Townsmen Review

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Townsmen is a strategy city-building game. It was first available on mobile, but is now coming to Steam. There’s differences between the two—if you wanted to try out the game first, you can try a free version of the game on your phone. However, it is ladened with ads so it may be worth it to just get the Steam version. 

I actually quite liked the game and although it’s a watered down/easier version of a world-building game, there were still a lot of challenges for you to overcome. It’s easy to pick up and just get going. I do suggest doing the tutorial first, just so you know what basic buildings you’ll need to get your town started.

When you start your game, you can play in sandbox mode, or choose from a number of scenarios. I decided to go with a scenario where I’d have to revitalize a town that had just gone through an economic crisis. Here are my adventures.

I took at look at the lands surrounding me. I was told that these people were ravaged by an economic crisis, but it seems to me they actually meant bombs. There’s craters everywhere and townsfolk casually walked over the scarred lands going about their business. Seeing the size of the craters, I fear to ponder on what or who could’ve bombed this once picturesque town. But that is a problem for the future. Right now, I had to help this town get back on its feet.

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Luckily, my wife was there to guide me through my work. Every now and then, she’d approach me and urge me to build certain buildings and facilities around the town. I followed her advice as best as I could, but money was tight. People were only taxed a minimum amount, so I could barely afford roads. Nonetheless, I set up more dwellings so that hopefully, people will want to settle in.

As more folks joined us, I started to add more things to our town. I hired people to fish, to farm, and even to make clothes. Little did I know how much time clothes took. I had to first hire farmers to harvest wool, which will then be converted into cloth in another building, and lastly, a seamstress will turn it into wearable clothing. My lack of foresight left my people without clothes during their first winter.

They didn’t seem to complain too much. Perhaps it was because I built a church for them. It was always packed and the townsfolk are always telling me to build a second one. I thought about it, but realized we had other priorities. Such as the fact that our whole town only has one windmill that’s constantly underproducing flour for the bakeries in town. I did, however, build a tavern. Lots of people convene there, though I had forgotten I’d have to keep the tavern stocked with wine and juice. I have no idea why the tavern is always full, seeing as how there’s literally nothing to eat or drink since I don’t have any grape fields or vineyards. But I guess at least the unstocked establishment isn’t going to waste.

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After our first winter, fires started happening around town. We hurried to build a water tower and hired a fireman to douse the flames. But then this one sawmill lied just outside the radius of my water tower’s reach. The fireman refused to service it and watched from afar as the building’s grey smoke started to build up. Reluctantly, I built a second water tower near the sawmill and hired yet another fireman. I watched as the new fireman put out the fire, only to have it catch on fire again as he walked back to the water tower. The strange thing is I actually decomissioned the sawmill because we were running low on logs and thus didn’t need planks. I have no idea who’s setting the sawmill on fire, but whoever it is is making sure this new fireman gets to keep his job.

There’s a merchant who visits our town every once in awhile. Once he stops outside our castle/warehouse (yes, our town’s castle is mainly used for storage space), we instantly try to sell whatever resources we don’t need. It’s amazing, because he’ll sometimes walk away with a lot of our trash. I’m not complaining, since he’s an excellent source of income for our little town. I watch as he stumbles away on his overladen donkey, packed to the brim with our unwanted logs, fish, wheat, and iron ores.

I weigh the money jingling in my sack. I look around at the town that’s bustling around me. You know what? We just may be almost recovered from our economic crisis (read: bombs). People seem happy again, and that means I can raise taxes soon. What am I going to do with all this money? I’ve got grand ambitions to turn this town into a tourist trap. We’ll see how that goes…

rating-8

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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