Quote Originally Posted by HoreTore
Just finished an ERE campaign, NEVER had a problem with big pops. Don't know why people keep obsessing over them...the 40k pop in alexandria is really no problem with a good governor(the one starting there), and a full garrison...
Hmm... I can see I was not very clear on this point. What I meant was that the amount of buildings you can build on each level, 2k 6k etc, can´t all be built before the settlement grows into the next level. This is what I mean with outgrowing. I agree that you, in most cases, can manage with good govenors and some decent garrisoning. I rather have a 40k pop howering on 95% loyalty at max tax with 19 peasants garrisoning it than pull them out and let it rebel. It makes a ton of cash - especially Alex, amongst others.

All of theese problems; build times, training times, costs, upkeeps, growth etc would be more manageble if you could have everything instantly buildable,
then the size of your treasury would be the only and real limit.
Anyway this is the main reason why I edited the base farm levels and cut them in half for all settlements.

Another note on growth. Hang in there and eventually the city will reach its maximum level and will not grow anymore. Also, by increasing taxes and thus decreasing loyalty, still with the gov and garrison inside, you can cause slight unrest which easily can cut down your pop with some 2-4k people for a big city. Varning! Your gov might actually get killed in the process though it has never happened to me yet.

@HoreTore,
Love your nick!