Ok - I don't think I've seen this specific situation before, but I want to reiterate what has already been said.

DON'T GIVE UP ON YOUR VILLAGERS!

My tribe, PeeWee, has 9 villagers. I am reluctant to let anyone breed before L2 magic/nature, but since I was so far from that point and as I was about to lose the last of my mushroom/collectible gathering children, I had to bring one more into the tribe.

Back to business. I am more then 10,000 points from L2 Magic, all the trees are denuded, the hive emptied and all my villagers except for the youngest (who is now 13) are weakened. I had no choice (I felt) but breed one more female to replace the child I was about to lose. No advantage, no matter how slim or risky could be ignored. As it happens, my chief is a 48 yr old woman. And she was the least weakened, of the women. Yes, she & her intended were too hungry to think about it, but not too hungry to argue too much and another kid is on the way.

Well, the new mom needed food- there was 51 points in the bin, so I dropped her on it to get her to eat something - to boost her strength as long as possible & I'll be darned, she magically increased the food supply from 51 to 331!!!! I didn't know women chiefs could still exercise their chief powers before their babies were weaned!

SPOILER ALERT - REALLY: I have the guys on pause so I can write this message. But the plan is to go for broke & force feed everybody every last morsel, then make the potion that makes them all feel healthier (it says it works best when the tribe is eating well). That'll very likely boost everybody's health meters back up to "healthy" and thus give them the strength to push thru that last 10 grand to fishing!!

I'm sure I'm going to lose my 13 yr old anytime to adulthood, and I've been making the chief & 3 farmers do a rain dance every little bit just to be able to get one more piece of fruit to deposit in the bin and get a few more mushrooms.

I know this is a long post, so I thank you for your patience and ask you to cross your fingers for me.

An addendum - I've been meaning to ask - what is that 3rd fruit? I know the others are banana & mango - but I can't figure out the 3rd one.