Fertility

[gnorf73]

So I've been playing a campaign with the Saxons. At first I jumped in not knowing anything about the game, and later learned about fertility. By then it was turn 100ish and realized all my original land that I started out in was really bad, like 1 or 2 fertility. Attila popped in with 4 stacks of elite units and I realized I should probably start over since I didn't feel like I had a chance, and knew I could do better if I built to counter all those damn horse archers.

So this is my question: After starting over I noticed my starting land and the land around me is all pretty high in fertility. In my previous game none of this land had been razed but over time somehow all of my land became really infertile. Does anyone know why this may be or what I can do to prevent, or even raise fertility?

[Snidi]

fertility lose 1 point at the beginning of every chapter (400-420-432 etc) and you can't rise fertility but you can recover the fertility point lost by razing if you rebuild the colony which got razed

[Nugcrusher]

The loss of fertility represents a"mini' iceage (cooling) that seems to have occured during this era. Fishing Ports are steady food producers, and, if you are playing as a barbarian, Goat Herds do well even on infertile land.

[gnorf73]

Hmmm, maybe they should have considered reducing the production of greenhouse gasses like we are doing today (joke). Anyways, thanks for the info. I did end up converting all my farms to goat herds and didn't have any real problems with food. Only thing is for every goat farm I need to build it's one less real money making building I can have.

Have you found it worthwhile to raze settlements in order to bring fertility back? I'm thinking I might as well have a couple goat herds and just look elsewhere for fertile lands to put my farms rather than go through the trouble.

[Straybow]

The raze malus and climate change malus are separate things, one is temporary the other permanent.

Razing is never beneficial to fertility, its simply that its effects are limited in duration. :)

[Nugcrusher]

Trouble with razing...immigrants go to the nearest settlments which can cause happiness issues...depending...

I have never razed a settlement for the specific issue of fertility/infertility. I have resettled lands but that is usually in the late game. I'll raze usually because I am pissed at the occupants and desire a long-term solution which sacking, for example, does not provide, and/or I was not prepared to "occupy". In one campaign I did raze a number of places (including one of mine) in the hope of creating a "buffer" between my lands and the Huns. Can't recall if that clever strategem worked or not...