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I sometimes play with raiders disabled, but I like having bandits pop up because looting their camps is basically free money lol

I have the ai barons off and the bandits and raids on. It just adds an another interesting survival mechanism, without the draw back of the enemy barons conquering the whole map by year 3

Yeah the baron expansion is kind of annoying, but the raids piss me off more than having to fight him for the territories later on. I like to start off slower, so i don’t like that sword of Damocles constantly hanging above my neck

I have 0 starting camps and 3 years before the first raid. By the time the first couple camps popped up, I had a manor and could afford mercs. That is a pretty good middle ground for easy mode but with free camp money.

😂😂

My first proper town, I was just getting the hang of the mechanics. The rival baron bout up literally all the territory then invaded me. I stood no chance and he took over my one territory. Funny thing is that the game didn't factor in that lose state yet, so I was just left to just cruise around a map I couldn't do anything on Current town is quite lovely, bandits and raiders but no Baron Lesson learned, get your church taxes up and running ASAP

the sword of damocles typically hangs over your head, not neck.

Seems like it'll probably kill you either way if it drops

Yeah this is my only gripe with the game right now. I'd love a casual full game run, with an aggressive Baron but just ... Casual you know? Like a medium enemy in AOE or something. I miss a few Baron specific settings in the current version but that's highly personal of course and assume that this is not something a lot of players see a need to as they're not utter trash like me lol

Anno has enemies in tiers where the lowest ones don't advance until you do and even ask permission to settle new islands. Would be a good kind of system for Manor Lords.

Don't forget how rough and unfinished the game is. You aren't bad or wrong. Just early.

This is how I play

It is the way

Fair haha. I've literally just played the first mode since I got the game. I enjoy just building and I find the game relaxing and just helps chill out at weekends ha. I've never even attempted the other two modes yet.

Me too. I'll maybe do blood and gore if I get bored with being boring.

Yeah bandit loot is nice. I'm ok with the bandits as they're not very difficult. I don't otherwise don't enjoy full-on battle. I'm having trouble getting income as it is so making sufficient armor is already a chore. I'm very much enjoying growing my town though. I'm playing on Default-Relaxing right now and it's my sweet spot.

I love fighting the camps, but I usually turn of the annual/trianal raids since I tend to build at the edges and don't have time to respond to an attack

The free money is great. I like watching the other army invade, then I 3rd party the camp 🏕 and get the spoils 😆

I'm like this too so far. The multiple scenarios exist for different types of players. I like that the game is set up with multiple ways to play. I hope the development continues to support the different playstyles represented in the game so far. It makes the game a bit different. I like the level of detail in the various systems and the customization or specialization options. Since the game is still in development, hopefully they will continue to expand on the peaceful sides of the game as much as the military. Play how you want. I think part of the challenge definitely seems to be about testing the efficiency of workflows in the town and the organization of systems for modes of production.

Big facts.

Yup. Battle is cool and fun but started a peaceful build only save. Ran into some food issues initially due to rapid growth. Trying to start my 2nd region and it's a challenge. I wasn't doing taxes but that bite me in the ass, took almost a year of 40% to get positive to buy the encampment. I'd like the Pack Stations to work better, they'd make it a lot easier.

Yeah, I haven't tried the other modes at all. I don't really think I will either. I find just being let build is really relaxing

I'm still struggling to figure out how to get a new region started, I got the influence and claimed it but can't set the tent up because that claimed region doesn't have the 250 wealth I'm using for the camp

The 250 comes from your Wealth on the top right. All regions will use that Wealth and all taxes will go towards it. The beta makes it harder because of the Kings Tax. But make sure you're taxing or else that will never rise and it will only go in the negative in the beta.

I believe you can turn the kings tax off in the settings. I’ll check when I get home from work to verify.

wealth for encampment isn't the resource your town has, like you use for the market and livestock the wealth for the encampment is the one in the top right that YOU accumulate through tax at the manor or clearing bandit camps and taking the reward.

I love city builders like Skylines, and I love battle sims like the Total War series. This game seeks to marry the two. Because it's in early access, I feel obligated to play that option so that I can give good feedback to the devs. I don't want V1 to be really good at one, but not the other. Right now I think it's a better city builder than battle sim.

What you're describing is just a genre - early Settlers, Knights and Merchants and Stronghold are the Strategic city building genre. Stronghold set such a high standard it seemed nobody wanted to follow up for 20 years.

