banished
Obviously having a multitude of food sources is important in case of emergency, a worker dying, trading purposes, etc. But does the available types of food affect the villager's health?
For instance if I only provided the village with a multitude of wheat, but they had enough to eat, would their health deteriorate?
I suggest you watch some Let's Plays to get started.
Here are some quick tips though:
Search for a nearby forest and build a gatherer and a forester, gatherers produce a lot of food and the foresters will make the forest denser, giving more food.
Build houses close to the jobs, it will save travel time and this enhancing production.
After you get the gatherer, build a hunters cabin, and if the size of the forest allows it, repeat step one out of the radius of the first gatherers hut collection zone. I don't know a lot about fishing, but i think a hunters cabin is better because you get leather from hunting
if you are playing on easy and medium, don't start with crops, if you get an early winter you aren't going to survive.
Take care that you never run out of tools.
I have a town of around 600 people now, doing amazing. The problem I'm having now is that my jobs are not equally spread, so some people have to walk so far they die of hunger on their way to their jobs, true dedication!
Using the Town Hall statistics, you can see how much food your population is consuming (and producing) each year. As far as how much EACH person needs a year, you can divide Used over the last year by total population to get an estimate. It's not exact, because people are born / die during the year so the population number fluctuates, but I get just over 100 food per citizen using this method.
To access the Town Hall statistics, build a town hall, click on it, and select the Production tab.
Best Answer
Yes, variety is important.
When you start the game they come with a large stock of 1 food item. With Gatherers (Berries, Mushrooms, Roots, and Onions), Hunters (Venison) & Fishermen (Fish), your entire population will run to the Herbalist twice a year and still loose health.
With a good variety of food and good market coverage to distribute it, your population's health can max out and your Herbalists will become largely unemployed.