ŠumadijaHow to survive your first winter
The first winter is where most villages fall apart. Not because it is hard, but because it arrives sooner than you expect: a year has four seasons of six days each, so from the first morning to the first snow you have eighteen days.
Count your firewood ahead of time
A wooden house burns two firewood a day in winter. Winter lasts six days, so that is 12 firewood per house, plus whatever the cook uses for cooking. With two houses at the start it looks like nothing, but people arrive, houses get built and the number grows.
As winter approaches, the advisor at the top of the screen tells you how much is missing. If you see a message like "Za zimu fali ~37 ogreva" ("~37 firewood short for winter"), that is not a warning for later, it is a job for today.
Logs: down the river or onto the block
The button in the bottom left decides what happens to logs. It has two settings:
- Down the river (u reku): logs float downstream and are sold for dinars. Good at the very start, when you need money.
- Chopping (na cepanje): logs go to the chopping block and become firewood.
The most common mistake is leaving it on "down the river" until autumn. Switch to chopping by the middle of summer at the latest.
Mushrooms before winter, not during
There are no mushrooms in winter. In spring and summer the forager brings raw food, and the cook turns it into meals. Everyone eats one meal a day, so six winter days need six meals per person, all gathered in advance.
If food still runs out, the shop is there. It is expensive, but hungry people work slower, and they can die.
Cabbage in summer, sauerkraut in winter
Once you have fields, plant plenty of cabbage in summer. In autumn the cook pickles it, and sauerkraut protects against illness in winter. People get sick more often in winter, especially when they are hungry or cold.
A short checklist for the end of summer
- Logs are switched to chopping.
- You have at least twelve firewood for every house.
- You have six days of food for everyone.
- Nobody is idle (People tab).
- Storage is not full, or new supplies will have nowhere to go.
Once the village sees its first spring, the next goal is a second winter and ten people, and your hamlet becomes a village.