| Chapter V: Population Management |
Population management is an essential skill for success; this chapter contains some extremely valuable information for new leaders and should be read carefully.
It should be noted that serf and vassal populations are a core part of your territory and will affect your overall growth rate. Extremely unhealthy populations will cripple all territory growth! The importance of populations lie in their association with your military training - units can only be drafted from your populations of serfs and vassals. Hence military expansion is only possible if your territory has at least one healthy population. Without military expansion you will be unable to defend your territory and inevitably lose some of your land.
Topics covered in this chapter:
- Basics of population growth and decline
- Factors behind population growth and decline
- Balancing military and population
- Advice
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| Basics of population growth and decline |
Serf and vassal populations actively reproduce and increase providing that there is space to do so. Your territory is capable of housing a specific number of serfs and vassals depending on the amount of land and type buildings you have decided to build. Huts are built to provide space for serfs to reproduce while manors are built to accommodate vassal reproduction (see Buildings). Serf and vassal populations grow and decline separately without any effect on each other, for instance a territory may have an unhealthy serf population but a very healthy vassal population.
Should there be insufficient housing available your population will decrease in size until it is within the maximum housable limit. Population decrease occurs at a constant rate for all territories under all terrains and seasonal conditions.
A population is stable when it reaches the maximum housable limit through either growth or decline.
Main points:
- Serf and vassal populations are completely independent of each other.
- A population will continue to increase while it is below the maximum housing limit.
- Housing limits can be increased by building huts (for serfs) or manors (for vassals).
- A population becomes stable when it reaches the maximum housing limit
- If you have more population than your maximum housing limit your population will decrease until it reaches the limit and becomes stable.
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| Factors behind population growth and decline |
Population growth rates and the amount of new population units they produce are influenced by a number of factors. These factors all interact and must be understood so as to maximize your territories expansion.
- Population type
Serfs and vassals are vastly different in their attitudes to life. Serfs will naturally reproduce much faster than vassals.
- Number of hospitals
Hospitals boost the reproduction rate for both serfs and vassals in your territory. Hospitals not only provide facilities to save existing lives - they assist in the creation of new ones. Vassal reproduction rates in particular will increase greatly when they know there is medical assistance available.
- Terrain seasonal growth rate
Terrains have a large effect on your populations! Depending on the current season and your chosen terrain your people may have to deal with floods, snow, extreme heat or any number of other factors. These natural events tend to discourage reproduction, further they may claim many lives amongst your population which will counteract what little reproductive potential there is. Note that terrain based population growth changes occur one day after the change of season as the new seasonal mood takes one Dystopian day to set in.
- Race
Some races have population growth bonuses and penalties. For example Weevil have a much higher growth rate while Gnome have a slower growth rate due to their racial characters.
- Population size
A larger population will generate more new individuals than a small population. This is simply a logical point; a population of 2000 will be capable of producing twice the individuals when compared to a population of 1000. Always try to keep your populations over 1000, should they fall much below this mark you will experience frustrating growth as very few new individuals are born.
NOTE: Population size does not influence
your growth rate - it only influences the number of serfs or
vassals you gain due to your growth rate.
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| Balancing military and population |
Any leader can grow a population, the real art is managing both your population and your military. The chief aim of any leader should be to keep as much military as possible while simultaneously keeping your populations as healthy as possible. Striking this balance is essential, too much military and your populations may spiral downwards to nothing, too little and you will not have adequate defense and/or offense. Several options are available to you in managing and maximizing your amount of military:
- Attacking and using the 1/4 housing requirement for units out on attack.
Attacking is a great way to increase your housable population limits. All military units out on attack only require one quarter of the space, so 4 units on attack only require the housing space of 1 unit. If you keep your military away from home you may be able to keep a higher number of military than would otherwise be possible.
- Switching units
If one population is running low it is often a good idea to ease off drafting units from it and switch to an alternative unit from the other population. For example if you are building defense specialists and running out of serfs it may be wise to build either elites or ranged units. This gives you some defense and allows your serf population some time to recover.
- Releasing military units
Should your populations be in serious trouble it may be wise to release military to increase your maximum housable limit and return some units to the population. This option is a last resort if the first two options have already been exhausted. Releasing a number of units from offense specialist, defense specialist and sentry positions will return them to your serf population and increase the number of serfs you can house. Releasing a number of units from elite or ranged positions will return them to your vassal population and similarly increase the number of vassals you can house. Any release should be done carefully leaving an adequate amount of defense, releasing too many units and leaving too little defense will attract the attention of natives. Note that it is pointless to release military if your maximum housable limit is extremely low; the released units will only disappear as your population declines towards the limit. Do everything you can to have the housable limit as high as possible before releasing (e.g. demolish unnecessary buildings and convert them into the appropriate housing).
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| Advice |
Below are several pieces of advice on population management. Feel free to ignore them, but just so you know - we told you so:
- Try to keep your population growing constantly. Never build too many manors or huts in the one go, just build enough to keep them ticking along, any more and you are wasting land that will not be populated for some time.
- Prevention of a population collapse is a far better strategy than allowing a collapse to occur and attempting to clean it up. Always keep a close eye on your population; if there is a problem then consider using point 1 from the above section (Balancing military and population) as a temporary fix. You should build more of the relevant housing unit as soon as possible, if this is not possible for some time it is advisable to use point 2 to buy some extra time and minimize the damage to your more vulnerable population.
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