On "Hard" difficulty you start off with:

Four families (8 adults and 5 children)

No Wood, Stone or Iron
100 Firewood
1200 Food
20 Tools
20 Coats

PLEASE READ: Hard mode starts you off with 4 families, but it seems that different
map seeds will populate families differently, and thus might impact your ability to
execute the strategy exactly as shown.

Cross Roads Build Order

First things first, you need to decide where you want your city located! You need to
build close to the main river so that you can have a Trading Post and some Fishing
Docks. You also need to build near a lot of trees. Once you have an idea of where you
want to build in your head, its time to start planning.

Step 1:
Pause your game and place building footprints.
1. Place Gatherers Hut (encompass as many
trees as possible)
2. Place Storage Barn (closest to where you
want the heart of your city)
3. Place Dirt Road
4. Place Wood Cutter
5. Place 6x6 Stock Pile
6. Place Forester Lodge
7. Place Hunting Cabin
8. Place 6 Wooden Houses
9. Pause all buildings
It should look similar to the picture.
Tip: Pin your Forester Lodge so you can always
see its circle.

Step 2:
Start building and gathering resources.
1. Assign 1 builder to start building the road.
2. Build your Stock Pile
3. Gather Logs outside of your Forester Lodge circle
4. Gather Stone inside of your Forester Lodge circle
5. Pause game when you have exactly 284 Logs and 108 Stone
6. Cancel all gathering
Tip: Only gather one resource at a time to prevent gathering Iron.
Tip: Watch your Laborers as they carry resources to your Stock Pile so that you can
pause once your Laborers are carrying enough resources. This will save time.
Step 3:
Now that you have your resources for the first year, you can start building.
1. Unpause your Gatherers Hut and Storage Barn
2. Give your Gatherers Hut priority. Once your Gatherers Hut is finished, assign 2
workers.
3. Once your Storage Barn is done, unpause your Wood Cutter and assign 1
worker.
4. Once your Wood Cutter is done, unpause your Forester Lodge and assign 1
worker.
5. Once your Forester Lodge is done, unpause your Hunting Cabin and assign 1
worker. Set your worker to only plant, do not cut.
6. Once your Hunting Cabin is done, unpause one Wooden House at a time until
they are all built.
Tip: Keep as many builders building as possible. However, do not exceed the limit.

Congratulations! It should be around Autumn of Year 1 when you complete this. You
can now start expanding!

Before continuing, make sure your workers look similar to this:

Note that this is minimum! If you have more, thats okay.
1 Laborer
2 Gatherers
3 Hunters
1 Wood Cutter
1 Forester

Note: You don't need 3 hunters. You can get away with 1 or 2. If, for some reason, you
are short population at this point in the game, you can sacrifice 1 or 2 workers from the
Hunting Cabin.

Now that you have a stable community set up, its time to refill your stock of tools and
clothes and get a school up and running!

Before we get started though, check your event log and you should see that some
babies have been born! Find the first born baby and pin it. We want this process done
before that baby reaches the age of 9.

Note that at age 10, the game checks to see if there is a School House built. If there is,
the child is put into school. If not, the child is sent into the world uneducated and begins
working.

Step 1:
Pause your game and place building footprints.
1. Extend the road from your Forest Hub towards where you want the heart of your
city. The road should extend just outside your Forester Lodge circle
 2. Place a road perpendicular to the road you just placed, just outside of your
Forester Lodge circle
3. Place Blacksmith
4. Place Tailor
5. Place 5x7 Stock Pile
6. Place School House
7. Place 2 Wooden Houses
8. Pause all buildings
It should look similar to the picture.

