Quote Originally Posted by Juvenal
@McHrozni

Thanks for your thoughts...

It is not entirely clear (to me) in the game what the population figure actually represents.

The extermination mechanism seems to imply it is the population of settlements - because extermination is performed instantly when a settlement is captured.

The recruitment mechanism seems to imply it is the available male fighting age population in the whole province - otherwise why should my settlement having only 400 population stop me recruiting troops from elsewhere in the province?

Buildings seem to send mixed messages, some supporting settlement-only (cess-pits, temples, taverns) and others supporting whole province (farms, ports, roads, government).

I think the settlement also represents all other settlements in the province, therefore its population can likewise represent the whole population of the province.

The biggest argument against the hinterland view is that it is not modelled anywhere in the game - you only have one population number for a province, you can only control (or lose) the whole province, and you cannot benefit from your presence in a province you don't fully control.

Of course some things still fall outside of the model, such as mercenaries and rebels - they don't affect province population at all!
One thing is pretty clear, the system is quite imperfect

Take Carthage, for example. It usually grows to about 40,000 people, if you set your mind to it (low taxes, good leader), you can get it to about 50,000, but not much more. Even if this is just military age males fit for service, that translates to perhaps 150,000 people. Carthage had about 250,000 inhabitants at it's height.
Don't get me started with Rome and it's 1-1.4 million people at it's height, please Even with the above calculation, you only get slightly above 1/10th what it should be
On the other hand, many cities that were rather minor can get 25-30 thousand inhabitants eventually, with good care and investment. In some instances, I guess a "what-if" comes in, if the city was indeed developed to this extent, it could've grown this big, but in some cases, hardly

So, overall, the system is very imperfect, since it permits high growth while preventing to reach historic size of some cities - you can't import grain from Sicily and Egypt, which allowed Rome to grow that big.

As for which buildings do what, it is arguable. Okay, stone walls are a single wall around the largest settlement in the province, but wooden palisades would still ring larger villages in the countryside, at least in border areas. This is ignored by the system, obviously.
Watch towers, on the other hand, are province-wide installation, as are farming upgrades.
Many come as slightly dubius, a holy site can be something built in several places in one province, and a field of martial games likewise, but upgrades of both are rather one only affairs.

My thoughts? Stop thinking so much how the system could/should/might/would work, and enjoy what it offers A system that would allow you to micromanage every single detail would quite likely be too complex for enjoyment, or you'd have to leave it to the AI, killing the benefits of such a system (Master of Orion 3 anyone?).

McHrozni