I care more for the Stokke fort stuff (bandit events) than the Marston fort events, as the former can lower control, while the later cannot, at least if I remember correctly. I only need the Marston Fort to get occupied, for the food market price increase. Also, if I remember my brief look at the global events correctly, some events are not triggered (and will be replaced by "business as usual" event) or their likelyhood is at least considerably reduced, if the skyguard count is very low (so to make it unlikely that the Skyguard number gets into the negative¹).
Concerning food prices, it all depends on the difference between minimum sell price with zero market stockpile and the maximum buy price with market food stockpile above 5000, if the market price speculation in a dying world initially is (or can be) profitable (provided one has enough cash on hand, which would be a whole lot more than in the normal settings). But I might find out in my current run (except for not having a way to reduce the remaining fusion power plants to zero, except maybe through save scumming to get the global event, which says that a fusion power plant is no longer working, several times and making sure that no research project which aims at restoring a fusion power plant will be started in between), as I have all intentions to eventually, through gracious donations (probably only coilguns, but maybe also automatic rifles) to the bandit faction, to drop the control value from around 30 to zero within one day (and then keep it near zero for the forseeable future). (My current mc is not the savior of Ikaanos but more the scourge/bane and the "house words/phrase" might be "Ceterum censeo Ikaanos esse delendam").
And if it is profitable, you can start market price manipulation once you have the food silo and enough cash at hand to buy all food from the market (and together with your current food stockpile, before buying from the market, is above 5000).
Again you do not wait for normal market price (and market stockpile) variations, but consider the market price fluctuation between the market stockpile being zero (selling prices) and the market price fluctuation, when the market has 5000 or more rations (buying prices). And look, whether there is a gap or not (both considering the worst case, sell price being on the low end and buy price being on the high end, and the best case, sell price being on the high end and buy price being on the low end).
And I already stated, that I do not know, if it is profitable in a dying world.
ps. And I am always playing Grimdark.
pps. Maybe just to find out I might make a game start in a dying world and give me enough food and cash at hand to be immediatly able to start manipulation and look at the variations with savegame scumming (but not today, maybe tomorrow), with no intentions to then really playing that game though (as I did not earn the cash or food, but just give me free stuff).
¹) Eventhough in my game this might just happen in the future as Skyguard has only about 2500 men left (except for marines etc., which are not displayed) and the event chains concerning the Rise of the Confederacy and the the Red Tide War have both not been triggered yet.
