Banished Review (Nvlea)
I think after getting 100% achievements and sinking countless hours into this game I could write few words.
Map Seeds:
Map generation changed a little in past 2 years so most old seeds generate something else.
Because of this I am going to leave 2 map seeds that should make it possible to get all achievements in 2017:
Mountain Men: Mountains, Small - 685285880 (1.0.6)
Everything else: Valleys, Large - 19569742 (1.0.7)
I put almost 50 hours into this small game, that's quite good deal however about 20 of these hours went into heavily modified version of banished known as Colonial Charter.
Vanilla Banished
I am not going to write elaborate review as the game is over 3 year old and there's already 20k of them.
Banished as stand alone game is really nice looking time sink with relaxing music for maybe about 20 - 50 hours more if you are trying to get all all achievements. Game start roughly and if you don't know how to play it's quite possible you will lose everything really fast. This also scares few of my friends from playing but the moment you learn game everything becomes really easy and only challenge are RNG disasters that can be turned off such as tornados, disease, fire or orchard infestation.
There's many guides and banished wikia contains calculator for optimal field, orchard, graveyard or pasture size turning the game into relaxing simulation instead of challenge.
*You can only earn achievements in unmoded version.
Modded Banished
This is where I put most of my hours.
Currently the best mods you can get is Colonial Charter + Megamod. Don't look in the workshop instead, google their site for instruction and direct download. I heard The North is really nice mod but I didn't had time to check it out.
I admit I feel like even with Adam & Eve - which is supposedly hardest start, starting just with 2 people, buildings in CC makes everything easier than original. Some might think of it as negative but honestly I think it just turn banished into sim city builder with many production chains and nicer visuals thanks to the variety and decoration CC brings.
CC + Megamod adds many new maps, buildings, decorations, animals, plans and so on that it expand the game many times over. The decorations and customized sets such as docks make it worth alone.
If you are looking for more simulation and less survival I would recommend starting with already modded game.
My largest problem with the game
Performance - Game starts to hang out at +10 speed when your population start to hit certain number of people.
In my case it's around 800 to 1200, then I slow game to +5 or +2. However in these large half map covering cities that speed is almost impossible to work on as everything takes ages to finish on lower speed when you are trying to maitain and grow city with population so big.
In the end, I do recommended the game modded or not. Both offer quite different experience.
One for a few hours of challenge in I think graphically pleasing builder and other for many hours of simulation.