Colony Challenges

[Silvador]

Does anyone attempt to challenge their colony building abilities? For example, I'm going to make a new colony, tunnel my three guys into a mountain and see how long I can survive just on berries and a small fireplace, possibly other humans that pass by.

If anyone self-imposes certain stipulations upon themselves, I'd love to hear about them and their successes/failures.

[Negocromn]

dunno how it is now, but in the first alphas raiders would just not do anything if you had nothing built

[Innese]

I haven't done any for A13 yet, but back in A12 I did a tech-up run.

Started with... I forget if it was 3 or 5... Colonists with purely tribal/low-tech backstories, along with a mod or two to actually make a no-tech colony a thing. The idea was no power, no technology -unless- we somehow happened to get a colonist with a research skill of 15 or higher.

[Silvador]

I haven't done any for A13 yet, but back in A12 I did a tech-up run.

Started with... I forget if it was 3 or 5... Colonists with purely tribal/low-tech backstories, along with a mod or two to actually make a no-tech colony a thing. The idea was no power, no technology -unless- we somehow happened to get a colonist with a research skill of 15 or higher.

And how did it turn out?

[Limdood]

i almost exclusively play no turrets, no mortars.

All fighting is pure manpower/traps/cover

[Boston]

I like to play under "tribal" rules

1) No power
2) No guns, unless you kill/trade for them (trading for guns is rather hard, as you don't make too much money)

What becomes immediately apparent is that 1) your pawns need to be USEFUL in order to be part of the colony, and, relatedly, 2) High Crafting/Artistic skills are NECESSARY. You NEED to be able to crank out high-quality weapons and clothing, to combat the lack of powered heaters, etc

If  they aren't skilled at SOMETHING, or just plain suck in general, I kick pawns out into the wilderness. Old people, unless they are great weavers, crafters or doctors, get kicked out almost immediately. If you can't fight, you get kicked out. If you refuse to work, into the woods you go.

You also need to micro the hell out of your fighters. Ranged combatants would go play "Guerrilla warfare" with any enemies, while melee combatants would stay in the longhouse to protect it and any older tribespeople. I would also play with a "Backpack" mod, which means, depending on skills, my fighters could switch between ranged and melee on the fly. Clever usage of cover and terrain is a must, as well as usage of traps, bleeding, and using your "superior" weapons to the fullest. An Excellent Greatbow / Wooden mace combo will handily beat a survival rifle/pistol matchup, with heavy use of clever skirmishing

Here are some of the mods I used:
Combat realism
Vegetable Garden
Animal Hide working
Rugs
Food Preservation
Mountain Temp
Ish's Medieval Shields ( a must for melee combat)
etc

[Sorenzo]

I just ramp up the difficulty level.

The harder ones are kinda tough. I tend to hoard too much of something, only to scramble when I realize something else is more relevant right now.

I need to get better at this game...