Spring Actions

The first 1/4 of the year, Spring is when the planet is at its warmest... which still isn't saying much. Still, it's at this point that the plants of Planet are in full bloom, and the various passages cleared of the thick ice and snow that makes it otherwise near innavigable. Of all the seasons, Spring is most likely the most active. Spring also comes with a number of required actions: I.E., ones you must make whether you like it or not.

Required Actions:

• Population Upkeep:
  NOTE: This action is ignored for the first year.
  Population Upkeep just means determining how your people did during the last year: depending on available resources, general morale, and a pinch of luck, you may have a regular baby-boom on your hands, or, if resources were thin, you could even find yourself in a dire famine.
  
  Population Upkeep happens in two forms: Natural growth, and Thaw.
  
  
  
  • In order to determine natural Growth, Determine how much surplus food you had last fall, or how many units short you were. This is applied as either a bonus or a penalty to your roll. Then, roll a d20 and add this number to it. If it is over 10, your population grows by 5%(Fractions to the nearest tenth are tracked). If it is over 20, your population grows by 10%. If it is under 1, however, you will lose 5% of your population: Likewise, if it is under -10, you will lose 10% of your population.
    
    
  • The second is Thaw. Thaw is where you determine whether your infrastructure has grown enough to accomodate unfreezing a whole new tray of people at once. Before you roll for this, you may pay up to 3 units of Fissionables towards "Expanding infrastructure": Each unit of fissionables you spend in this manner provides +4 on the subsequent check. If you roll 10 or under, conditions are not right to bring in a new tray. If you roll between 11 and 15, you get one more unit of population. For every 5 full points by which your roll exceeds 11, you may receive another population unit.
    
  
  
• Military Upkeep:
  During the spring, you must choose whether any current military units will remain on the payroll for another year. If you choose to keep them, you must pay their Upkeep. Otherwise, they revert to a normal population unit next season.
  

Optional Actions:

• Allocate Projects:
  In addition to the other projects that are generally available, Spring is when your people get their act together after weathering the winter and dig in anew on collecting resources. This action may only be taken during spring.
  
  
  
  • Harvest Terrain: The most important Project, this is where you allocate your individual population units to the terrain Tiles you can use. Although the Population Units needed and the resources produced varies by terrain, it will always take 2 seasons for those resources to be added to your totals. See TERRAIN, below, for more information.
    
  
  
• Muster Soldiers:
  Spring is the best time to bring in new soldiers, as it allows them to get acclimated to typical outside conditions. By using the Muster Soldiers action, you convert one of your population units into a medium-size military unit. This military unit starts at 1st level, although it may be trained to higher ones.
  Time Required: 1 Season. Cost: 1 Population Unit, 1 or 2 Fissionables.
  
  
• Hire Minister: By spending vast amounts of wealth, you can attract a member of your population to work in your personal coiterie. You may use this to replace an old minister, or simply as a matter of expanding your operation. The new minister has a EL equal to the number of Fissionable materials you spend times 2. You can only spend up to 3 fissionable materials on one minister(i.e. max level 6).