I highly recommend this game. I've played it with a friend in co-op twice already and am currently trying to find something equally exciting, but so far, it's been a shambles. The game can lag during internet fluctuations in co-op, but otherwise, there are no issues. The building system is quite realistic, which is something many people criticize, but I liked it. You can adjust the difficulty and significantly reduce the frequency of bandit attacks. I really liked the cooking system in the game, although it's not very realistic. I even had to write a recipe book to keep everyone fed. If they added more food types and recipes, it would be wonderful. Also, there weren't enough different types of decor and decorations; the villages in the game look rather sparse. Otherwise, the game is very atmospheric, and the road signs allow you to travel quickly across the map. While these signs are cheating, it would be difficult to play without them. I'll try to give some recommendations for the game:

I recommend building your base on a flat area, as slopes make it difficult to build anything on them. Buildings can be moved without losing resources, but this takes a long time. First, dismantle the unneeded building, take the resources, and rebuild it in the new location. For this case, it's best to craft more carpenter's hammers so that more villagers can help with the move.

Provide each villager with a place to sleep. Simple 2-person huts will do at first, then decent 4-person houses will appear, and finally, decent 7-person estates. Villagers can also settle in the Tavern. Homeless villagers won't freeze to death, but they'll sleep wherever they can, literally right under your feet.

Later in the game, upgraded buildings often appear, their recipes duplicating existing ones and adding new ones. Eventually, some outdated buildings can be demolished to make room.

Don't forget to create a production chain and estimate the approximate resources needed for your goals. Keep in mind that sage and garlic don't grow in winter, nor do any farm crops, wild berries and mushrooms. Dirt, moss, and peat can't be harvested. It gets dark earlier and brighter later. You can see how many days remain until winter by sending your character to sleep. However, sleep is generally not necessary for game characters, so if you have a lot to do in the village, you can continue working. There aren't really any clear seasons in the game, but the first day after winter ends, there will be a "cold" debuff, reducing productivity, cooking speed, and increasing hunger. Summer is more vibrant, and autumn brings constant rain. According to my calculations, winter begins 6-7 days after the end of the previous season. I think this could be improved further by creating some kind of calendar so you can always see what season it is.

Make sure fishermen have bait, farmers have hoes, and hunters have bows. If you equip guards, keep an eye on their shield strength, especially early in the game. The very first shields can only withstand a few weapon hits; arrows don't count. The very first villagers may not have warm cloaks; they need to be prepared for winter.

Wheat is vital, so it's best to steal as much as possible initially, as it's needed for cooking (first for simple stew, then for baking as flour), for livestock feed, for straw, and later for adobe. You'll need a lot of straw.

Sage and garlic are also best grown on the farm; they're constantly needed in cooking. Sage is also needed for making honey.

LAVEL

It's not directly necessary, but chicken eggs can be used to make very healthy food that gives a lot of stamina. Pig meat will eliminate the need for constant hunting. Cow's milk can be used to make cheese, which is also useful in baking. Sour milk, which is regular milk that's gone bad, can also be used for cheese. However, livestock consume a lot of feed, especially when they've bred a lot. It's best to place the cowshed slightly away from other buildings, as cows like to wander around and sometimes get in the way.

At the very beginning of the game, you can get by with fried/smoked mushrooms and berries, as well as simple dishes like meat stew. Raw vegetables are also edible, but their effect is less than that of cooked food. A little later, after researching the fishing rod, you'll be able to fish. To do this, you'll need worms as bait (obtained along with mud) or homemade bait (a mixing bucket); the simplest is made from a small piece of raw meat and a mushroom. Small traps are useful for initially gathering meat, but unfortunately, they tend to break very often, and workers won't repair them. But if you keep an eye on them and bait them with berries or mushrooms, you'll be sure to get a steady supply of small pieces of meat, but you'll need to place them closer to the forest. Regular pieces of meat are obtained from wolves, and they also drop from killed boars and deer, just like larger pieces. For example, a large piece of meat will yield 4 servings of excellent stew, a regular piece will yield 3 servings, and a small piece will yield 2 servings. Further, certain dishes will require specific types of meat.

Later, to successfully fight bandits, you'll need enhanced food, which significantly increases health and stamina. These dishes will require salt (found in the town of Krasmir), vegetables such as onions, turnips, radishes, potatoes, and beets (seeds can be purchased from herbalists). Improved baking recipes will require cloudberries (found in Krasmir again). Everything else can be gathered on the map or grown. When growing plants and vegetables on the farm, they also often yield seeds, but only in small quantities, so you'll still need to repurchase them periodically.

