Banished: Creating a Riverside Brewery (Intro)

A Tavern in Banished

Simply surviving isn’t enough for the occupants of Riverside Seven, I’ll want to keep everyone alive of course, but I’ll also be making sure the town’s folk are good and merry from washing down plenty of locally produced ales and ciders from our resident Riverside Seven Brewers.

So why Riverside Seven, what does the 7 represent?

Well, there are a number of ingredients that can be grown/bought/harvested to brew ale in Banished (by Shining Rock Software). In total there are 7 (wheat and 6 fruits such as apple), and I’ll be aiming to brew all 7 by the river, via our Riverside Seven Brewers.

Achievements / Targets

So what is the end result, what am I aiming to accomplish and how will that be measured?

• In keeping with the name of our settlement, I want every Tavern to be located alongside a river. I’ll want them to be fairly close-knit so there isn’t a huge trek between drinkeries and the local populace. I’ll want a tranquil and picturesque location by a riverside and I don’t want the Taverns to be next to mining facilities for example, that’d just ruin the atmos. With all of this in mind, I’ll be using a small, valley based map.
• An ale trail! Each Tavern will be connected via paths/bridges/tunnels etc, to create a pub crawl route (which I’ll have to imagine the town’s folk using!)
• Each Tavern will brew it’s own specialist ale/cider, so one for each type of ale/cider that can be brewed. That means I’ll need a minimum of 7 Taverns for each brewable ingredient:
  • Wheat
  • Apple
  • Pear
  • Cherries
  • Berries
  • Plum
  • Peach
• The likelihood of having all of the seeds/foraging spots to grow/forage all of the above is incredibly unlikely (probably impossible) at the game start, so I’ll need a well stocked Trading Post and some patience as I wait for those seeds/produce to become available for barter
• Each specialist Tavern will have it’s own orchards/crop fields close by, for both appearance and easier access to ingredients (in theory)
• High levels of happiness – this will be difficult to measure since lots of things can contribute to settler’s general happiness; they might be sad because they’re hungry, cold or someone in the family has died, so I’ll be aiming for 4 stars or higher as a general rule of thumb

A Tavern with a Pear Orchard

What’s needed to run a Brewery?

In truth you don’t need much to get started, but there are plenty of things that can be done to speed up the brewing process, improve efficiency and makes thinks look/feel more realistic.

A Tavern with a Pear Orchard by a lake

Essentials / Basics

To run a brewery you need a Tavern, at least one brewer in that Tavern, and the appropriate ingredients (wheat and/or fruit), which means you also need an Orchard and Gathering Hut (to grow/collect fruit) and a Crop Field (to grow wheat), with those you also need gatherers/farmers to do the graft.

Additional Helpfuls

• Storage Barns or Markets close by each Tavern to help with the efficiency and speed of collecting ingredients
• Blacksmith – tools for faster brewing
• Education! Workers are better at their jobs if educated, so we’ll eventually need Schools
• Stone roads between Taverns, Orchards, Crop Fields, Gathering Huts and Storage Barns to speed up both brewing and consumption
• Try to have a few labourers spare at all times – they collect ale and place it in the tavern’s inventory, but if they’re not available the brewer will stop brewing delicious ales to perform that menial task themselves, reducing their level of output
• Foods that go well with beer tasting – I’m probably going too far with this one (and it’s a personal preference) but I think my town’s folk are going to need some hearty foods to soak up all of this ale they’re drinking – I’m thinking game (venison), nuts and dairy produce, so we’ll need a Hunting Cabin, a Gatherer’s Hut and a Dairy Farm to produce those supplementary snacks

Any comments/suggestions for this simulation are very welcome! Just leave me a line below.