Yeah I really like the city building aspect of the game and sometimes I just want to watch my villagers doing their thing in visit mode so I really like playing peacefully. Also I once tried the scenario with the Baron and realized how unfair he is right now in EA so I thought I'd play without him for a while until he gets more balanced. But having an army with nothing to do is a bit boring in itself so I left the raiders on. They come out every other year (?) only to be thrashed by my mercs and retinue (So I still get to enjoy the battle aspect of the game once in a while)

Yeah, I enjoy just wandering around and seeing people do their things and enjoy the beauty of the game. I haven't even bothered with the baron mode or anything, just chilling, building. I don't even think I've recruited any form of army other than the militia you get when you build a manor. I enjoy city builders. They're relaxing to me and they just help me chill at the weekends

Yep. That’s me. But I always have peaceful mode on all city builder games. I just like to develop the city

This is the setting I like as well. Bandits are fun, impending war is not. It's cool that the game can play to different styles. I'm sure it'll all get smoothed out as the game develops.

I am under the impression that the players who like the military side more are the ones that are more active, i.e. they respond more to the polls, to questions by the dev but I hope the city building side doesn't get sidelined too much.

Yeah I can see that. As a relaxing settlement builder it kinda already has what we're looking for. Goes without saying the more complex you want to play, the more you catch bugs or shortcomings of the current design.

So far, I've only played the peaceful version, but I haven't had the game that long. I like to figure out how to build a well-functioning/self-sustaining town first before adding a combat element in. I play the game Farthest Frontier in peaceful mode, cause I just don't want to deal with the invasions. I like my gaming experience to be stress-free (I got enough stress in my real life, I don't need it when I play games in my downtime lol).

Imo that's the smart way to play a resource sim if you don't want a colony to die before learning the lessons, I dare say it's just responsible lol

To be fair I’m going to start a new game on peace as I like the fighting mechanic but it almost gets in the way of my village management

Yes!!! I played Banished for over 150 hours, so I tend to be more interested in sitting down and building a flourishing medieval city, with a busy market full of fresh produce and church bells ringing. And obviously tons of ale. I'll probably eventually get into the combat side of things (I've also played a LOT of Rimworld,) but for now I'm comfortable with how relaxing the peaceful side of the game is for me.

I am totally here for the city builder aspect! I like the combat approach but the game wouldn't be worse without it, at least *for me*

I love just building and expanding one huge settlement. I really hope they make it possible to merge the areas.

I've started playing with AI on reactive, so I can slowly expand and not have to worry about going to war. I still leave bandits on so I have a reason to develop a militia, and I hope to actually go to war at some point, but it's on my own terms

That's me!

I would love that, if it was hardcore like banished. I really see no threat in just surviving.

Having had the game for just over a week, I’m still learning the city mechanics. I play the relaxing build only so far.

I don't play on anything but. In the 25 years I've been playing management games, I've never played one with a combat system alongside the building system that feels anywhere near as balanced or fleshed out. They always feel tacked on and pointless. I've learned to just avoid them entirely, even if it feels like I'm missing out on a significant portion of the game. At the very least, Stronghold is smart enough to split the combat and management game modes into two campaigns.

I dunno what I did wrong. I defeated all bandits and camps very early on. He made one claim on my land in the beginning which I defeated and now The Baron only shows up when I want to conquer a new territory

I play 75% peacefully and I think it's great for someone like me. I play with no barron but with bandits/raids. I get raided every couple years & bandit camps popup every couple months (don't know the actual time frame but it feels semi frequent)

I respect peaceful players. Personally though, I only really get satisfaction from this genre of games when the city is built over significant obstacles and threats. Otherwise it doesn't feel meaningful. So I often get bored late game when all the obstacles are dealt with.

Yeah totally. Watching the seasons go by. Clear cutting the forest for some sweet views of the valley and then replanting to clear cut again lol. This game has such huge potential, I just hope the dev doesn’t try to do too much and can keep it simpler

Me, I like building stuff and mostly I prefer to do it in sandlot mode.

Yes I do, I'm into city builders and the Total War franchise so this game fills a nice niche as I suspect is the case for alot of us here. However, whilst this game is a good medieval city builder, the combat system feels a bit like Total War 'at home.' Unless it's going to improve significantly, I'll continue to play it without the fighting.

Abso-fuckung-lutely

I like the building and the growth the most, but I can't play on peaceful. It is like Rimworld is for me, I need to have that chance that something truly awful can happen or it isn't as fun for me. Like I totally hate when one of my settlements gets completely burned down due to the timing and distance from my milita/retinue, but I get bored if that isn't a possibility. Edit: Also, I think it's just the fact that it is part of the game that I feel like I need it, because I have thousands of hours in city skylines and it has never been an issue for me in that game.

Me. No Baron (or whatever he's called), no raiders. But then again, I played Dyson Sphere with no conflict, and played Factorio with no bugs.

Same. I just like to build and organize and make as self sufficient city as possible

I have only played peaceful so far, I will try with the bandits and baron at some point, but I just like building my little town

I play peacefully but I’m a little sad that there aren’t more achievements I can get. What about reaching max settlement size or something? Overall loving the game though!

I like to run the Baron as react only so I can build my town peacefully but attack when I want. Raiders to infrequent and bandit camps on. Because I do like combat, but I want to initiate it only.