Step 2:
Start building and gathering resources.
1. Assign 1 builder to start building the road
2. Build your Stock Pile
3. Gather Logs outside of your Forester
Lodge circle
4. Gather Stone preferably inside of your Forester Lodge circle
5. Gather Iron preferably inside of your Forester Lodge circle
6. Pause game when you have exactly 55 Logs, 32 Stone, and 32 Iron
7. Unpause your Blacksmith and assign builders
8. Once your Blacksmith is done, assign 1 worker and keep gathering until you
have 114 Logs, 80 Stone, and 32 Iron
9. Cancel all gathering
Tip: Watch your Laborers as they carry resources to your Stock Pile so that you can
pause once your Laborers are carrying enough resources. This will save time.

Step 3:
The Blacksmith should be finished and you should have some tools made by now. Now
that you have the resources, you can start building!
1. Unpause your Tailor and assign builders
2. Once your Tailor is done, assign 1 worker and unpause one Wooden House at a
time until both are complete
3. Once your Wooden Houses are complete, unpause your School House
4. Once your School House is finished, assign 1 worker
Tip: Once you have a School House built, always keep at least 1 Laborer assigned. If
your Teacher dies and you dont have 1 Laborer, all the students in your School House
will be kicked out of school and uneducated.
Tip: Keep a Blacksmith and a Tailor assigned until you have around 25 tools and coats.
Then you can unassign them and use them as Laborers. Just reassign them when your
stocks get low.

Cheers for getting this far! Your basic city is complete. All you need now is a Trading
Post, a Market, and another source of food!

Before continuing, make sure your workers look similar to this:

Note that this is minimum! If you have more, thats okay.
1 Laborer
3 Gatherers
3 Hunters
1 Wood Cutter
1 Forester
1 Blacksmith
1 Tailor
1 Teacher

Now that you have your basic city set up, there is no time limit! You can sit back and
take your time.

Step 1:
For this we are going to start off like we have
before by pausing our game and laying down
building footprints.
1. Place Trading Post
2. Place Market
3. Place Fishing Dock
4. Place Storage Barn
5. Place 3 Wooden Houses
6. Place a road connecting all your
footprints with your Blacksmith road
7. Pause all buildings
Note: You want 2 Wooden Houses near your
Fishing Dock and 1 Wooden House near your
Market/Trading Post.

It should look similar to the picture. Because

rivers are always different, theres no way to
be exact.

Note that the Fishing Dock, Storage Barn, and 2 Wooden Houses do not need to be
close to the Trading Post as long as the 2 Wooden Houses are within the Market circle.

Step 2:
Start building and gathering resources. Trading Post will be built ASAP.
1. Assign 1 builder to start building the road.
2. Gather Logs outside of your Forester Lodge circle
3. Gather Stone preferably inside of your Forester Lodge circle
4. Gather Iron preferably inside of your Forester Lodge circle
5. Pause game when you have exactly 62 Logs, 80 Stone, and 40 Iron
6. Unpause your Trading Post and assign builders
7. Once your Trading Post is done, assign 1 worker and keep gathering until you
have 184 Logs, 128 Stone, and 40 Iron
8. Cancel all gathering
Tip: Watch your Laborers as they carry resources to your Stock Pile so that you can
pause once your Laborers are carrying enough resources. This will save time.
Tip: Only build another Wooden House when you have at least 3 Laborers. This way, 2
Laborers will move in and find a job and you still have 1 Laborer for your School House.

Only continue when you have 3 Laborers!

Step 3:
The Trading Post should be finished by now. Now that you have the resources, you can
start building!
1. Unpause 1 Wooden House and assign builders
2. Once your Wooden House is done, unpause your Storage Barn
3. Once your Storage Barn is complete, unpause your Fishing Dock
4. Once your Fishing Dock is finished, assign 2 workers
Only continue when you have 3 Laborers!
5. Unpause 1 Wooden House and assign builders
6. Once your Wooden House is finished, assign 2 more workers to your Fishing
Dock
Only continue when you have 2 Laborers!
7. Unpause your Market and assign builders
8. Once your Market is done, assign 1 worker
Tip: For every 2 workers you assign to a building, build a House next to the building.
The workers will move into the House so their commute is short. This will save you time
and will also create more families! This is a good way to keep a healthy population.
Tip: You want to fit as many Houses inside the Markets circle as possible.
Tip: After this guide, only build Stone Houses. Wooden Houses consume 3x the
firewood that Stone Houses use and eventually you hit a tipping point where you cannot
produce enough firewood for your city.

