I've only just started playing so my advice probably isn't useful however I managed to last a few weeks on an ice sheet with a tribal colony (and could have gone longer or shorter I suppose depending on rng)
Note, I made a custom scenario with only one tribal colonist and no items. As such, the single colonist may be an advantage here since I need less food.
I selected a random start and ended up on an ice sheet with no wood source and only a few rabbits running around. My colonist was only wearing a tribal loin cloth thing.
Looking around the map I saw that there was a rather large premade structure. I deconstructed one of the walls despite the warning of evil. Behind it was 6 pods and a bunch of bugs. I quickly opened a pod and all the people popped out, (along with a few more bugs). I looked at each of the sick colonists and found one that had a shotgun. I quickly grabbed the shot gun and kited the bugs then killed the nest.
Searching the bodies I found some warm clothes, threw those on and also found a few mood pulse things.
For the next couple days I buried bodies and set up a little shelter inside the tomb. Wood was the biggest issue, as I wasn't able to make a place to butcher nor did I have a light source. As such I spent a few nights eating bug corpses and burying bodies.
I eventually managed to murder a trader who arrived and took all his precious pemmican. Sadly he had no wood on him.
A wanderer joined and together they hunted rabbits and began researching things that would never be. Between the mood pulse artifacts and a chessboard they lasted many nights. Sadly a psych event happened that only affects females and both my colonists happened to be of the feminine persuasion. It wasn't long before one of them stripped naked and wandered off into the snow. By the time the other girl found her, she was dead. At the sight of her dead friend she too lost her mind. While she was passed out in the snow, and shortly before she died a caravan arrived. I can only assume they brought wood to trade, but I will never know.
Anyway, obviously there is a lot of chance involved, but I don't think it's impossible. It might be annoying though since a lot of luck would be involved. It's mainly getting the wood that seems to be the biggest challenge. I'm going to try again tonight.
Note, I made a custom scenario with only one tribal colonist and no items. As such, the single colonist may be an advantage here since I need less food.
I selected a random start and ended up on an ice sheet with no wood source and only a few rabbits running around. My colonist was only wearing a tribal loin cloth thing.
Looking around the map I saw that there was a rather large premade structure. I deconstructed one of the walls despite the warning of evil. Behind it was 6 pods and a bunch of bugs. I quickly opened a pod and all the people popped out, (along with a few more bugs). I looked at each of the sick colonists and found one that had a shotgun. I quickly grabbed the shot gun and kited the bugs then killed the nest.
Searching the bodies I found some warm clothes, threw those on and also found a few mood pulse things.
For the next couple days I buried bodies and set up a little shelter inside the tomb. Wood was the biggest issue, as I wasn't able to make a place to butcher nor did I have a light source. As such I spent a few nights eating bug corpses and burying bodies.
I eventually managed to murder a trader who arrived and took all his precious pemmican. Sadly he had no wood on him.
A wanderer joined and together they hunted rabbits and began researching things that would never be. Between the mood pulse artifacts and a chessboard they lasted many nights. Sadly a psych event happened that only affects females and both my colonists happened to be of the feminine persuasion. It wasn't long before one of them stripped naked and wandered off into the snow. By the time the other girl found her, she was dead. At the sight of her dead friend she too lost her mind. While she was passed out in the snow, and shortly before she died a caravan arrived. I can only assume they brought wood to trade, but I will never know.
Anyway, obviously there is a lot of chance involved, but I don't think it's impossible. It might be annoying though since a lot of luck would be involved. It's mainly getting the wood that seems to be the biggest challenge. I'm going to try again tonight.