Hello there!
Just started playing the game a week ago, but in every session, after a few years, every time the morale of my farmers goes down no matter how I react towards them. Tried numerous occasions as a Balanced clan, even as a Peace clan, but they always ended up being sad.

Generally, they're complaining that I favor the weaponthanes over them, but I did nothing in the past for the weaponthanes, except to increase their slider (number of them) to the right to get more of them, since I need them for trade and emissary missions and for defense..
I never raid nor cattle raid, and any time the ring told me the farmers are feeling a little bit neglected, I offered them gifts. No matter how many gifts I've offered, their morale was not increasing. Also, most of the ring members are farm-related.

I have enough cattle and food, on trade missions, I usually get those, even the favors are all about them.


Are there other ways to increase farmer morale? If they get offended by getting more weaponthanes (not even recruiting, just getting more from the slider (carls?), how am I suppose to defend my land?

Thank you for your help!

You definitely need to recruit weaponthanes. And farmers will invariably have some complaint. According to the manual: “Farmers and weaponthanes often compete with each other for the ring’s attention. This conflict is a standard part of Orlanthi life. You generally don’t need to take it too seriously unless one or the other of the two sides is extremely unhappy.”

And, gift-giving can help, but “Actions taken during game-initiated crises will affect the morale of the warriors and the farmers more than the gift- giving on this screen.”

Hope you don't mind, but there are a couple things that could be doing it. (This comes from my own experience, and reading the wikia)

The first is how many cattle do you have? If the herd starts getting small (say 500-600 range), the farmers will be in a bad mood. The best way to increase it is to increase the size of your herd.

Or, do you suffer constant raids from other clans? Repeated raids where you come out on the losing end will certainly worsen their mood as well. As you seem to have enough weaponthanes, though, this probably isn't the case.

There are a few other things you can do, though some take longer than others.

Are your farmer getting sick/wounded an aweful lot? You may wish to heal them with Chalana Arroy's blessings, or else build shrines/temples to her.

These are also some effective means, though much tougher depending on higher diffiuclty.

The first is Chalana Arroy has a Blessing called Hope. This can help raise the morale of your farmers (though it won't do it instantaneously).

If you have the Chalana Arroy heroquests available, you can pick 'Heal a rift in the clan'.

Undergo the Ernalda heroquest (feeds the tribe), and pick the option of 'make the carls happier'. (This one tends to work better than the Chalana Arroy one, at least for farmers).

I also tend to undergo the Issaries heroquest fairly early as well. One treasure in it specifically helps...the Board of Nails. It is possible to get it for free, though other times you may have to exchange another treasure for it (If you have it, I recommend stocking up on Spirit Fetches for it, especially if you can't get it for free). The description for the Board of Nails specifically states it helps the morale of the farmers.

Possess the Shifting Statue treasure. This is one of many treasures you can buy directly from another clan. Essentially, this one can help keep the clan as a whole amused. (You would probably be more helped by the Board of Nails, though).

I usually have 750 cattles, and when I start to go low, I immediately either trade or call on a favor to get more. Even when I don't get cattle raided, they start to get sad (the reason is always "I favor the weaponthanes over them", which is simply not true (as I've said I only recruit a few more after they die).

The problem might be that I'm not using any blessings at all, nor sacrificing, since those take a lot of resources away + valuable time (round). Everyone's healthy, everyone's happy, everything runs smoothly and has no problems apart from those silly farmers.. I even had treasures boosting their work and calves birth rate..

I really have no idea what more could I do for them,..

Well, I don't think you're doing anything wrong. However, it does seem a group's morale can go down over time if you don't do something for them (such as going on raids, and successfully with weaponthanes). It is a balancing act, certainly. As you say, you have a certain amount of time, and you don't have many resources, so you definitely have to priortize.

However, you should expend the time and resources on the occasional blessing. The Hope blessing, the Ernalda heroquest, the Board of Nails treasure are definitely some of the ways to go.

Another couple things you could do, though it does require goods, is to give gifts to the farmers directly, or else hold a feast.



Your cattle number sounds about right. Although, as your clan population slowly grows, you will definitely want to increase your herd size (roughly 1 cow per person is my own rule of thumb, though not exactly set in stone).

No shrines? Or not sacrificing for a blessing? We definitely expected you would have shrines and temples. (Sacrificing each year is indeed less efficient, and we don’t expect that.)

In the first year, I usually build a shrine for Barntar and upgrade basic shrine to temple for main god, Ernalda for the passive bonuses. Sacrifices I don't make, only when one of the events suggests to do so for something (curses, raiding, etc), but I'll try to not do this since they require many resources.

I found an Issaris shrine very helpful for my peace tribe. Trade routes meant a nice influx of goods which in turn I could trade for cattle, give away as gifts or sacrifice when needed.
For me there was a turning point though when I stopped struggling to survive: finishing my first hero-quest. The bonus to Clan magic was such that next sacred season I could perform nearly all rituals, resulting in another successfull heroquest.

Wow, that's rarely seen I guess. Heroquesting seems very hard in two consecutive years...

As for shrines, I usually go with Issaries quite early, too. The trade income is a very important factor. Also, Vinga helps exploring early on to find valuable goods, treasure etc.

The trick is not to know that you aren't supposed to heroquest every year.
Did one heroquest per year for four years in a row 'till I noticed my ring telling me to give it a rest :)
Was fun in mid-game (just before founding a tribe) where I'd get around 28 magic per sacred season. You end up with so much spare magic that it is hard to fail quests.

Well, I guess sometimes it's a good idea not to listen to the clan ring then... :P
And actually that would have made my last long game a bit "easier" (at least it wouldn't have taken me that many years to perform seven heroquests).

after reading this I started getting the Hope and Law-maker blessings every year. it seems this wasn't fool proof but my moods went up, however that could have been because I was starting to do hero quest.

I found that I generated more than enough goods to make up for the sacrificing.

after getting the iOS version I was able see see the affects of what I did. it turns out cattle raids when successful boost both thanes and farmers. as a war clan thir both usually unshakable until they get over crowded. as for clan mood giving gifts to neighbors boost that. as a peace clan with 8 trading routes this was laughable because I couldn't spent my good fast enough.