From this point on, it really depends on what you get from your first Trader! If you get
seeds, you can start growing crops or orchards. If you get livestock you can start a
pasture and slaughter them for resources. It all depends.

Your workers should look similar to this:

Note that this is minimum! If you have more, thats okay.
1 Laborer
3 Gatherers
3 Hunters
1 Wood Cutter
2 Forester
1 Blacksmith
1 Tailor
1 Teacher
1 Trader
1 Vendor (Market)
4 Fishermen
Tip: By now, all the stone and iron should be cleared out of your Forester Lodge circle
which means your forest should be nice and thick. You can now turn cutting and
planting on with 4 workers so you get a steady income of Logs.
Tip: Firewood has a trading value of 4 and is universal, which means any vendor will
trade for it. This makes it a very good starting currency. 625 Firewood = 2500 Trading
value
Tip: Venison is also a very good starting currency. It has a trading value of 3 which
means you can trade it for other food to make a profit. (You can trade 222 Venison for
666 Eggs which is a net gain of +444 food)

Well done! You did it! Youre now on your way to creating a thriving metropolis!
Things to consider:
Your next objective should be to set up another Forest Hub similar to the one
you started with except instead of a Wood Cutter, you need an Herbalist. This will
keep your city healthy and also give you even more income.
You can also think about building a Quarry if youre running low on surface
Stone. The only downside to a Quarry is that it requires a lot of workers which
you might not have an abundance of.
You should also make sure youre ready if a disaster strikes, like a fire or
disease. Make sure you build a Well in the areas not close to water. In my
example below, I would build a Well in the Forest Hub and near my Blacksmith
to make sure they dont burn down. I wouldnt need one near my Market because
its close enough to the river. To prevent disease, you need to build a Hospital.
When there are sick people in your Hospital, people walking by it can catch the
disease and spread it further. To prevent this, build your Hospital in a secluded
area, but close enough that its not an extremely long walk.

This is an example of what your city should look like:

Tips and Tricks!
When you build new buildings that require a Storage Barn such as an Herbalist
or a Blacksmith, make sure you build one nearby so that their commute is short.
You dont want your workers walking very far to put stuff in or take stuff out of
your Storage Barn. Note that Markets work the same as Storage Barns.
 A single woodcutter is able to go through a single fully-staffed forester's log
production by himself. If you need a supply of logs for building, it is best to either
pause the woodcutter, clear additional forests with laborers, or build a second
forester lodge.
Except to add variety to your Banished diet chickens are worthless. Sheep and
Cattle not only provide food, but leather and wool! Leather and wool can be used
for Warm Coats, which is an excellent trade good.
Ideal pasture and crop sizes:
Cattle Sheep Chickens Crops Orchards
1 Herdsman: 1 Herdsman: 1 Herdsman: 1 Farmer: 7x8 1 Farmer:
9x20 12x16 11 x 18 or 14x4 15x4
2 Herdsman: 2 Herdsman: 2 Herdsman:
20x20 20x20 20 x 20
The best crops to plant in terms or growth rate and yield are:
1. Bean (by far)
2. Cabbage
3. Corn
4. Pepper
Note: All orchard trees grow at the same rate and yield the same amount.
If a trader ever brings you something you really want, but you don't have things
stock piled or you need to wait to harvest something, you can keep that trader
there for as long as you like by leaving the trade window and tab open. If you
need to leave the trade window simply press pause.
A good rule of thumb to keep in mind for storage. Keep a reserve of 100x your
population in food, 10x your population in firewood, 1x your population in tools,
and 1x your population in clothes.