Foundation

Foundation

25 ratings
Start with a lot of money through clever trading (1.12.22 vers. 1.9.0.37)
By resieg
A good start at Foundations helps enormously to get into the game quickly and with having lots of fun.

This is comparable to a Formula One race: It's best to start from pole position, then drive full throttle to the next curve and get the racing tracks ideal line there if possible.
As long as you don't misbrake in the curves (or fall off the ideal line), you'll have a successful race.

Many players describe that they have enormous money problems at the start. I had that too.
So I restarted the game over and over a dozen times to get the ideal flow for the startup phase.

In my experience, the secret lies in skillful trading right from the start, and rapid trading level upgrades
(Ok, this probably isn't a "secret" for most of the experienced players, but I hope this guide will be of some help to a few folks anyway).
   
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Content
1 Choice of map and starting point
2. Trading level upgrade
3. Rapid growth by maximizing newcomers
4. Third trading level for even more income
5. More trading partners
6. Settler promotions for higher income
7. Military and Clergy
1 Choice of map and starting point
Here I would like to point out the very good instructions from Minotorious: "Foundation Trading 101" (from 2018), as well as other guides on the subject (but mostly quite old, which means related to earlier versions).

Choice of map and starting point

I have chosen the northernmost hexagon on the Fluvial map, directly to the right of the mining rock.
The fishing grounds aren't far either.


I then chose the second hexagon, which comes quite early, to the left of it (not because of the minerals – fish would be more important at start than minerals – but because of the forest).
Lumberjack's hut and sawmill are already in this direction.


2. Trading level upgrade
So what's the deal with smart trading?
The first trading partner (labor) is easily unlocked with 20 wooden planks.
He buys berries and planks from us, but only 12 per purchase.

In order to sell more (48) to him, we need to upgrade the trade to the 2nd level as soon as possible.

Level 2 requires 30 exports and 30 imports within a calendar month (beginning of week 1 to end of week 4).
For export, the condition is fulfilled almost automatically, but starting the import can easily be overlooked.
In theory, the traders sell cloth and fish. In practice, as far as I could see, I only got fish.

As soon as the 30 export / 30 import is reached, a messenger comes riding and offering the higher trade level, but for a price:
either
50 loaves of bread within 60 days, or
500 coins, or
10 labor influence

If you cannot pay the price, this level upgrade procress is blocked for 3 months! (One should keep this in mind).
Of course, at this early stage in the game, 10 influence is the most likely choice. But you should really have them in stock when needed.

You get 30 Imp/30 Exp relatively quickly, but until you have 10 Influence, it's better to postpone import until later.

I got my "promotion" on the Northbury trade in about three and a half months, but it might be possible a little sooner.

On the second trading level you can now sell 48 instead of 12.
This means that if you really boost your wood plank and berry industry now, you will soon be flooded with income and you will have to buy piece by piece of land so that the income doesn't go to waste.

The third trading level is also quite easy to get, but there is no hurry to go for it now. On the second level you already earn quite well. In addition, the third level costs four times as much as the second (40 influence, etc.).
3. Rapid growth by maximizing new arrivals
More important than getting another trading level is getting the privilege "Fair Reputation" so that the newcomers are not put off by high taxes.
Now happiness can be driven down almost to zero (with high taxes), and the newcomers will still pour in in large numbers (high or max).

Aren't the “dove” privileges (like “devoted folks” and “all faithful”) more important? They are important, but only later.
I built splendor for clergy (monastery) and king (military) much later, and only then the “doves” are important.
4. Third trading level for even more income
Now on to the third trading level. I did it in the 11th month.

Bottleneck was again not the required imp/exp. value (120 each) but the required 40 influence.
200 loaves of bread or
2000 coins
are not exactly a tempting alternative either.


On the third level you can even trade 108 instead of 48.
Why 108? The factors are probably the square numbers. After 4 times 9 times etc, then 16, 25 … .
For the fourth level you need 270 Imp/Exp and (!) 90 Labor Influence.
But I assume that with level 3 one can get along well for a long time.

5. More trading partners
Now it's about time to bring the second trading partner (Myddle) to level 2 (if you didn’t do already).
It is unlocked with 20 pieces of clothing.

The required 30 Imp/Exp. can now be obtained by buying berries and selling fish.
You can do that without having your own fishing industry by selling the fish you bought in Northbury before, but you get only half price.

However, trading with Myddle only makes sense if you have an overproduction of fish and/or bread or a short-term shortage of coal.
Even in bad weather it can be helpful to buy (expensive) berries (in addition to expensive fish) if your own fishing industry is not yet (or not sufficiently) running well.

Trading with the third trading partner (Davenport, 20 loaves of bread) is of less importance at start. So you don't have to worry about a level upgrade yet.

There is also a fourth trading partner, but this is only added in the late middle phase of the game.
6. Settler promotions for higher income
When it comes to increasing income, don't forget about the promotion of settlers.
If you promote some serfs to commoners, then you can tax their level 2 houses (commoners) much higher.

Even though they demand clothes from the tailor to be happy and even though the search for clothes reduces some of their working hours, the promotion is worth it.

While commoners (in the first phase of the game) can work anywhere, higher level jobs (iron smelter, tool smith...) require that the demanded settlers have at least commoner status.

If you have a monastery with herb production (= the simplest luxury good), then you should also promote a few commoners to citizens, who then bring in even more tax revenue.

But go slow on that. Citizen production is low.

Taverns for citizens and soldiers/knights are then the next step to generate more income. This brings boars, cheese, beer, wine into the game.
7. Military and Clergy
If you have acquired masses of income and money (and thus estates) through clever trading, and masses of new settlers through the “Fair Reputation” privilege, then you can set about collecting splendor for the clergy.

The "pigeon" privileges help a lot with this.
If you then also have the higher-value pigeon privileges, then the king (military) splendors can also easily be collected.

You should be careful when buying privileges, as they cost a lot of influence coins and you can only activate 1 to max 3 of them at a time anyway.
So carefully distinguish the important from the less useful.

So far so good.
Once you have navigated around the initial cliffs (and this may require several attempts), then you will have little difficulty with the advanced game.
Have fun.

Finally, a big “thank you” to the developers for this great game,
and also to the moderators who accompany this project with so much patience and perseverance - as well as great expertise.

1 Comments
EdhyRa 7 Feb @ 8:18pm 
In 1.0, Northbury no longer buy berries from us :(