Pest Control

**Kekvit Irae** · 05-08-2005, 21:07

Ignore rebel bands at your own risk. The more they stay in your land, the more Devesation they cause, ruining your province's economy. Unlike Corruption which can be stamped out with +Law buildings, there is nothing to cure Devesation except waiting a long time for it to heal.

**dragons622** · 05-09-2005, 02:48

The devastation imposed by rebels is minor, no more than 3% of your total income. You'd need an army that would cost 10 times the amount of devastation to protect against rebels and so unless the rebels are interfering with traffic it's unnecessary to hunt them down.

**Kekvit Irae** · 05-09-2005, 03:23

Even as small as the income penalty is, it's not something you can afford while playing a faction that cannot handle income loss, like Germania. However, most rebels are lower-grade units, often peasants (though a handful of hestati and family members pop up occasionally), and this means that a general with a handful of units can easily clean up the threat before it starts. I see rebel armies as a chance to gain a Man of the Hour (very important for garrison duties or when I'm low on generals).

**dragons622** · 05-09-2005, 03:27

But the cost of pest control outweighs the benefits. While trying to remove 200-300 denariis of devastation you would be using an army that has a fixed upfront cost of 1500 denariis minimum and a support cost of 800 denariis thereafter (not even including the cost of replacing killed soldiers). Even if you argue that you could use this one army to eliminate rebels for several provinces, it couldn't get them all within one turn and you will still experience devastation. The costs outweigh the benefits so it would be the optimal strategy to put up with rebels unless the block roads.

**Kekvit Irae** · 05-09-2005, 03:56

I dont know what types of rebels you have been fighting, but for me a standard city garrison of about three average units (hestati, spear warband, hoplites, etc) will easily take out a band of rebel scum with good leadership from the player behind the screen. The only rebels that dont fall into the "easily killed" catagory are the gold cheveron/armor/weapon rebels from a city rebellion.