Colonies

[germanpeon]

Hello. I just downloaded EB08 and Ive been playing as the Romani. Everythings going fine, but Im wondering what the Colony building does. I dont want to build one without knowing what it does as it takes 12 turns, I think. Does it transfer population to another city? Does it unlock new building options?

Im also wondering about the effects of a Land Grant or Cessio I think its called. It says it is bad later on but I dont really know for sure as I havent tried it yet.

Thanks.

[Watchman]

AFAIK the Colonies give a public order bonus (10% IIRC) and a -1% penalty to population growth. I'd hazard an educated guess they're a measure to help keep overpopulated late-came cities in check.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

We are limited (quite) by what buildings can do. This building represents you sending people in your city elsewhere. What we can do in the game is this:

-give you population growth "penalties" (really bonuses, since you probably have too many people in the town)
-give you happiness boosts

That's about all we can do, but it helps. In your city if population was too high, and they sent out a colony, it would alleviate problems (from congestion, to property disputes, to any number of other things), but this is the best we can do to represent that. You don't actually see your people pick up and leave for somewhere else.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I never build colonies. But I lowered growth and increased the bonuses of a couple of buildings so I don't need them.

About "Land Grants", this is a building group that represents the evolution of small private farms to industrialized government farms. They cause population growth and unhappiness, both bad things. I build them for a role playing effect only. They are needed in Italy for the Marian reforms though.

[germanpeon]

Thanks for the responses guys.
Concerning the Land Grants and the Marian Reforms, how exactly does that work?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Historically, the Marian reforms took place in part due to the fact that there were few land owners (if the state owns all the farms, there is nobody with landowning status to join the army). So you need six Latifundias (highest level of industrial farming) in Italy as one of many objectives for the reform to take place.

[bovi]

IIRC, they are available to more factions. Is there any beneficial effect for them by building estates, or only the romans' reform? Of course they can give an early boost to population if you need more soldiers, but I rarely have that problem given the great military costs (which is good).