I played the Tamerlane campaign for the first time a few days ago, and I realized two of their bonuses are perfectly suited for the scenario where you’re stuck in the Russian north and can’t farm.
Those bonuses would be the one causing sheep to spawn with each new TC and the one allowing the meat from sheep to last longer. These two bonuses work in tandem with each other, and come in handy when you can’t farm, allowing an instant burst of food that lasts for a while.
Interestingly, the sheep spawning bonus didn’t even exist in the base DE, when Tamerlane was introduced, so the scenario would’ve been considerably harder at launch.