occupy or enslave?

[yutterh]

What is the better tactic to use? So far i have been occupying settlements because i liek to keep the population high so i can upgrade it faster. but the squalor and culture bonuses are kicking my butt also i have been occupying because im so used to the system of medieval 2. yes i played rome first but i played medievil more latley so i got used to that.

[Wavemanmav]

I often enslave for one reason, it redistributes population amongst your other cities thus limiting both the squalor and cultural penalties that you mention. If a captured city is too big, even a full garrison will not be enough to keep the population from revolting. Enslavement prevents that problem, and also reduces the need to keep a big garrison in a city when the troops could be more useful elsewhere.

[[excalibur]toast]

wavemanmav pretty much summed it up

[Plant]

Neither. Pillage.

For both the money and to keep the population down.

[Genius of the Restoration]

I enslave or exterminate depending on the situation. If I want a certain settlement to grow I'll put a governor in it and make sure I've got none in any other settlement and enslave. Or exterminate. Occupying is a bit too much of a hassle for me. I want to only have a garrison of one unit to leave the rest of the army for other things.

[HanatielHawk]

Occupy: Mostly done in slow growing cities like Germanic towns and when playing a non-barbaric faction.
Enslave: Always done when most of my towns are in a "growth crisis" (when the population isn't growing well and all buildings are almost build)
Exterminate: Mostly done in cities like Alexandria, Memphis and Carthage as they are the cities with enormous amount of population and will rebel soon, they also bring alot of money when exterminating them

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Enslave if same culture, if not always exterminate as a rule. Occupy is a useless option, only fit for weaklings.

[Delta21]

Enslave if same culture, if not always exterminate as a rule. Occupy is a useless option, only fit for weaklings.

Funny, that's how "weaklings" grow kick-ass economies and humongous armies. Occupy is the way to go for me...then i do a little "cultural re-arrangement"(destroying any buildings that don't belong to my culture or upgrading them so they will correspond to my own) and set down a good governor for income/order boosts. I enslave bigger cities sometimes and I rarely exterminate.

[Logik]

I always exterminate them all

[HanatielHawk]

Enslave if same culture, if not always exterminate as a rule. Occupy is a useless option, only fit for weaklings.

Mentality of those who think they're clever with building up an empire I find you also very clever when you exterminate towns like Vicus Marcomanii, Damme, Bordesholm, Nepte and Dumatha as they grow very slowly. Let settlements grow until they can grow no more because that always keeps up your trade and economy. If you always exterminate you'll end up gaining cash from lootings which will NOT help you when you're in times of need of money. And settlements like i just named before NEED to be occupied and set to low tax because they mostly have 400 people...

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Mentality of those who think they're clever with building up an empire I find you also very clever when you exterminate towns like Vicus Marcomanii, Damme, Bordesholm, Nepte and Dumatha as they grow very slowly. Let settlements grow until they can grow no more because that always keeps up your trade and economy. If you always exterminate you'll end up gaining cash from lootings which will NOT help you when you're in times of need of money. And settlements like i just named before NEED to be occupied and set to low tax because they mostly have 400 people...

No becuase I don't have time to garrison them, the pace used in the Alexander Total War campaign is the conquest pace I use in vanilla campaign also. So occupy is not an option.

[Delta21]

No becuase I don't have time to garrison them, the pace used in the Alexander Total War campaign is the conquest pace I use in vanilla campaign also. So occupy is not an option.

Cities with such a low population don't even need a garrison. They are usually content with 0-1 units inside. But if you keep the garrison to 0 you might have the town taken over by rebels from outside.

[Plant]

Enslave if same culture, if not always exterminate as a rule. Occupy is a useless option, only fit for weaklings.

Funny, that's how "weaklings" grow kick-ass economies and humongous armies. Occupy is the way to go for me...then i do a little "cultural re-arrangement"(destroying any buildings that don't belong to my culture or upgrading them so they will correspond to my own) and set down a good governor for income/order boosts. I enslave bigger cities sometimes and I rarely exterminate.

Mentality of those who think they're clever with building up an empire I find you also very clever when you exterminate towns like Vicus Marcomanii, Damme, Bordesholm, Nepte and Dumatha as they grow very slowly. Let settlements grow until they can grow no more because that always keeps up your trade and economy. If you always exterminate you'll end up gaining cash from lootings which will NOT help you when you're in times of need of money. And settlements like i just named before NEED to be occupied and set to low tax because they mostly have 400 people...

Galvanised Iron is right. You should be sweeping across the map, painting it your own colour. Why bother letting settlements grow when you already have more money than you can spend in a turn? Large settlements like Athens grow quickly enough that you wish/will pillage them multiple times, whilst small ones are useful only to be pillaged once before moving on to the next province. Pillage even helps you pay for cities wich you want to re-culture. The amount of money you get from trade from 400 people settlements will never be enough compared with the money used to make it worthwhile to grow.

By the time they've paid themselves back, you should have already conquered 50 provinces. Your armies should be destroying all before it, never stopping till it reaches the end of the map. The money you get from pillaging means you can create/retrain massive armies instantaneously and pillage more in an neverending pillage after pillage. Anything else means that you are using more turns (and time) to win the game.

[Ryou]

keep a few core cities, like 5, and the rest, enslave, but mostly exterminate. Exterminate gives u tons of cash and also keep the rebellion low. If after extermiantion its still yellow or blue, or, in some case, red, move ur army out, set tax to very high. That way u can conquer it, exterminate it and gain all that cash again!!!!!!

[Aaronto0]

usually enslave settlements and bfore hand send governors to settlements that need population as slaves only disperse in governed provinces, when cities rebell exterminate those who oppose MEEE!!!

[nhinhonhinho]

Depend on the citizen.

If the citizen hate me (blue or red face) then my troop can kill and loot anything they want
If the citizen not hate me (yellow face) then just enslave them
If they willing to become part of the Empire (green face) then i will be a merciful conqueror

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

I occupy small towns so they can grow quickly.
I exterminate all others for money, and to reduce squalor so i don't need a large garrison.
I don't like the enslavement option. Just creates squalor in my big cities.

[Marcus Flavius_Varus]

What is the better tactic to use? So far i have been occupying settlements because i liek to keep the population high so i can upgrade it faster. but the squalor and culture bonuses are kicking my butt also i have been occupying because im so used to the system of medieval 2. yes i played rome first but i played medievil more latley so i got used to that.

Neither... I use exterminate like 97% times when taking over enemy´s cities

[Kotex01]

I agree with Galvanized Iron and Plant, I exterminate cities with different cultures while enslaving cities with the same culture as my empire.

[Darth Umbrage]

It is all taste really. I personally enslave only same culture cities, and exterminate anything with over 1000 population elsewhere. I occupy and culture change small towns, it only takes one turn to get a temple and a peasant in a small town then move on, im willing to leave a small town in red for one turn. And when squalor and disorder gets bad in my big cities, I will let them revolt then make an example of them through extermination. Honestly in this fashion I rarely have problems within my borders (other than invading armies).