How do slaves get distributed?

[TehGonk]

Do they get shared out equally between all my provinces, or do the majority/all of them go to the nearest one?

Also, if I release prisoners, does the enemy faction get them back as soldiers or is it purely a statistic (for lack of a better word)?

[zonks40]

I'd like to know this as well, I was checking out the public order for a province the other day, I was getting -6 for slaves, yet in the province overview, it said I had 0% slaves.
As far as the release or executing prisoners, I think that killing them gives you a diplomatic penalty, where releasing them gives you a diplomatic bonus.

[tomFoolery]

I'm not sure on how slaves are distributed, but releasing the captives only gives you a diplomatic bonus with the faction (they don't get any soldiers back or anything, and I think you get a diplomatic penalty with that factions enemies) and killing the battle captives gives you a diplomatic penalty with the faction (and I think a diplomatic bonus to that factions enemies). At least, I'm pretty sure.

[meerkatology]

I'm not sure on how slaves are distributed, but releasing the captives only gives you a diplomatic bonus with the faction (they don't get any soldiers back or anything, and I think you get a diplomatic penalty with that factions enemies) and killing the battle captives gives you a diplomatic penalty with the faction (and I think a diplomatic bonus to that factions enemies). At least, I'm pretty sure.

ya this, and slaves tend to distribute more to the closer settlement

[TehGonk]

Cool, thanks for the informative replies.

[FlashHeart07]

Not sure. But Im almost certain that if you defeat an enemy army and you choose to release the captives you may experience that the enemy army just retreats but if you choose to kill them the army will be utterly destroyed. This I think only applies when they have taken heavy casualties ofc

[Butan]

Nah Flash, the army is totally destroyed everytime it has retreated once already or has no retreat path.

[FlashHeart07]

Hm. I dont believe you Butan. Lies, all lies

[DeVrie]

Armies can only retreat once in R2. Once you've lost a second time, or lost after having retreated, the army is destroyed no matter what.

[Butan]

Which is why release captives sucks doubly because it serves no purpose for both the enemy and you (except diplomatic cool points). I yearn for a release/ransom/enslave/execute captured troops where the troops are actually accounted for and not just random immaterial numbers, like in Med2.

On-topic: I believe the slaves must be equally distributed to every provinces you own, since the slave count is province-specific and it increases across the board at each enslaving. Hard to tell "how many" since there is no real population count.

[Drowsy]

Once your empire is spread on multiple continents releasing prisoners helps, since everyone is friends with somebody, so its an easy way to score + points within that specific sphere. It is noticeable, though subtly.

[carbide]

Everything is done by numbers. That's how ai operates.... which direction are those numbers being thrown at ... against ai or for them? That choice is what registers. As for distributed slaves, well look at the numbers... does your choice of your decision help your kingdom or hurt it?

[FlashHeart07]

I know that if they have retreated once they cannot retreat again. I was talking about attacking without retreating. But forget it

[Kurisu Paifuaa]

On the OP...

I have a game going (Rome) where I turtled for a long while and slave population had gone to 0% in both Italia and Magna Graecia... so good clean slate for comparison.

Upon capturing and looting Genua (Cisalpina) the populations went to 17.8% in Italia, 15.4% in Magna Graecia and only 11.8% in Cisalpina itself. Judging by that, I would say that population size/# of settlements is a large factor in the distribution... the bulk of the slaves went back to the home provinces. Although it would be interesting to see what happens when you capture slaves from a more distant location.

[Cambion]

One annoying thing actually is that if you own Thrace and have the slave settlement and a slave trader in the province, even with the sell slaves edict the slaves number goes down only extremly slowly (it goes up with the stimulate economy edict). Messes up my Getae campaign. I managed 4 elite stacks + 4000 income with just two provinces (Thrace and Dacia) because of 80 % slave population in Thrace (+130 % ecomomy from slaves, industrial/military build) and around 50 % slaves in Dacia (+65 % economy, food build), but now the number in the Dacia province is falling fast and I cant get the number in Thrace down. So effectivly I cant capture any more slaves because even with the bonuses to slave unrest more than 80 % isnt manageable and Dacia is just at 12 % now. Had to raze the slave trader and the slave settlement in Thrace and rebuild them to keep that up.

[Drowsy]

Does letting the settlement rebel and spawn a slave army reduce the number of slaves in the settlement where they rebelled? If so, maybe that could be an option.

[Cambion]

Does letting the settlement rebel and spawn a slave army reduce the number of slaves in the settlement where they rebelled? If so, maybe that could be an option.

I have no idea, but if it does thats ...still not a good idea. Better loose some money than all the public order. Good thought, so.

[Ritterlichvon86]

As far as I have observed, a post-battle pool of slaves is generated. Then the majority center of where the slaves are sent to is your capital's province, from there on the distribution spreads outwards. The slaves get decliningly distributed among the rest of your provinces, no matter wether these provinces are fully in your possession or wether you just own a single settlement in a province.

Just my estimation. I checked the slave number of the settlement next to the battle before and after the battle, and it hardly changed at all. However, in my capital province, it changed considerably.

[Butan]

Maybe it follows the automatic trade routes?