Conquer Early Game

Struggling with surviving through the first few winters? Here are a few tips and tricks to get you through the growing pains.

Intro

So... you're struggling. You keep restarting the map but, gosh darn it, your people keep dying. One time it's food. But, you solved it-- oh, darn no! Now it's the firewood! Why can't these muts just burn the dead for the heat-- that got way too dark way too quickly.

"Patron's" early game can be quite a bit frustrating and challenging, especially since the feedback on what you did so horribly wrong to land yourself in such a situation is mostly non-existent. In reality, however, it's usually one of the few things:

1. you expanded too quickly
2. you didn't upgrade the buildings
3. you kept building 'Gatherer's Huts' 'cause it's your favorite job
4. you forgot 'Sawmill' was in the game

This (very lite, mind you) guide will help you get through the first few years and help you set up your Town for the future when it will blossom into a gigaopolis. Well, hopefully help. Read on to find out how.

First Year

This guide assumes you will play with Default settings on the mediterranean map.

First year is all about stock-piling enough food & firewood to get you through the first winter. As such, your priorities should be as follows: getting up every production building except for 'Herbalist's hut' with at least 90% productivity. Since it's a mediterranean map, you can easily cap a 95% at minimum of each just north of the Townhall while plopping tents on the south side. Just make sure to clear up all the extra stone lying around and gather some trees for extra lumber. Something like this:


Furthermore, at the same time, you should immediately pick up Fisherman's Hut from the research panel:




Next priority should be getting up Sawmill & a Fisherman's Hut and getting a couple of upgrades on each. If you're really gearing up to stock food, you can also get 'Expansion I' upgrade for Gatherer's Hut. Don't worry about spending early-game gold since it's much more important to kickstart early-game stocks. Also make sure to get up at least one 'Depot' up to have extra room. The rest of the year is essentially just the repeat of this: if you can afford it, grab a second Fisherman's Hut but no need to push it, an upgraded one should be enough. Don't try to expand aggressively and just steadily stock resources until the next year rolls out. Also note that there's a chance you'll get an event if you aggressively spend all your gold whereas the King will just give you extra 250, so don't be shy. You can use the extra gold to research 'Quarry' & 'Mine' but don't build them just yet.


My stock going into the first winter

Second Year

My stockpiles going into Year 2 (having already built a Quarry & Iron Mine)







After successfully surviving the first year, it's time we brave it a bit-- it's time to expand!... kind of. You see, the first major goal for you should be to build your first 'Dock' and start trading. Until then, it's all about just stockpiling and surviving and being smart with the 'Tools' resource. Besides continuing to stockpile food & firewood, the goal for this year is to get up ALL 3 mines off the ground. You can also play it safely and just go for Stone & Iron (since 'Hunting Lodge' needs iron and coal is still unnecessary) depending on which events you get. Build extra few houses (not Tents), continue upgrading, and try to get 'Ice Fishing' if possible.



If you get these random events, just take whatever is offered or, if you have a choice, take PEOPLE instead of goods since you should be fine with food & firewood.





Since I got lucky with the events, I decided to accelerate my build & plop down 'Dock' in Year 2 whereas I usually wait for Year 3 until I stabilize a bit more. You can do it as well if you have excess of Food & Firewood since you can use 'em to trade for extra Tools to upgrade.



In case you get an event like one down below, don't give up food: -15 Safety is nothing.


Spend the rest of the 2nd year either plopping down Houses, or upgrading existing buildings. If you have extra workers, either put them into 'Fisherman's Hut' or build a 'Coal Mine', but the latter is still optional since you'll only need coal once you plop down a 'Toolsmith'.

Third Year (and onward)

First three years are pretty much break-or-make points for your run. If you survive them with a decent bulk, just playing normally afterwards will be more than enough.

For the third year, focus on expanding further: definitely get a 'Coal Mine', plop down a 'Herbalist Hut' as well, and a 'Toolsmith', you can make it a point of your economy, actually, since 'Tools' sell for quite a lot. Using that gold, you can then transition quickly into early-game expansion, or you can just play it safe and continue to stockpile. Your population will also see a mild explosion in the next few years, probably climbing into 40ish adults (possibly more if you get lucky with the Events), which is when you can really dive into the expansion.

For safety, focus on getting these research points (in this order):






After researching 'Field Crop 1', you gain access to 'Tobacco' -- it sells for 2x through the docks (minus the fee), it's easy to produce, cheap, and can literally hold your economy.

Mind you, you don't need to rush any of these: you can just take your sweet time. However, I do implore you to avoid early game decrees-- they usually take up too much gold and their benefits are barely (if at all) noticable. In fact, you can entirely ignore decrees until you get to these three (which are much further down the line):



You can take it slow-- focus on stockpiling, avoiding aggressive expansion (so limiting any potential immigration), and simply survive until you hit the critical mass.

Here's a few extra tips for the years beyond the Third:

1. Always, always, always make sure you have 'Wells' laying around. They're cheap and they can save your run.
2. Social stuff (Happiness, Taxes, Safety, Religion etc.) are extremely easy to navigate so don't worry too much about them
3. There's no need to rush luxuries just because you're out of them. They usually need a steady production chain and should only be built once you're secure with food/lumber/firewood
4. Docks(harbors) are your friends. At a certain point, a good chunk of your gameplay will be trading, so don't build too close to the shore so there's no room for 10-20 docks.
5. Though food diversity matters, it's minimal.
6. Avoid 'Bakeries' if you wanna min-max. They take away Wheat from Beer!
7. Farms are everything. Use the 'G' shortcut to check out the most fertile soil. Don't settle.
8. Though town buildings' placement (Cathedral, Church, Market, Inn, School, etc.) matters, it's not game-breaking. However, always build settlements with a gaping hole in the center for at least the 'Market' since you can suck a decent amount of gold with it by a good placement.
9. Don't waste time on 'beautifying' anything since it doesn't matter. That is, of course, if you don't just wanna make it prettier for yourself. Then go for it.
10. Insulate everything. Everything. It saves so much firewood it's insane.
11. Most importantly of all, however... just have fun and play at your own pace :)

Closing thoughts

The hardest part of 'Patron' is by far the early game. This especially becomes true once you go to the harder maps. However, it's not impossible; some early planning and patience goes a long way in ensuring it's gonna be a smooth run.

The key is not to expand too much too early and to avoid wasting precious gold on unnecessary research points (like hedges, lmfao) and using it instead on upgrades & trading.

After you've mastered the early game, I present you with these few challenges so you can try it again, a bit differently:

1. You aren't allowed to build any mines (Stone, Iron, Coal) and can only get the resources through 'Trading'
2. You aren't allowed up upgrade any buildings until Year 5
3. You can't build fisheries

Here's hoping you'll have as much, if not more, fun with the game as I have :)

[Ghiron]

One note about the foundations event you mentioned. This event has specific requirements you have to meet in year 1 and you will get it every time if you have events enabled and you meet the requirements.

Must be year 1
Must have at least 1 Gatherer Hut
Must have at least 1 Sawmill
Must have at least 1 Depot
Must have at least 6 Houses/Tents

Then you get 150 Corn, 150 firewood, and 150 Lumber

You must meet the requirements in year 1 to trigger the event, and you will get it every game.

[chad gamer]

@dust1n
Sorry it took me so long to reply-- yes, there are Policies you can research that lower taxes. I can't remember their names off the top of my head, but there should be 1 policy per the class of people (so one for Peasants, Laborers etc.)

[dust1n_0414]

Is there a way to lower taxes?