Does anyone have any tips for starting out? I can't seem to get higher than 30 population beofre I either run out of cards or money. Is there some kind of strategic mechanic that I'm not realising?
Start of The game can Be very RNG brutal. If your first island tiles are small and/or contain lot of rocks, easiest, fastest, and least frustrating way is just restart The game. Pile rocks to one corner of your island as you can only quarry them after having access to Stone House at population 50 or more. For saving money always play House cards first If you can as you get a new cardfor free from the deck. At The beginning It is advisable to designate sectors/directions for different builds: where you place houses, where is room for fields, and where to put Piers. Chaotic placement leads insufficient Space easily and tends to be economically inefficient and unsynergetic. Read what cards say and do, and try to keep your deck balanced. Do not hesitate to use remove card to badly blaced tiles, including rocks. Fields should be clumped together bY their type: hop likes More hop around it and wheat likes wheat. Prefer wheat as completed and Harvested Field grants a bakery. Use two L-shaped Fields of 4 tiles together leavings the center free for a mill, whenever possible for synergetic and economic reasons. When building House blocks leave room for bakeries so that every place for bakery has 4 adjacent House tiles. That maximises income from them...
Don't ever hesitate to restart The game if initial tiles are bad. You typically only waste your Time without much prospects. :)