Be sure to store your food properly. Ideally, build a cellar for it, as most food supplies tend to spoil and become "spoiled food," which can, however, be used as fertilizer. The fertilizer issue is somewhat unclear; you can't add it to your farm's beds yourself; farm workers do. Fertilizer supposedly speeds up plant growth, but I couldn't find any information about this anywhere. Incidentally, livestock in the game doesn't produce fertilizer; this is a slight oversight.

BANDITS

From the very beginning of the game, small groups of bandits begin to attack us, the frequency depending on the game settings. Bandit patrols also constantly patrol near camps, which means they're practically all over the map. Keep this in mind when sending villagers to gather resources away from the village. To protect civilians, you can equip several guards, choosing villagers with high Strength, Shields, One-Handed Weapons, or Two-Handed Weapons stats; then a shield will be unnecessary. By equipping them well, you'll also protect your workers from wolves and boars. It's advisable to have three or four guards; this way, they'll attack approaching bandits early and simply take them out en masse. Guards don't sleep at night and patrol your territory constantly. Don't forget to keep them well-fed.

Bandits are the easiest way to earn gold; they often have a few dozen coins in their pockets. They can also be used to collect belts, which (for some reason) are needed for researching (!) and constructing many buildings early in the game. They also provide materials for, for example, the pickaxe used to mine many types of ore. To deal with bandits painlessly, you can shoot them from elevated positions with a bow; bandits are unable to climb. A building like a toilet is ideal; the character can easily climb it. A shield protects us from bandit archers; it takes no damage at all. After they run out of arrows, all that's left is to shoot them back. This also improves the skill. But beyond all this, it's a good idea to constantly study skill books, which are sold in every town (the most basic ones in Herndine, skill books starting at level 3 in Padstow, and so on). These are awarded for completed quests and can also be found among bandits.

If you actively fight bandits, raids will occur slightly more frequently. However, if you completely destroy bandit camps, their frequency will decrease significantly. Leaving a few camps behind also makes sense, as they are a constant source of resources, as well as food, which bandits carry with them.

LIBERATING A VILLAGE

Improving relations with the locals precedes liberating a village. First, complete quests, bring people various resources, or help find or kill someone (bandits). At some point, the quests end, and building Trust is reduced to offerings to the local elder in the form of ancient coins, boar tusks, deer antlers, and so on. Having achieved Defender status, we gain the opportunity to initiate construction of a bell tower in the village. It can also be built a little further out. It's worth preparing for the liberation in advance and finding a place to defend against the local "guards," who are none other than Brigands, well-armed bandits. Building a bell tower doesn't attract them, but the moment you call... they immediately become aggressive and attack you. If you are killed and don't have time to return to eliminate them, the liberation of the village will be considered a failure, the bell tower will collapse, and you'll have to wait a bit until the local guards calm down to start over.

If everything went well, prepare for even greater danger, because a large detachment (10-12 men) will immediately depart from the Brigand Headquarters to suppress the uprising. It's best to prevent them from approaching the village, but to encounter them somewhere along the way. Toilets will also prove extremely useful. It's important to stock up on arrows in advance, given that the Brigands are much fatter than ordinary bandits. If you successfully repel the attack, the village will be considered liberated, but the Brigands won't leave you alone and will periodically send squads (6-7 men) to retake the village.

Most importantly, after liberation, you can recruit the best and most useful villagers, usually special specialists, without whom it's impossible to construct special buildings. Furthermore, after this, you can trade with the village, although in reality, this boils down to either a one-way purchase (you take an item from the available list for gold) or a barter (you give away any unnecessary resource in exchange, and in the event of an equal exchange, you won't have to pay gold). Furthermore, you can create a militia in the village using gold and prosperity, although the usefulness of this is questionable. I tried it once, and three militiamen fled somewhere to the edge of the map, so I ended up disbanding it. As for village prosperity, it has 5 (?) levels, but even with daily trade, it progresses rather slowly and sluggishly. Even if no one attacks the village, for some reason it defaults to a downward trend. The mystery of this phenomenon hasn't been solved yet.

I'd love to replay Bellwright again after a while, hoping the developers don't abandon it and add more useful crafters.