The version of Banished I will be reviewing in this article is a full-fledged expansion of the game, the Colonial Charter mod. Initially a one-man development effort, Banished has, since its release in 2014, established itself as a perennial favourite in the niche market of city-building simulations, attracting a loyal fan base and a lively community of modders in its wake. The Art and Science of the Village Surplus Add to this the freeing up of individual “home slots” whenever an aging worker passes, and you’ve got a population puzzle that requires constant monitoring, and tweaking.

Build too many homes, and you’ll have people living in them alone, with the same dismal result. Build too few homes, and the families will bunch up together, not letting young couples do what comes natural, and bring little ones into the world. Basically, you must build new homes adjusted to your population growth. Wondering why so many people are dying off, and too few births to compensate? That one took me a few dead villages to figure out. Keeping a good reserve of tools therefore also means keeping a constant eye on iron extraction, and making sure there’s lots of wood coming in for both home heating and tool making.Īnd then there’s that fluctuating birth-to-death ratio, pressing you to constantly re-allocate your narrow labour pool. That’s your whole village economy that’s about to grind to a halt, all because you didn’t foresee the timely arrival of iron ore and wood into your resource stockpiles, or didn’t have a village forge running properly. But what about less straightforward indicators? For example, the lack of tools? Once those little yellow tool icons start popping up above your villagers’ heads, it’s only a matter of time that they’ll become unable to go about their tasks.

Symbols from banished the game