Occupy/Enslave/Exterminate options

**hoof** · 10-17-2004, 02:29

I wish you could find out the unrest level *before* you make this choice. Too many times have I taken a nice city thinking "Oh, this is a good city, I'll just take it, and that'll save me from having to build it up". Then after making the choice, I find out that it has 0% Public Order despite minimal taxes and a huge garrison. Thus I'm forced to either a) let it revolt and retake it facing high-tech units or b) tear down every building that makes units so that I only have to face peasants/town militia.

Had I known the unrest would be so dire *before* I made the choice, I would have enslaved or exterminated the population. That way I can get the benefits of the buildings w/o having the unrest. I prefer to occupy (my 20th century morality getting in the way I guess). However, I'm leaning more and more to the "Genocide is best" camp. Sad that this game requires genocide to allow for large empires and the keeping of large cities far away from the capitol.

**Beelzebub** · 10-17-2004, 02:35

Just look at the population to be massacred numbers. You massacre like 70 or 80% so figure it out with that. If the population to be exterminated is 20000, that means there's about 25000-30000 people which means it's gonna be a huge bitch to keep the population in line. Generally I enslave anything above 8000 or so and exterminate any city at 15000-20000 or higher. It depends on the city's position and if I need it to start churning out a lot of troops quickly or not.

**hoof** · 10-17-2004, 02:44

Argh! My attempts to make the post-revolt fight easier have failed! Sure they're all peasants, but judging from the little flags and their super-stats, these are valour-7 peasants! Peasants with attack of 8 and defence of 9! (on medium difficulty no less)

So my payment for being nice and not slaughtering the population is to face super-peasants ...

**hoof** · 10-17-2004, 03:07

Well, I crushed the revolt (thank goodness even valour-7 peasants have morale problems). For the first time ever in my RTW career (including about 8 campaigns as various factions), I am going to exterminate the population. I consider this a failure of game design that I am forced to do this but oh well. Now I've got to spend the next 5-10 turns shipping all those units of mine back to cities with appropriate buildings so that I can repair the unnecessary damage to my army.

I was under the impression that playing games was supposed to be *fun*

**Rob** · 10-17-2004, 04:26

You can get an approximate idea of the level of unrest in the city by looking at it on the strategy map. Generally the option window appears right in front of the city, but if you scroll a bit to the side then you will be able to see it. If the face next to the city name is red, the city will revolt (admittedly this assumes normal taxation). If the face is green, the city is safe to occupy.

**Bhruic** · 10-17-2004, 04:38

You can see the unrest level if you use a spy on the city before you attack it. You don't get a breakdown of where the unrest/pacification is coming from, but based on the size of the garrison, you can generally figure it out. Ditto if a governor is having an effect.

I kind of like it that make, makes spies even more useful.

Bh

**sapi** · 10-17-2004, 09:32

I wish you could find out the unrest level *before* you make this choice.

Quickly move the screen after the seige and you can see the unrest level - but you must be quick! For some reason it only works sometimes...

**Warmaker** · 10-17-2004, 19:45

I think a quote mentioned in RTW went along the lines of:
"An Empire is not maintained through timidity."

I used to try the soft hand approach in my first campaign game as the Julii(unmodded of course). My reward? Frequent unrest and riots. The worst perpetrators of my settlements was Cordoba and a few of the cities in Asia Minor. I tried throwing games, increase the quality of life of the citizens, and for what? Riots against my garrissons, damaging government facilities... total chaos. I changed my style to the Iron Fist. Any revolts were dealt with mercilessly. Enslavement was too humane a treatment, I said "Crucify them all! I want a road filled with crucified rebels lined all the way from Cordoba to Rome!"

Seriously, kill the population. It's the best way to deal with revolts. Having a small, frontline-quality army in central areas is a nice way to deal with the nastier revolts. Your expelled Town Watches/Garrisson troops can combine with these Legionnaires and absolutely crush the Rebels.

Again, "An Empire is not maintained through timidity."