"pre-growing" whipping victims

[Petrus2]

Here's something I'll do sometimes, but have never checked the math to know if it is the most efficient. Thoughts welcome. I normally play Epic, Huge map, Continents, btw. Prince or Monarch, depending on how much micromanaging I want to do!

Ok, if I have something coming up to build that I know is going to chew up a lot of hammers, and the city in question is a research or wealth city (i.e., good food but probably not great hammers), I'll let the population grow to the point where population is not working. The idea is that these cities have oodles of food, so having to feed the miscreants really doesn't hurt much, and when I can build the Library, Market, or whatever I already have POP to whip.

Thoughts?

[snoopy369]

I think that is a fairly standard tactic, yes. Unless you can get more than ((30H)/(Food to grow))*(Food grown) by repurposing your citizens, it is a good strategy.

[BigFree]

There's no question that it's a valid ploy. Gold and Food is King and Queen.