Slavery and pop-rushing?

[Nohbody8]

I know many people swear by these techniques but I have not been able to make them work. All I seem to do is anger my population beyond any sort of reconciliation. Any tips or new theories I have not been exposed to yet would be greatly appreciated since I am trying to finally make a go of Noble. Thanks.

[khumak]

- Improve a food special or two or make a couple of farms for food in each city.
- Start building something.
- Wait til it costs 1 pop to rush it.
- Crack that whip...
- repeat as necessary

In cities with really obscene food resources you can pop rush when it costs 2 pop but that pisses your people off more. Generally not recommended except for very high priority items, like maybe the library if you're doing the library + scientist + academy rush.

[padillah]

I have seen the "Repeat as necessary" line often in pop rush strats and it is quite misleading.

It should read "Repeat as necessary after current pop cools (~10 turns/pop sacrificed)"

If you just keep beating them they will get madder and madder until nobody works anymore.

Also, if you already have unhappy people and pop rush to kill them off it won't look like it worked at first. Wait until they stop being mad for the pop rush and you'll see they are fine. If they are unhappy because they were forced above the happy cap and they are growing faster than every 10 turns you may have to struggle to keep the pop down below the cap. Turn off a food or two and see if you can keep the growth below the pop rush anger threshold.

That last bit is what ruined me in a game. I was pop rushing and they'd be mad for 10 turns but the pop was growing every 6 turns so when they were done being mad about the pop rush they'd get mad that it was too crowded! If you can make the growth about 9-11 turns you've got a gold mine just keep poping every time you get growth and you'll be a madman!

Be careful of what you pop though. Units cost maintenance after a while so keep an eye on your gold per turn or you'll get so happy poping you'll pop yourself into the red.

Tom P.

[couerdelion]

It can get maddening if you have no religion or happiness resources and the difficulty level is quite high. Then, if you have a high food city, you might not be able to slow growth down sufficiently and will always be battling unhappiness.

And constantly “layering” slavery blues makes this problem worse. You want to avoid making too many whips at short intervals unless you have happiness bonuses

If this is a serious problem then perhaps the library might help you. It’ll slow down growth while also giving you some valuable early GPP to help set up an Academy.

Long term, the only solution may be to acquire happiness resources

[binTravkin]

It should read "Repeat as necessary after current pop cools (~10 turns/pop sacrificed)"

Not really.

It should read like "Repeat as necessary after current pop cools OR you've got an upgrade in your happiness".

You can make your cities "cool down" by building things that stop growth, like workers or settlers.

I usually do following circle:


1.something that is neither setter, nor worker (so city grows) -> whip
2.worker/settler
3.repeat from 1.

It's a good scheme because worker/settler times are long enough to have some cooling, plus you've got some surplus carryover usually, so worker/settler is completed reasonably soon.

[padillah]

I like that.

And who doesn't need a worker?

Think I'll look into this.

Tom P.

[binTravkin]

That's practically the new way of creating settler factories - once you've got granary in place and some improvements on food resources, you can pump settlers at a reasonable pace.

[Blaupanzer]

binTravkin

[Nohbody8]

Originally posted by padillah
I have seen the "Repeat as necessary" line often in pop rush strats and it is quite misleading.

I agree. That statement was always telling me to crack the whip whenever I felt like it. I assumed I was doing something wrong. I had never seen the "cool down" period mentioned until now. Thanks a lot. That combined with the pop-rush something and then build a worker/settler should help some.

[trev]

The amount of unhappiness caused by whipping is the same if 1 or 6 is whipped to death in the same turn, therefore it is better to whip when you want to build something bigger, eg library, courthouses, finish a wonder etc than finish a smaller build order. The time required for the pop to grow back also provides some cooling off time in this instance too.

[binTravkin]

The amount of unhappiness caused by whipping is the same if 1 or 6 is whipped to death in the same turn, therefore it is better to whip when you want to build something bigger, eg library, courthouses, finish a wonder etc than finish a smaller build order. The time required for the pop to grow back also provides some cooling off time in this instance too.

You're not considering the length of unhapiness.

If you whip away some 4 citizens, the cooldown time is long enough to stall further whips after regrowth.

It's only affordable when you rush soemthing really good, like a crucial world wonder, or when you're about to recieve hapiness upgrade.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by binTravkin

You're not considering the length of unhapiness.

If you whip away some 4 citizens, the cooldown time is long enough to stall further whips after regrowth.

No, trev is right. If you whip 4 citizens, the cooldown required for that whip is exactly the same as for whipping one citizen. I like to whip 2 or 3 citizens at a time for larger buildings, and do so one turn after the happy cap is exceeded, so you can make use of the extra pop just for long enough to whip it away.

[Quillan]

Where it gets longer is if you whip again before that unhappiness period is over. Then it adds to the existing duration instead of just resetting it.

[indeliblemerson]

Originally posted by Quillan
Where it gets longer is if you whip again before that unhappiness period is over. Then it adds to the existing duration instead of just resetting it.

That makes sense. It usually takes 10 turns to cool off, but I have seen it say "makes citizen angry for 17 turns" which, by your accounting, means that I tried to sacrafice another slave 3 turns after the previous sacrafice. Yes?

[Quillan]

Heh, try it on marathon. It's 30 turns normally, and I've had 58+ turns of unhappiness.