This kind of project reminded me of the homework we had to do in uni for the "formal methods for real-time systems" course. We had to use UPPAAL [1] to verify the stability of a transportation belt with some machines doing things with some delays and other stuff. As far as I remember UPPAAL provides also some python libraries, that can be used to make automated tests. It would be interesting to see how Hay Day scenarios could be implemented in UPPAAL and test different approaches. Anyway, very nice project, the article is really well written as well.

[1] https://uppaal.org/

Is there a typo in here?

“ Given a set of orders, find a schedule that maximize the makespan of the orders.”

Shouldn't the target be to minimize the makespan?

Great writeup, bookmarked for any future case where I run into a similar problem.