Help with Famine

[Clover Creepy Girl™]

So I'm playing, I have a surplus food of 500-600 then I hit end turn and its suddenly -200 and I have no idea how, I dont know what to do to handle this, can someone help?

[I'm sorry for being horny]

errr who do you play as, I mean what faction? and when do you get that sudden negative food surplus, like does it after your enemy burn your city or after you settle in settlement?

[Skarbrand]

It comes down to land quality, which can change massively between turns, in some of my earlier games I had the same problem you're experiencing, and that was because I was building a ton of farms all over my empire.

Farms give: Food: +20 from agriculture
Additional food: +18 per local fertility level

That means that most of your food income will depend on region growing fertility. What you want to do to solve this problem is build cattle herds which instead give:

Food: +40 from animal husbandry
Additional food: +10 per local fertility level

this will give you a solid base of food supply, which will prevent those massive dips into famine. I also recommend building some Fishing ports, which don't depend on growing fertility at all.

[Clover Creepy Girl™]

I'm playing as the Garamantians, which might be the reason, but I own all of north africa from morocco to the nile, and I have invested in diverse farm types as well as fishing ports everywhere, just randomly it goes NOPE FAMINE!

[I'm sorry for being horny]

probably Attila came, when attila event start to kicks in, your poorly fertilized land will be near useless if you put farm in there, you should've build the farm that have the highest food surplus, ignore the income and just focus the food surplus

[Clover Creepy Girl™]

I did, I placed the ones that yielded the highest amount of food. As I said, I diversified my farmland, and placed tons of fishing ports in areas without good farm land

[I'm sorry for being horny]

okay that's weird, do you use any mods? or alter your save game using any app in anyway?

[Clover Creepy Girl™]

Nope, this is my first time with this game, no mods or edits or anything at all

[Teh_Diplomat]

For those North African regions that Garamantia holds throughout the game, best to stick with Camel farms in all regions apart from Aegyptus, and any of your possessions in Hispania.

THehother issue can be two-fold. Not only do you lose fertility at 400 AD (Attila's birth), but you lose even more when he comes of age (420AD), combine that with higher tier buildings, or if you converted away from Semetic Paganism (food bonus) or things like sheep farms, stables, fields in a territory that has +1 base fertility, but currently suffers from -3 due to climate change, and you can quickly run out.

Some screens from your game would be helpful.

[Clover Creepy Girl™]

I dunno what I would need to post to show. It has now flipped back rto some 800 profit in food.

I have removed all of those top tier buildings that eat 100 food and such, I think that has helped, but now I'm dealing with mass unhappiness, no idea whats causing it or how to deal with it, I thinkgs its due to different faiths, but I dunno how to handle that at all.

[Teh_Diplomat]

Oh, it could have also been winter, when you're hit with a faction wide depletion in food. Also, as Garamantia, you have 50% increase to the effect of religious differences.

[Clover Creepy Girl™]

Nah, it wasnt dependant ont he seaosn I was watching. I have been trying to use priests but it isn't working

[Bluecher Forward]

Same thing happened to me. I am playing Eastern Roman Empire - everything great and then suddenly I start losing food supply. It seems like once you are in deep famine mode there is no getting out of it. Tried building all kinds of buildings food markets, upgrading cities, catte, sheep production - no good. Too bad - was having fun playing. Won't be playing this game for a while.

[SweatyNeckbeard]

A world wide climate change was modeled into the game. When it happens it affects all regions negatively. I can't remember when it occurs but it could be that. As someone mentioned before you must diversify your food production.