Famine
A failed harvest can strike any country in any month. Agricultural research makes famine rarer and less deadly, and the government's response decides who pays for it.
In the postwar world a single bad season can leave the countryside without enough grain. In Atomic Dawn famine is a national emergency that can strike any country, at random, in any month. How often it strikes depends on how modern the country's agriculture is; how much it costs depends on the government's response and on its food distribution.
How often famine strikes
Each month every country has a small chance of famine: 0.4% at the start, roughly a one-in-twenty chance in any given year. Agricultural research lowers that chance, and the reductions multiply:
| Research | Famine chance |
|---|---|
| Mechanized Agriculture | halved |
| Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers | × 0.6 |
| Green Revolution Hybrid Crops | × 0.25 |
| Cold Chain Distribution | × 0.8 |
A country with all four faces only 6% of the original risk. The Famine Risk Reduction modifier, granted by later projects such as Precision Irrigation and Precision Agriculture, lowers it further.
A country already dealing with a famine cannot suffer another until its response has run its course.
AI governments notice the danger: a country still exposed to a high famine risk gives priority to research that lowers it. See Technology Trees.
Responding to a famine
A famine arrives as an event with up to three responses:
| Response | Lasts | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Import grain at any cost | 6 months | slower population growth, slightly lower stability, and an extra 1% of GDP in social spending |
| Requisition what remains of the harvest | 1 year | twice the population loss, a sharp fall in stability and legitimacy, and rising unrest |
| Rush fertilizer for an emergency second planting | 4 months | the mildest losses; available only with Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers researched |
The choice is a classic one. Importing grain costs money but spares the population and the government's standing; requisitioning costs nothing up front but falls hardest on the people and on the government's Legitimacy and Stability. A country with modern fertilizer production can contain a famine quickly and cheaply.
Severity
Famine costs lives through slower population growth while its response lasts. The Famine Loss Severity Reduction modifier lowers that loss: Cold Chain Distribution, for example, reduces it by 20%, as better storage and transport get food to where it is needed.
Historical famine
Alongside the random famine, the scenario includes specific historical food crises. The Soviet Union, for instance, faces a grain crisis in the winter of 1947 and must choose whether to keep exporting grain at the cost of a hungry winter at home.
Relief from abroad
Other countries can help. A diplomat on a humanitarian assistance mission can deliver aid to a country suffering an active famine, each delivery shortening the emergency, and earning Goodwill Missions with its government.
Related articles
- Technology Trees: the agricultural research that prevents famine.
- Demographics: how population growth is calculated.
- Public Health: the parallel risk of epidemics.
Pages that link here
Demographics · Goodwill Missions · Public Health · Technology Trees