Anyway, I just finished a long game with what was easily my most succesful clan yet. I took all the lessons I've learned, chose a strong openning clan configuration, and ran through a couple of set ups to get one that felt good (had no trickster or lankhor my leaders, but had a good chief and its geography was decent). The clan thrived from the beginning beyond anything I've ever had in a hard game before. I finished the game with well over 1000 goods, although I kept trying to give them away, and herds of cattle well in excess of our needs (I think we finished with around 1500 for about 1100 clansfolk, but it was higher until I gave away generously right at the end). In short, we knew that the clan was secure, no matter what happened to tribe and kingdom.
There was only one small fly in the ointment: shortage of children. We'd recovered to the point that the ring wasn't talking about it, but their numbers were still low.
I think part of the problem may have been the many years that we had the Rattle of Orlanth, which helps some children grow up faster and become mighty warriors. I think our children count probably went through a normal dip, made worse by some portion of them growing up faster. Of course, what tipped us over the edge was that one year we had an omen telling us that few kids would be born, and not long afterwards we had an event that was new to me--foreigners camped out in our Ernalda shrine, and the great goddess took our fertility away from us for two years. For those two years, despite putting magic into children and activating the bless children blessing, we were babyless.
By the end of that drought, our kid count was really low. We traded away Orlanth's Rattle, and kept pumping magic into kids. We never did manage to get a Kero Finn shrine, despite sending annual exploration trips to Kero Finn once this whole situation started.
So, finally my question: The one thing that we didn't really try was to heavily recruit new farmers in hopes that they'd bring in a higher percentage of kids. I know the advises that vagabond's and scavengers don't usually bring many children, but has anyone noticed if of the other options one bring in a higher percentage of kids than do the rest? Just looking to have a more in depth plan for the next clan in case they hit this problem.
--Bryan
PS. Anyone else noticed that Elmali clans seem to capture horses more often? I think this was an important brick in my clan's success!
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