slaughtering populations?

[The_Emperor]

Ok Slaughter is now neccessary in my Brutii campaign, holding Greece is getting annoying (I guess I should destroy those Mars temples and Build Juno ones to help).

Carthage has revolted for the second time running and each time I reoccupy it I do a massacre, pretty soon there won't be anyone left to revolt!

On top of this I am sure that squalor is a bug. Suracuse (or whatever its called) in Sicily, is now on the verge of being upgraded to the highest city level and Squalor is rampant... The thing is I still have capacity in this city at its current level and needs MORE people to be able to upgrade to the next level, yet Squalor is extremely high and population growth has just gone stagnant on low taxes.

So right now I am moving peasants in from other towns to bring the population up to upgrade level, then hopefully the Marian reforms will kick in.

[R'as al Ghul]

Hi guys,

I've only played since a few days so my perspective may be limited, but I don't think that the system is buggy. It's historical that squalor is an issue that needs management skills.
So far I've conquered 10-12 provinces as brutii. I enslaved every city so far. This pushed my population in the troop producing big cities, making it able to upgrade and reduced the conquered population to a reasonable level. I need those slaves badly because the filth troubles the cities the most when they are on the brink to expand to the next level, a quick injection of fresh "citizens" helps to shorten the time to build the next health building. Temples of Juno do also help (tear down those old temples of them and bring them a new religion). It's crucial though to plan this transfer, i.e. you have to be aware where your governours are and where those slaves go to.
I can imagine that extermination may be an option in the future but right now my economy booms and only my two biggest cities make little problems. In those two I build all the happiness buildings available. So far it works out fine. For the future I intend to build academies in the big cities to give the governours some extra management skills.
I really enjoy how you have to manage your empire and ensure its survival. After all it's the people and the economy that enables you to build armies.
The new guide at IGN is a good source for information on this matter.



R'as

[The Marcher Lord]

I am obviously getting too emotional during gameplay, but if a settlement makes me really have to fight hard and lose good men to take it I tend to exterminate them. If they put on a show, but basically leave the gates open for me, I tend to let them live on happily. I think I am just being too nice about this