Banished rewards those who play the long game. Better to expand slowly and put the infrastructure in place to support population growth than to have your citizens starving or freezing to death. The children are the future in Banished, unlike other city simulation games where people just appear from the digital beyond, your population (mostly) only grows when it reproduces. The exception to this rule is the arrival of nomads, who will occasionally show up and attempt to join your city. You’ll welcome them with open arms at first, especially as your population begins to age and it seems that there are nowhere enough young people coming through to join the workforce.
This, of course, also means that your population growth is likely to be exponential.Two couples with three children can swell to twenty or more within three generations, and hundreds a few generations after that.
Live off the land, or become sustainable.
So, though initial stages of the game may seem slow due to the fact that there aren’t enough people to farm the land, or man the fishing station (fishing is an excellent way of keeping your citizens fed, as is hunting and gathering), don’t concentrate on creating more Citizens via more houses. Concentrate on having sustainable farms, forests, mines and quarries whose capacities grow with your population.
Long walks = Starving Citizens
Also ensure that you do not build all houses in one location, with food sources a long trek away. At the beginning of the game, it is a good idea to place crop fields near houses. A market will help when you start to build up the center of cities and it no longer becomes possible to have fields near every home.
Winter is coming!
Winter is always coming in Banished. From the outset, you must be warding against the coming of the cold by making sure there is plenty of food stocked in citizen’s houses (using the techniques above) and making sure that there is plenty of firewood available to heat their homes. Here’s a guide to getting lots of firewood in Banished.