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Critch · 07-23-2015, 08:57 PM

Burrel of Turia

I've been on-and-off hooked on Banished (the medieval town builder/resource manager/trading/survival type game) since it was released, I'd recommend it highly to anybody who's into the whole town builder vibe. Now it's been out for a good amount of time I'm a veteran of a couple of successful-ish towns, so I'm now looking to the Steam Achievements for ideas for challenges. The town of Turia was my attempt at "Mountain Men - Using a harsh climate and a small mountainous map, maintain a population of 50 people for 20 years".

It's really not an overly difficult challenge so long as you can get through the first winter without your people starving/freezing, and then get a blacksmith up and running before the reserves of tools run out some time in year two. Harsh weather means no crop farming (I think) but with forest gatherers, a hunting lodge and some fishermen it should be easy enough to keep a smallish town ticking over for 20 years. Further into the game there will be a couple of years where the original settlers get old and do annoying old people things (take up housing, eat food, and not breed) but it should mainly be a case of setting the town up and letting it run.

At the end of Year 7, Turia was set to go and running along on its own. Population was in the mid 60s, the town was self-sufficient on food, and there was some sheep farming going on to provide wool for nice toasty clothing (and some delicious mutton!). There was also a trading post sending out surplus firewood for strange exotic foods like apples and beans to keep the Turian diet varied. It was at this point I realized I now had 20 years (game time) of a fairly boring game. Few changes, no building, just waiting and hoping we don’t get hit by a tornado to dip the population below 50. I never play at more than x1 speed as I like to watch my little towns, so it wouldn’t be quick. That's when I had the idea of a dynasty to follow one family through the 20 years.

The plan was to pick the first baby born and stick with him/her through the ups and downs of Turia. People age at approximately 5 years for every game year, so the 20 years town time would be about 100 years people time so there would be a few generations to follow, we'd be onto great-grandchildren before the challenge ended.

Burrel was born in late winter at the start of Year 10, the only son of Yosseler the Gatherer and Eldridger the Woodcutter. If it's not obvious from the names, Yosseler was the mother. He was a normal Turia kid, played in the graveyard and learned his alphabet, numbers and how to use leeches in the local schoolhouse. Things can go badly wrong without education, so a schoolhouse is always one of the first buildings a town needs. It wasn’t until he was in his early 20s that it became apparent he wasn’t a good pick for a family dynasty. While his schoolmates were moving out, cohabiting and breeding by 14, Burrel was still at home with the parents. Burrel bounced from job to job, one season he was a Forester, next an Herbalist, next a Vendor at the market. To be fair I don’t know if this is the normal way jobs work in Banished, but I'm sticking with the idea than Burrel was a waster who couldnt hold down a job.

Eldridger died when Burrel was in his mid-20s, Burrel carried on living at home with his mom. By 28 it was obvious Burrel would never find love and would never provide the family tree my dynasty was going to follow. Sure, Javie the Woodcutter was 27 when he found true love and shacked up with a 12 year old girl, but he was lucky. Burrel's chance was gone; there were now a group of eligible teenage boys hanging around to snatch up the Turia prime schoolgirls when they reached marrying age (12 to 14, things were different back then I guess). The only single females in town for Burrel to chase were Thuraminder the Fisherwomen (a 77 year old widow) and his mom. And Thuraminder smelled of fish.

In different times Burrel would have turned to alcohol and joined an online OOTP league, but Turia didn’t have a brewery and even OOTP 1 was hundreds of years in the future. When the message popped up in the summer of Year 16 that "Burrel the Woodcutter has died in an accident with an axe" it was probably a blessed release for him. His stats say he was happy and healthy right up until the moment of his accident, juggling axes to impress passing schoolgirls probably, but deep down he must have welcomed death's calming embrace. He was 33 years old, I think.

And with that I got bored of Turia and the 20 years wait and moved onto the town of Bennebunk and the "Isolationist - Reach 300 citizens without building a trading post" challenge.

Downtown Turia. Burrel's former house is at the North East corner beside the graveyard.

