Those are all possibilities. Even though there are bugs that need to be fixed, you should be able to keep a tribe alive.

ABS, I would suggest that you keep your population to less than 10 villagers until you have several reliable sources of food, make sure that you have 2 trained farmers and at least one trained healer when you're going to leave the game unattended, and put the game on 1/2 speed if you'll be away for more than an hour or two. You may also want to review the General Strategy Guide. There are no spoilers in there, and you might get some ideas for developing a strategy that will work for you.