Arthur's games have always presented good and bad events randomly, starting from the first 15 minutes of game play, but if you want a way to keep the tribe alive until the trees are grown:

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First, pause the game. Wait 24 hours and set the game speed to slow. Have your chief create magic food and pause the game again. Wait 24 hours and repeat the process. Keep doing that until they have a safe buffer of food. Then put the game back on a comfortable game speed and play as you would have before the adverse event.

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Barbara
Unicorn
Last Day of Work