep out fire-happy Vikings, shoo away the dragons and slow up the ogres.

• The inner wall is 3-blocks high; a 6-block by 9-block rectangle
  
• The outer wall is 1-block high, ringing the inner wall.
  
• There are three gates (remove one if not needed).
  
• Two archer towers and two ballista towers guard the tiny colony. (You may need to add more around the mines if so needed.)

The archers and ballista operators are turned off between attacks, so more archers and ballista can be added without the need for more colonists.

There are NO FIELDS. No charcoal makers. No foresters. All food and supplies will need to be shipped in by transport ship.

A long-running tiny colony will eventually need a cemetery outside the fortifications.

The Devil is in the Details

A mining colony depends 100% on supplies from the main city. That's how it can be tiny colony.

Standing a tiny colony up on its feet will require much more of your attention than starting a city colony. Its all in the details.

Get Ready a Year Early

You will need to have these four things ready to roll before starting a mining colony:

• At least +75 in yearly food production by the main city.
  
• A dock dedicated to supplying the colony and a transport ship (more about this in the next section).
  
• An ample amount charcoal and wood ready for the colony.
  
• A HUGE amount of stone ready for building the colony.

About That Stone Supply

In total, you will need about 1,900 stone to build a fortified mining colony. Yes, that much stone. Plus 5 more stone for each ore mine or forester you build.

If your tiny colony's purpose is to quarry stone, then you have the advantage of not relying entirely on transport ships to deliver stone – although you will still need the deliveries.

Here’s where the stone will go:

• A Keep, a dock, two wells and seven buildings: 385 stone
  (The 50 stone which comes with a Keep will build the dock, two wells and two cottages.)
  
• An inner wall, 3-block high & 6 block by 9 block rectangle: 828 stone
  
• An outer wall, 1-block high & 8 by 11 block rectangle: 372 stone
  
• Four towers, 4 blocks taller than the wall: 192 stone
  
• Three Gates: 120 stone
  
• Two archers: 10 stone
  
• Two ballista: 10 stone

TOTAL: 1,917 stone

It would take one stone quarry about 80 years to yield 1,900 stone.
Four stone quarries would take 20 years.
Eight stone quarries would take 10 years.
(A stone quarry yields 24 stone per year, 29 with master workers).

THE POINT: Have lots of stone in ready AND lots of stone being quarried BEFORE starting a mining colony.

About the Food

Supplying food to a mining colony is relatively easy since the colonists are so few in number.

There will be a population of 36 at the colony (48 if you build a fourth cottage). Calculate that each person eats about 1.2 food units per year, it varies, and the tavern takes 15 per year.

With 3 full cottages, you will need to ship in 60 food per year (always add a little more for reserve in the granary).

With 4 full cottages, 75 food per year (plus reserve).

The Cargo Carousel

They should rename this game to Kingdoms, Castles and Cargo because cargo is a key thing in this game.

The Supply Dock

Let's start with the cargo at the dock at the main city which will supply the tiny colony.

• This needs to be a dock dedicated to ONLY the tiny colony - no trading with merchants, no supplying other colonies from this dock.
  
• Build it as close to the main city, as close to the stone mines as possible and still in a direct shot to the tiny colony.
  
• Place the dock workers' job priority high enough to make sure there are always workers.

Set the cargo amounts (the desired amounts) to:
Food - the amount needed per year for the number of colonists plus reserve (lock)
Wood - 100 (lock)
Stone - 250 (lock) - See *Note below
Charcoal - 25 (lock)
Ore - 25 to 50 (no lock) - delivered from mining colony

*Note: To 'push' stone to your dock, set every stockpile in your main city to a desired amount of 5 or 10 stone. Stop selling stone to merchant ships. Set all other docks to a desired amount of zero stone. This will free up stores of stone to be moved to the supply dock for the tiny colony.

Lock all the cargo going to the mining colony at the supply dock to stop city workers from removing the cargo.

Set dock cargo amounts higher than transport ship’s cargo amount to always have more ready and waiting for the next trip.

Give the dock workers a year’s time to start accumulating these cargo onto the dock before starting the tiny colony.

The Mining Colony Dock

The mining colony dock should be set to:
Food - 200 ( Reduce to 10 AFTER the granary is built)
Wood - 200 (Reduce to 25 after everything is built)
Stone - 300 (Reduce to 50 after everything is built)
Charcoal - 200
Ore - 200 (if mining ore)

Don’t lock anything because the dock is also serving as the stockpile.
Do not allow merchant ships to dock.

