A town in the temperate forest, on a river

With what grows here (wheat, rye and maslin, barley and dredge, oats, pulses), this land can feed a town of about 11,000 people from farms less than a day's cart from its walls, about the size of York around 1377.

Build a town in the temperate forest, on a river

A town of 10,000 here

Its grain comes from 24 km around, 1 day by cart (comfortable). About 550 villages and 79,000 country people farm it, and the town keeps about 40 scholars. Grown to 40,000 people, its grain comes from 47 km around, 2 days by cart (strained). On the water, ships can bring part of the grain: for a city of 150,000, 95% of it keeps the haul within a day. Its farming is worked out on England, c. 1300.

In history

Cahokia grew on the Mississippi floodplain, near where the Missouri and the Illinois join it. After 1050 it swelled within a few decades into a planned city of earth mounds and plazas; estimates for its peak around 1100 run from about 6,000 to 40,000 people, most often 15,000 to 20,000. Its trade reached the Great Lakes and the Gulf Coast: copper, chert and sea shells. The river flooded, so Cahokians dug channels, raised dikes and levees, and spread their fields between lowland and upland, so that one flood could not take the whole harvest. By 1350 the city was empty.

On the Rhine, Cologne had been a Roman colony since AD 50 and had a bridge over the river from 310. In the Middle Ages it stood where the main route from Venice to the Netherlands crossed the roads between east and west, and by 1300 it held 50,000 to 55,000 people. On 7 May 1259 Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden granted it the staple right: goods carried on the Rhine had to be offered for sale to the citizens of Cologne for three days before they could go on. The rule made the city's patricians rich, and its weights, such as the Cologne mark, were used across Europe.

How large a city?

PeopleGrain fromBy cartVillagesScholarsBy ship to fit in a day
3,00013 km around1 day (comfortable)17012–
10,00024 km around1 day (comfortable)55040–
40,00047 km around2 days (strained)2,20016075%
150,00092 km around4 days (not by land alone)8,30060095%
1,000,000240 km around9.5 days (not by land alone)55,0004,000more than ships can bring

Living there

Its woods spare enough to burn: about 18,000 tonnes of wood a year for its hearths and workshops. Provisional figure.

Its market sells grain, flax, dye plants, orchards and herbs, and buys iron and salt. About 30 market towns stand in its countryside.

About 27% of what its people eat does not come from the fields. Of that share: herds 52%, fish 35%, gardens 13%. That is some 3,100 livestock units on 46 km² of pasture, and about 460 fishers in 110 boats. Hearth estimate.

What makes it hard

  • The river floods. A town on its banks must dig channels, raise dikes and keep some fields on high ground, so that one high water cannot take the whole harvest.
  • Downstream of a crowded town the water turns foul. A dense river city can grow so unhealthy that only a steady flow of newcomers keeps its numbers up.
  • A staple town upriver can force every boat to stop and offer its goods for three days, a heavy burden on cargoes that spoil, such as dairy goods, meat and fish.
  • A run of dry years is as dangerous as a flood for a town that has outgrown its fields.
  • When trouble comes, the town walls in its heart with a palisade, then rebuilds it smaller each time as people leave.

Hard years

About one year in 8, the harvest falls below four fifths of a normal one: the town is short of some 720 of the 2,500 tonnes of grain its land gives it, and the water lets it bring the gap in. A plague that kills 39% of the town, as the Black Death did in Europe's towns, would leave about 880 km² of its fields idle.

What it can make

Grain, Flax, Dye plants, Orchards, Herbs, Potato, Maize, Wool, Horses (at a cost), Cattle and hides, Cheese, Pigs and bacon, Goats, Honey and wax, Furs, Timber, Charcoal, Fish, Shipyards

What it lives on

Wheat, Rye and maslin, Barley and dredge, Oats, Pulses

Underground

What a city digs depends on the rock under it: Granite, Volcanic rock, Ultramafic rock (peridotite, serpentinite), Schist and gneiss, Marble, Limestone and chalk, Sandstone, shale and clay, Salt beds, River gravels and sands

Found here

Gathered (Rerum): Aconite Branch, Activated Charcoal, Alder Bark, Alder Wood, Handful of Almonds, American Bison Meat, Black Bear Fat, Black Bear Hide

Hear it

Temperate Forest in Biomes: plants, animals, hazards and sounds

The same climate

A town in the temperate forest, A town in the temperate forest, on the coast

By city size

1,000, 3,000, 10,000, 30,000, 100,000, 300,000, 1,000,000

Sources

Open the city builder — MGS Toolbox