I have now killed off my village at least 12 times while only solving to clear the well and the beach. I managed to get to level two of all the techs and level 3 of the food tech but I just keep killing everyone.

The problem is food. Even after I get to level 2 of food and get the field going. There food runs out. and I don't have a lot of people. I tried a different tactic recently which was to put 2 people on food, two on research and 1 to start clearing the beach.

That created the problem of not enough tech points, so when the berries ran out. I had no money to get the fishing tech.

I just don't know what I'm doing wrong and can't seem to find a strategy to get the game off the ground.

I feel your pain. I am hoping they hang on till I get 10k more in tech points.

Marsha, what I do is put 2 females on foraging and 3 villagers on research (for a normal game with 5 adults) until the berry bush runs out. Then I put the two farmers on research until my villagers can farm. At that point, the farmers go back to farming and the researchers keep getting tech points. I also (depending upon the food supply) may breed one of the farmers (that's why I choose females as farmers - their nursing cycle corresponds with the farm cycle). I don't even bother with finishing the first hut until I have crops, and delay the beach until I'm nearly ready to get fishing. That keeps the researchers at the table and getting more skilled (producing more points). As the food supply builds (and it will if you do what I suggest), you can make more baby villagers after the first hut is completed, which assures more workers later on. Just don't exeed about 10-12 villagers until you have fishing!

Thanks I will try this strategy and see what happens. Would really like to get somewhere in the game instead of coming back to find 6 corpses.

Hi,
I've found that putting the game on 1/2 time when I'm going to be away for awhile also helps. I had quite a lot of villagers when I did not have fishing (can't remember exact number), but when the crops were ready to be farmed I would help the farmers along so they would dod this quicker (by dragging them there for a while) and build up some food in reserve for when the crops are growing. The berry bush grows some more as well after it has been emptied. And there are always the mushrooms! Maybe I am not such a great example, because all my villagers ended up being weakened with starvation...however this was corrected once I had fishing and they never looked back! : )