The Transport Ship

Transport ships can carry 270 units of cargo. Here is a recommended consist to start with:
Pickup at Supply Dock:
Food - The food needed per year plus reserve
Wood - 50 (See >Note below)
Stone - 150
Charcoal - 10

Dropoff at Supply dock: Ore - 200

Dropoff at Mining Colony Dock: Food, Wood, Charcoal, Stone - 200
Pickup at Mining Colony Dock: Ore - 100

>Note: The colony will require about 660 wood for building and fortifications, of which 75 comes with the Keep.

From Start to Finish: Building a Tiny Colony

Count it Out

Save your game in case you need to restart the colony.
Survey the island to decide where to place the Keep.

• The Keep should be at least 3 squares from the dock to leave room for the wall and small granary.
  
• The Keep needs to be no more than 5 squares from the dock since the dock will serve as the stockpile for the colony (and as the granary early on).
  
• It doesn't matter where trees are or where fertile soil is because wood and food will be delivered to the colony. Place the Keep based on 3-5 squares from the dock.
  
• There needs to be room for the 9 by 11 square fortifications around the Keep. Count it out.

Start the Mining Colony

Wait until right after a Viking attack and when the snow is off the ground so you can see the squares.

Place the Keep
Build a road to the dock and other roads
Build a cottage
Build the dock.
>Rename the dock to something you can remember. Set the cargo amounts in the dock as described above. Launch the transport ship.

Set Job Priority to:

• Builders
  
• Dock Workers

Build the two wells
Build a small granary

Set the job priority of granary workers below dock workers









Build the second cottage.
Build the first archer tower; 7 blocks high which requires a 3-block support.

• Set the job priority of Archers at the top of the
  list. (turn off until a year before an attack)
  
• This will shoo away the dragons and inflict
  some damage on the Vikings.
  
• When an attack occurs, the granary workers,
  docs and bartenders leave what they are doing
  to man the towers.

Build the second archer tower.
(If the colony is quarrying stone, then start a quarry and then a second quarry as population allows)
Build the third cottage
Build the tavern

Set job priority of bartenders below dock workers and above granary workers
(Set quarry workers above builders until fortifications are ready.)




(You may wish to build the Chamber of War before beginning the wall and then build the ballista towers. This depends on your choice, the supply of stone and when the next attack will take place.)

Ring the colony with first course or layer of block of the inner wall.
Add the gates. This will keep out the pesky Vikings but do little to stop the ogres.
Build the clinic. Place job priority of doctors right below bartenders, above granary workers.

Make sure that shipments of stone are the best they can be, otherwise do some tweaking to cargo amounts or even build a special transport to haul stone from another dock.



Build 2 ore mines (if mining ore, else two foresters if harvesting wood)
Build the stone mason.

Place the job priority of stone mason above builders but TURN it OFF until needed after an attack.
Place miners right below masons and above dock workers.





Add another layer of block around the inner wall
Build the Chamber of War outside the walls when you have 75 stone.

Place military training at the bottom of the job priority list and keep it turned off.








Build the ballista towers. Place the job priority right below archers. Turn off ballistas until needed.

Finish the inner wall making it 3-blocks high

Build the outer ring wall,1-block high (increase this to 2-block high as soon as possible)

Job Priorities

To the left is the ranking of job priorities for the tiny colony.

The archers and ballista are turned off until a year before an attack.

The stone mason is turned off until after an attack so they can repair the walls.

The military trainers in the Chamber of War are always turned off.

Finishing Touches

Build any additional towers around the mines, quarries or foresters.

Build a fourth cottage if more mines are needed.

Once all the building is done, lower the amount of stone being delivered by the transport ship to about 5 per year.

• Tweak the food, charcoal and wood amounts on the transport ship to a steady, maintenance amount which does not accumulate on the dock too quickly. (Haul it away if it does.)
  
  
• Adjust the supply dock to match these cargo amounts.
  
  
• Set up a transport ship(s) to haul away the ore, stone or wood which the colony is bringing to the dock.

If the population of the colony is not growing fast enough, build a town center outside the walls and hold a festival.


You’re done. The colony is up and going!

[GreatWhite]

You could fit a manor and and 1 cottage if you place it right

[sniffgifted]

Wow, BRAVO! This worked out super good. Now i have constant supply of resources. Great job.

[Alexcat6]

olilee-in the "maritime" section, at the end, you will see the option to make an outpost that you can place on another island

[albriradios]

olileee - A new Keep costs 100 wood, 200 stone & 250 gold. Have that ready. Then find the "Outpost Keep" in the building selections. Place this keep on an island. (I haven't played this game in over a year so things might have changed from what I just told you.)

[olileee]

I feel like I'm missing something - how do you build a second keep?

[sfingers02]

No, vikings attack after 50 pop or 40 years

[Ninjaman]

Don't the vikings only attack after you've reached 100 people? Doesn't this count for the colonies as well?