The land
Every colony lands on its own landscape, and the landscape does not wait for it. Seasons turn, herds come and go, and something howls beyond the border.
Each map is its own mix of meadow, woodland, deep forest, marsh, rocky hills, lakes and a river. You claim a small territory round the landing, and the border moves outward as the colony grows.
Springs
Lookouts
Lakeshores
Old ruins
Clearings
Three map sizes
A claim that grows
Hidden seams
WoodlotsAt 1×, a colony minute is a real minute. Crops take a season to ripen, food spoils, woods grow back and the land changes colour with the cold and the snow.
6 May on a Normal temperate map: ten people inside their ring, a row of bedrooms and two huts.
Weather comes in spells that suit the climate and the season, with a seven-day forecast one click from the top bar.
Twelve kinds of weather
Wet and cold
Snow and soil
Fair warningA forecast comes first, then a cost that full stores cannot buy off.
A late frost and a spring flood take the fields by the banks, summer lightning strikes the tallest timber piece, an autumn gale flattens the crops, a pack tests the weakest gate unless a fire burns by it, and a hard frost eats into the woodpile. From the second year a hungry winter, sickness from the road or a thin harvest may run as a story of its own, and the council may be asked for Quarantine or Rations.
Threats in the field guideCarters stranded by the snow ask for shelter, and a neighbour short through the winter asks for firewood or food.
A hard frost brings four to seven bitter days and letters when the woodpile or the larder runs short. In January or February the residents may call an ice fair or a winter feast of their own. Bards, pilgrims and carters go indoors from the weather, to the public room or any room that is nobody's home.
Winter's events in the field guideDeer, elk, hares, boar, grouse, foxes and ducks graze, breed in their months and keep clear of people, and in the deepest cold the deer and boar move on until it eases. Seven kinds of fish keep to their water and season, and in September and October salmon run up the rivers.
Set a Fresh food target in days, or targets for hunting, fishing and foraging, and people gather until it is met, sparing each species its breeding stock. A counted hunting target hunts on while meat rots; the Fresh food target lands only what the cooks can take. With no target they still go out when food runs low, and one animal marked is hunted down.
Lay a fishing spot over a bank and aim it at one kind: a salmon is three portions, a pike two. After days of frost the lakes freeze, and only the warmly dressed cut a hole and fish through the ice.
A hungry bear raids outdoor stores, open pens and fields in autumn and sleeps through the winter. A raid comes as a letter: drive it off, rally everyone who will come, or let it eat. Bears, boar and wolves are hunted only by someone with Combat 6 or a weapon.
In lean seasons hungry herds raid the crops. Log fences keep them out, and a scarecrow puts them off until they grow used to it.
Choose None, Occasional or Frequent wolves when you set up a colony. Packs of three to six come in from beyond the map, from October to March or, at Frequent, all year, and on larger maps one lives in the deep woods. A fed pack keeps its distance; a hungry wolf may stalk someone alone outdoors, above all at night and in fog. A new colony has five days' grace before hungry wolves close in, and from its second year the packs come more often and larger.
Whoever spots a pack warns the others. By day a pack keeping its distance is weighed by each person's own caution. A strike, a probe at the ring or a pack pressing in near the rooms keeps everyone in for the night, and at first light until an hour passes with nothing dangerous near.
Rooms, a closed hedge or a palisade ring keep wolves out. Behind a ring closed and whole, everything inside goes on, the furnace and smokehouse yards too, while the wolves hold only the ground beyond. Lit fires and lights keep them off the ground they cover, and a dog on Guard Pen holds off a lone wolf.
Someone attacked outside raises a call, and fighters within thirty metres answer it. Rally calls everyone who will come; nobody is sent.
A night watch sees them early, farthest from a watchtower. The alarm calls everyone indoors, and a signal fire or a bronze horn raises it by itself when a pack comes close.
A stake pit wounds bigger game, a deadfall kills a hare, a fox or a wolf, and a bronze spiked trap catches both. A sprung trap is set again with a log and half an hour's work. A ditch stops animals as water does, and an earth bank closes a ring and never burns.
From the watchtower a watcher sees forty metres, day or night. When a pack stalks someone, closes in, goes for the herds or comes within fifteen metres of a room, the signal fire or the bronze horn raises the alarm without waiting for you. A calm pack farther out is left to the watch.
A knapped spear and a hide shield in the Stone age, bronze, iron and steel after; slings, bows and the crossbow reach farther. A dog barks at wolves and bears close by and runs at anything that goes for its owner.
A log a stretch closes a ring in a band's first days, and the preview says where it still lies open.
Hedges, fences and palisades, their gates and any walls between make one ring line, and the RING overlay shows every gap. A pack shut out night after night loses its nerve and leaves for the season. A hedge may give to a probe now and then, though never under a lit fire, and a pen marked on the map lays its own fence and gate.
The hedge in the field guideEasy prey raises a pack's nerve; losses and a closed ring wear it down.
A bold pack stalks earlier, presses home, bites deeper and can kill, and it is named by its deeds. From dusk to dawn while a pack is about, work beyond a closed ring goes only in company. A night's attacks come in one report, and the witnesses fear them. A pack lingering near the houses by day offers Drive Them Off; broken, shut out or driven off, it stays away for the season.
Bold packs in the field guide
