Chivalry, Taxes, City Growth and Castles

I have noticed that leaving a general with some chivalry points in a town you want to grow fast (for example, level I towns) and setting the taxes to minimal will do wonders to the man's chivalry rating and city growth: chivalry rating will grow and the town will grow even faster with it.

Be sure not to build anything in that settlement while you have the low taxe regime though. Otherwise the general is likely to get bad taxing trait hits upon building completion.

On another note: it seems, we have to avoid leaving generals with full movement points in castles if a building is about to be completed. Since castles usually have high public order but unchangeable "normal taxes", generals tend to get bad taxing hits if left in there in the turn a building is completed.

Also, I have noticed generals sitting in castles gaining bad taxing hits also with partial movement points. It seems, just governing a settlement when a building is completed is sufficient. In RTW, if I remember correctly, having full movement points was a requirement to trigger trait roll upon building completion.

Ack! Sounds like using your generals as governers is a bad idea... Interesting, please elaborate.

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Originally Posted by ScrapTower

Ack! Sounds like using your generals as governers is a bad idea... Interesting, please elaborate.

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No, not exactly what I meant. It seems, leaving your generals to govern castles (which can only have "normal taxes") when a building is about to be completed there is a bad idea. The reason why it is a bad idea is that the trigger for bad-tax-man hit seems to be "happy populace + taxes lower than max + a building completed", which is exactly what is happening in castles (one cannot change the tax setting).

The advice is: take generals out of the castles if a building is about to be completed or leave them there at peril to your treasury (I sometimes leave them in castles if a church is about to be finished in hopes of raising their peity rating). Meanwhile, there is no danger of gaining bad-taxman trait if leaving your general in a city-type settlement since taxes can be raised to max there. Beware of taverns, etc. though... Having those in your towns can give drunkard line traits to your generals.

That is rather counterproductive as right now I have saved up on the farming upgrades to give to the next gorvernor of my castles. Getting good bonus to farming can be a very lucrative form of income in certain provinces. But if the cost is 10% off taxes... Well, then it is hardly worth it, and one must assume it can get worse since it normally takes several upgrades to get the good farming trait.

How about the ancilliary Tax Farmer. I seem to be getting them a lot at castles. That seems out of place as well.

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Originally Posted by Kraxis

That is rather counterproductive as right now I have saved up on the farming upgrades to give to the next gorvernor of my castles. Getting good bonus to farming can be a very lucrative form of income in certain provinces. But if the cost is 10% off taxes... Well, then it is hardly worth it, and one must assume it can get worse since it normally takes several upgrades to get the good farming trait.

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If I understand the OP correctly, you're right that you shouldn't seek farming bonuses for your Generals in castles. However, you should be able to achieve your aim by putting the General in a city and raising taxes to the max in the turn a farming upgrade is completed, if there is indeed a correlation.

I'm not sure about raising taxes to the max - the only safe tax rate I've found is 'high'. 'Very high' always seems to expose my governor/generals to the same sloppy taxman series of vices as does 'low'/'normal' tax.