slaughtering populations?

[DojoRat]

Slaughter vs. enslavement has a lot to do with your style of play and your faction's situation. If things are going well and you can gradually expand along with your family tree, enslavement works fine. You do have to knock down old temples and build new one and maybe some other entertainment buildings but it should be okay.

But if you need to drive into an enemy's heartland and deliver a killing blow before you're overwhelmed by other adversaries, say the Seleucids vs. the Egyptians et al, you've got to slaughter and move on until the threat is eliminated.

[Sinner]

I'm trying to roleplay how I deal with captured settlements, taking my lead from the fact that Rome relied upon a cycle of conquest and enslavement for much of its history...

- if it's a Roman settlement I only ever occupy, even if they've rebelled against me.
- if it's a Greek settlement I usually occupy, but occasionally enslave if the strategic situation is such that I have no option or if the settlement has rebelled against me or another Roman faction. I count Corinth as Greek even though it's held by the Macedonians at the beginning. This is just my attempt to emulate the Roman's admiration for many aspects of Greek culture.
- everybody else usually gets enslaved, unless they've rebelled against me or another Roman faction, in which case I usually exterminate them upon re-capture. I'll usually also exterminate 'problem' cultures... for example, if the Carthaginians have given the Scipii a lot of trouble, particularly if they've taken a Roman city. Revenge is a dish best eaten with lots of chilli sauce and a diet coke is my motto.

[lars573]

I will usually exterminate the populace of a newly conquered city as it gets rid of the culture penalty. Another thing is that exterminating the populace has a 2 fold effect it massacures a percentage of the population not everybody in the city, granted it's a high percentage 60-75% IIRC. And it lets your troops do extensive looting of the city, hence the large padding of your wallet. Enslaving the populace takes a smaller percentage of the population, 25-40%, and you only loot from the people you enslave. IMO massacuring the population gets rid of the cultural penalty because the praticers of the old culture are gone. Slaughtered in a night of the long knives-esque orgy of mass murder and mass thievery. The new people that migrate to the city are immerest in your culture and values and have no idea of what went on before, especially if your knock down the old temples.

Something else population growth in RTW comes from migration not reproduction. Other wise it makes no sense