Settlement Growth & Population, Your Opinions

[Dorkus]

enslave and make sure you only have govs in the provinces you want to grow.
(edited for spelling)

I got the imperial palace and marian reforms around 260 bc in my brutii campaign. Made a beeline for carthage with my main force. And enslaved virtually all of greece/macedonia with a secondary force (one REALLy tough fight to take sparta in turn 3 or so; spartan hoplites are really killer), and sent the slaves to carthage and carthage alone.

auxilia are terrible, but the other pm units make a big difference.

[Soulflame]

enslave and makes rue you only have govs int he prinvces you want to grow.

I got the imperial palace and marian reforms around 260 bc in my brutii campaign. Made a beeline for carthage with my main force. And enslaved virtually all of greece/macedonia with a secondary force (one REALLy tough fight to take sparta in turn 3 or so; spartan hoplites are really killer), and sent the slaves to carthage and carthage alone.

auxilia are terrible, but the other pm units make a big difference.

I never knew you could send enslaved people to only one city . How did you do it (and whats a beeline?)

[Dorkus]

I never knew you could send enslaved people to only one city . How did you do it (and whats a beeline?)

sorry fast typing.

slaves only go to provinces with a governor. if only one province has a governor, all the slaves go to that province. otherwise, they are distributed between the provinces evenly. i don't have many governors in any event (they're too valubalbe as automatically-refreshing units to be left in a city), but if you have governors in cities you don't want to expand, just take them out a moment before attacking, then put them back in after you take and enslave the city.

On very hard at least, you only get half the total # of slaves indicated by the game. So if the game says you are sending 3000 slaves, in fact, only 1500 slaves are distributed (all 1500 going to one city, if only one city has a governor).

Slaves also become a resource available for trade subsequent to enslavement. in addition to income generation, this will increase the pop growth of cities you export slaves to. (food imports also increase pop growth) Since you cannot control trade, however, it's impossible to manipulate this.

[Soulflame]

thanks for the clarification. I usually exterminate people now (sorry, but your culture is just not competable with ours, so you need to die ). But enslaving them seems to have tactical value as well now..

[Oaty]

On very hard at least, you only get half the total # of slaves indicated by the game. So if the game says you are sending 3000 slaves, in fact, only 1500 slaves are distributed (all 1500 going to one city, if only one city has a governor).

ALL CITIES with a GENERAL recieves slaves. So that city you just conquered, half those people go back into that city and the other half go to Carthage. I almost never enslave as all it really is doing is shoving the problem off elsewhere.

If you want population growth public health buildings will really help to increase this.

Also it seems there is a lag effect, when it comes to population and taxes.

[Drake]

In response to Taiko, taxation actually would have an effect on population growth, specifically the birth rate. Lower taxes give people more disposable income, which is money to spend on things like food, clothes, luxuries etc.The more money people have the more willing they are to have children as they can afford them. Maybe this wasn't the intent but I can see where the tax link comes from.

[Dorkus]

Your'e wrong. I've already tested it. The number of slaves exported remains fixed regardless of the number of cities to which you are exporting. Under your explanation, the number "lost" would decrease as you exported to more cities. For ex:

I conquer city of 2k. Game tells me 1k are being enslaved.

If I have one governed city, it gets a boost of 500.
If I have two, they both get a boost of 250 (rounding down).

In both scenarios the conquered city has pop 1k remaining.

Moreover, if you check the conquered cities population before and after, there is always a 50% drop -- which exactly reflects the number of slaves the game SAYS are being exported.

1/4 of a city's populatoin, in other words, disappears into thin air. Another 1/4 is enslaved in governed provinces. 1/2 of the populatoin remains. Whether this is bug or feature, I cannot say. THe in-game feedback, however, is clearly bugged.

You're also wrong about taxation. There's absolutely no lag at all. The turn you change taxation will have growth affected accordingly. Test this for yourself.

Finally public health buildings are probably the worst pop growth devices. In addition to providing no income, they have a trade building pre-req -- and it defeats the purpose of exponential growht when you have to wait so long for each upgrade. Public heatlh blds do provide a 5% order bonus/level. But you should be building these in the early game (pop growth is not nearly as valuable in the mid-to-late game). And in the early game, order is not as important and in any event is easily (and more cost effectively) achieved by garrisoning peasants.

Please do not post information so definitively when it is based on pure speculation. If you think there is an alternative explanation for the phenomenon i describe, just say so. Saying things definitively will simply confuse and mislead people.

ALL CITIES with a GENERAL recieves slaves. So that city you just conquered, half those people go back into that city and the other half go to Carthage. I almost never enslave as all it really is doing is shoving the problem off elsewhere.

If you want population growth public health buildings will really help to increase this.

Also it seems there is a lag effect, when it comes to population and taxes.

[Praylak]

Finally public health buildings are probably the worst pop growth devices. In addition to providing no income, they have a trade building pre-req -- and it defeats the purpose of exponential growht when you have to wait so long for each upgrade.

Dorkus, forgive but I'm slow. I fail to see your point here.

The point in these structures is to reduce squalor which has two distinct effects. They produce happiness and allow for higher growth. Growth can be both a negative or positive factor for your empire as a whole depending on circumstances. Fast growth is not always good, sometimes is can put you into a bad situation. Public buildings are a one time cost, garrison of troops has to be paid upkeep every turn. I honestly feel this system works with some realism. It seems more realistic waiting for a town to turn into a city, then waiting 20 years to build a fortress like in MTW.

[lars573]

When you enslave the populace of a city the slaves are only sent to cities with governors. Also taxes affecting poulation growth is a good and realistic thing. Besides population growth isn't accomplieshed by your citizens porking each other and making babies, but by people moving from the country side into the cities for a better life. That is urbanization