Sorry for the long reply.
Issue is the same regardless of which shadow quality I start with. Adding the line you gave fixed it completely. I attached the log with it fixed. Thanks!
mainlog.html
I think it could be an interesting alternative, if simplified. No one wants to mow down pregnant women unnecessarily.
The game that comes to mind is Populous: The Beginning. People are produced by garrisoning existing people in houses, giving an additional dimension to economy management. This would be quite realistic, and not that much overcomplicated. One could have small villages without a Civic Center. The Civic Center would be a later centre of government (historically, when enough organisation was reached), with certain techs, and taking them would still be a common victory condition.
The following thing Populous does is that these people are then garrisoned in different buildings (Barracks, Temple) to become the different units. This might seem extra micro, but with the proper automation it should be fine. I had lots of fun playing that game like 25 years ago, it made an impression. I think Caesar III had a similar mechanism for growing the population (if it was not just immigration/emigration). Sadly most people think the way AoE did it is the only valid way.
Still, this won't be implemented in vanilla just because, maybe make a mod as a proof of concept, and good luck.
Ok, I was using "turreted" because that is what I used in the code. I added <TurretHolder> to the boat xml files. But I'll start saying "on deck" instead.
Ok, I'll just start it out as a mod then, and then maybe make a PR