Quote Originally Posted by ReluctantSamurai View Post
But if a city is close to the 12k mark, it's better to just capture it intact if you can. You may have to put up with several turns of riots
Because riots reduce population, in a case like above I'd immediately find a way to take the population over 12k (disbands or enslaves) so I can start the governor's building - and then allow riots if unavoidable.