07-23-2015, 08:57 PM	#102
Critch lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Herndon, VA	Burrel of Turia I've been on-and-off hooked on Banished (the medieval town builder/resource manager/trading/survival type game) since it was released, I'd recommend it highly to anybody who's into the whole town builder vibe. Now it's been out for a good amount of time I'm a veteran of a couple of successful-ish towns, so I'm now looking to the Steam Achievements for ideas for challenges. The town of Turia was my attempt at "Mountain Men - Using a harsh climate and a small mountainous map, maintain a population of 50 people for 20 years". It's really not an overly difficult challenge so long as you can get through the first winter without your people starving/freezing, and then get a blacksmith up and running before the reserves of tools run out some time in year two. Harsh weather means no crop farming (I think) but with forest gatherers, a hunting lodge and some fishermen it should be easy enough to keep a smallish town ticking over for 20 years. Further into the game there will be a couple of years where the original settlers get old and do annoying old people things (take up housing, eat food, and not breed) but it should mainly be a case of setting the town up and letting it run. At the end of Year 7, Turia was set to go and running along on its own. Population was in the mid 60s, the town was self-sufficient on food, and there was some sheep farming going on to provide wool for nice toasty clothing (and some delicious mutton!). There was also a trading post sending out surplus firewood for strange exotic foods like apples and beans to keep the Turian diet varied. It was at this point I realized I now had 20 years (game time) of a fairly boring game. Few changes, no building, just waiting and hoping we don’t get hit by a tornado to dip the population below 50. I never play at more than x1 speed as I like to watch my little towns, so it wouldn’t be quick. That's when I had the idea of a dynasty to follow one family through the 20 years. The plan was to pick the first baby born and stick with him/her through the ups and downs of Turia. People age at approximately 5 years for every game year, so the 20 years town time would be about 100 years people time so there would be a few generations to follow, we'd be onto great-grandchildren before the challenge ended. Burrel was born in late winter at the start of Year 10, the only son of Yosseler the Gatherer and Eldridger the Woodcutter. If it's not obvious from the names, Yosseler was the mother. He was a normal Turia kid, played in the graveyard and learned his alphabet, numbers and how to use leeches in the local schoolhouse. Things can go badly wrong without education, so a schoolhouse is always one of the first buildings a town needs. It wasn’t until he was in his early 20s that it became apparent he wasn’t a good pick for a family dynasty. While his schoolmates were moving out, cohabiting and breeding by 14, Burrel was still at home with the parents. Burrel bounced from job to job, one season he was a Forester, next an Herbalist, next a Vendor at the market. To be fair I don’t know if this is the normal way jobs work in Banished, but I'm sticking with the idea than Burrel was a waster who couldnt hold down a job. Eldridger died when Burrel was in his mid-20s, Burrel carried on living at home with his mom. By 28 it was obvious Burrel would never find love and would never provide the family tree my dynasty was going to follow. Sure, Javie the Woodcutter was 27 when he found true love and shacked up with a 12 year old girl, but he was lucky. Burrel's chance was gone; there were now a group of eligible teenage boys hanging around to snatch up the Turia prime schoolgirls when they reached marrying age (12 to 14, things were different back then I guess). The only single females in town for Burrel to chase were Thuraminder the Fisherwomen (a 77 year old widow) and his mom. And Thuraminder smelled of fish. In different times Burrel would have turned to alcohol and joined an online OOTP league, but Turia didn’t have a brewery and even OOTP 1 was hundreds of years in the future. When the message popped up in the summer of Year 16 that "Burrel the Woodcutter has died in an accident with an axe" it was probably a blessed release for him. His stats say he was happy and healthy right up until the moment of his accident, juggling axes to impress passing schoolgirls probably, but deep down he must have welcomed death's calming embrace. He was 33 years old, I think. And with that I got bored of Turia and the 20 years wait and moved onto the town of Bennebunk and the "Isolationist - Reach 300 citizens without building a trading post" challenge. Downtown Turia. Burrel's former house is at the North East corner beside the graveyard. Last edited by Critch : 07-23-2015 at 09:14 PM.