Well... is immigration really effective?

[hellheaven1987]

Well, I have tried to move some of my population to other cities by built up peasant, but I foung out that actually it is not so effective... everytime when I disband some peasant in some cities, the squalor of the city would increase... and the culture difference won't decrease... is there any good way to have an average population in each cities?

[Angarah]

Cultural Difference refers to how the city's built. An Eastern city will have Eastern buildings, and theres nothing you can do about it except raze it to the ground and build it from scratch, which is not helpful. Also Squalor depends on the population of the city, so yes, it will increase with more population.

[NobleNick]

Well, I have tried to move some of my population to other cities by built up peasant, but I foung out that actually it is not so effective... everytime when I disband some peasant in some cities, the squalor of the city would increase... and the culture difference won't decrease... is there any good way to have an average population in each cities?

Moving population is effective if you are playing with very large unit sizes and you have a small or moderate population and/or PG. This is how many people you have to move EACH and EVERY TURN FOR THE REST OF THE GAME, in order to keep a settlement's population (POP) in check:

NUMBER_OF_POP_TO_MOVE_EACH_TURN = (PG) * (POP)

So, if your city POP is 24K and PG at your highest sustainable tax rate (read PG off in your construction window) is 2%, then you must train up 0.02 * 24000 = 480 men each turn. This is 6 units of Peasants each turn, if unit size is "LARGE." Since you can only make 1 unit per turn, this is unworkable: You will have to take other corrective action (e.g. raise taxes if your PO will allow) or wait for squalor to increase to a level that will knock down PG. This city is headed for a population of 30K (24K + 2 * 3K = 30K); and there is typically nothing you can do to stop it, short of ripping down Great Forums or invoking a rebellion and then exterminating the population when you retake the city: a sad situation, indeed.

Another example: If you have a city of 12K and a PG of 0.5, then you need to train up 12000 * 0.005 = 60 peasants a turn. Training up roughly 3 units of 80 in every 4 turns, will keep population in check. This is expensive; but it works if you can find a good place to disband your Peasants.

You asked, "Is there any good way to have an average population in each cities?" And the realistic answer is "No." HOWEVER, there is a way to have an average population (say 12K to 15K) in each of the cities that you obtain early in the game; and there is a way to have a stable and controllable population (18K to 27K) in almost all the rest. I'll let you surf to the thread named "squalor" to read about it. (Read all the way to my post on page 3, or you could come away with bad info.) The short story: Plan your PG; and do -NOT- build/upgrade farms unless you know exactly what you are doing and why, and understand the long term implications of these IRREVERSIBLE builds.

Cultural Difference refers to how the city's built. An Eastern city will have Eastern buildings, and theres nothing you can do about it except raze it to the ground and build it from scratch, which is not helpful. Also Squalor depends on the population of the city, so yes, it will increase with more population.

Three comments:

1.) There are 5 culture groups. WHen you capture a settlement, you get a PO penalty of up to -50 or -60 PO. This goes away over the course of several turns. In addition, if the captured settlement was of a different culture, there is an additional culture penalty which is tied to the relative number of buildings of the captured settlement that are not of your culture. This penalty can also be as high as -50 or -60 PO (forgot the exact numbers) and does NOT go away by itself: You must reduce/eliminate the number of old culture buildings in order to reduce/eliminate the "cross-culture" penalty.

2.) There is another option besides razing: Upgrading a building to the next level converts it to your culture.

2.) Often, razing buildings **IS** helpful. If I take over a town with low level buildings and low PO (something that seldom happens, since I exterminate mid-size and larger settlements); I will sometimes raze and rebuild selected buildings, one at a time. At a cost of 400 to 1200 denarii and 1 to 2 turns per building, this is chump change. And I virtually always raze and rebuild the temple, since I can't upgrade other culture's religious buildings. (Be careful when you do this: Destroying a high level temple might put you into riot territory if you did something else wrong. I always make sure I can comfortably sustain a PO of 75 plus whatever the old temple gives, taking into account that I might be moving some army units out of the city next turn. Then I raze and rebuild [takes 1 turn], and immediately upgrade the new temple to the second level.)

[_GunneR_]

I find that instead of exterminating the population or leaving them all there i will, with every city i capture, spread the population out so as to keep the people on the move. It still doesn't make a huge difference

[shadowarmy75]

That's because the population is sperad out over 10 turns.