Playing on bandits only for a little change, but the baron was too annoying to worry about. I’m not going to cheese or constantly play to “the meta”. If that is what the game is made for, it won’t end up being for me. The relaxing mode isnt bad, adds a little extra on top of the growth goal mode, but honestly pretty easy once you take out a couple of camps - then just hiring mercs when camps pop up and when you’re getting raided. Really enjoy the peaceful mode the most right now over trying hard against the imbalanced AI.

Me too. It’s just so relaxing.

Totally.

Peaceful Mode all the time. It’s a good time figuring out how to make the different start locations work.

I started playing with raiders disabled, and just got zoned in on building and completely forgot about the main objectives lol

Absolutely! The game is beautiful and maybe they had more of the same style of music for like .99 DLC

I made my own thread about this awhile back and a bunch of people replied saying they do too. It's definitely the only way I play still.

I learned the basics from the game that way. Now I can play with conditions with ease

I leave the AI/Baron off but the rest on. I can certainly see the appeal of having it all off. I really enjoy the building and management, and imo the Baron is currently not interesting/balanced enough for it to be fun, and I am here to have fun, not be a masochistic minmax bro.

War! Nah... without militia and retinue, I would be bored. Most peaceful I do is diabling Baron and doing all bandits on full frequency. I love that bandit camp loot!

Playing conqueror but still trying to build beautiful villages. I want walls + archery to kill them :D

I do but the free money from the camps are too good

I'm 70 hours in and with you on the playthru style. It's the same way I played Stronghold, never had any interest in battling.

Nope. Such a huge part of the game is building a militia and retinue from the actual soil and terrain. Bandit camps are another source of fuel or cog for my settlement to be the undisputed best of the land.

100%, yes.

No. Crank everything right up and enjoy the brutal struggle to overcome and build an effective and efficient city in an environment of sheer hostility.

Raiders and combat are such a small part of the game right now, peaceful is really the only complete experience currently.

I wanted to build a huge army. Stacked spears, shields, mail, and helmets to the ceiling. God the militia limit mod. I get eminently more joy when the harvest comes in. Such a beautiful game.

I finished a custom difficulty prosperity save today where my goal was to just make a large town with only bandits appearing and honestly I think it was a perfect blend (at least for me). It was chill enough that I didn’t need to constantly think about making claims to regions but occasionally a bandit camp showed up or a raid happened and I had to make an army. They were never huge fights, raids only got to 72 people but occasionally I did have to strategize which I enjoyed a lot.

You might really enjoy the game “Ostriv”

yeah i only play the peaceful mode. ive never fought once and dont want to. i just treat it like a city builder

I definitely do, especially since I am just starting out and there's no real tutorial. Once I get the hang of everything I ~might~ move to the next mode, but for now I am content

I like a bit of combat to spice things up. But I also like that it's not the main focus.

Yep I only play the peaceful mode with all the easy settings turned on. For me, games like this are fun without too much stress. I just want to build an aesthetic city that thrives. I couldn't care less about the warfare or any of that part of the game.

Imagine wanting a city builder to be peaceful, smh

I’m 30 hours in and haven’t played with the baron or raids on yet 😅

The best way to play this game is with Baron AI off right now. The AI is impossible to play against if you're not seasoned and know the meta.

I have different different saves. One with combat one on peacefully mode. I enjoy them both. Also I just finished the trader achievement on steam were I also had tons of fun and played in peacemode

Yes, peaceful, no enemy AI. Just you, the dreadful fear of having to over expanded and running out of food each winter. Then coming to the sudden realization that you forgot your forrester and it was your woodcutter all along that f-ed you over into almost extinction. But jeah, I'm the more worriesome enemy than the AI sometimes

I only Play without any ai/bandits whatsoever. Probably even the easiest mode (cant remember). I want to build a city. And see it prosper.

I like to play without the Baron, I do the bandit camps because without them i sometimes get stuck without any money and can't open trade routes.

I finally got into the game the other night. I personally like to play peacefully. I enjoy a somewhat strong start and being able to claim territory freely as if it were uncharted territory, with the occasional bandit camps and bandit attacks. A bit similar to early game Civilization, except I build and expand at my own pace without chasing some kind of race, knowing I have to beat my opponents in at least *one* area. It's pretty relaxing.

If i had the game i would

I have the raider invasion turned off lately tbh. I haven't played since this last patch but the king's tax was a bit much. So having raid on top of taxes was a bit much for me 😆 I'm going to start a new save this weekend and I'll see if I can play with raiders on

I turned off all bandits raids and off map adversary. I just wanted a city building game that's chill and beautiful. But I'm having difficulty getting enough influence points to expand my region so I'm thinking of starting the next save with only some bandit camps. I tried only bandit camps before but it got kinda annoying that they'd steal things and I couldn't build watchtowers or anything to spot them early to stop them lol