Civ shrinks radically during war?

[zoyd]

Um, maybe I'm missing something, maybe I screwed something up... but I'm in a war (justifiable -- they were trespassing and declared ON ME) for about 10 turns, and my civ and economy are just getting thrashed!

At the start of the war, I'm running +57 gold/turn, then suddenly it drops to -45/turn, and every one of my cities is in starvation! They're losing one pop point each turn, and my civ is just shrinking down.

I've never had this happen before. I'm not drafting any pop, I've got 20% lux on Regent, no one is in disorder, by my civ is just shrinking away.

Any ideas?

I could understand wartime unhappiness, but every city is shrinking in size, and radically. This is under Democracy.

[Willem]

I suspect you're using the Governor to control your citizen's moods. Your war weariness has become so high that he is pulling people off the land and turning them into Entertainers to the point that you empire is imploding. You might have to switch to a new gov, or end the war ASAP.

[zoyd]

That was my suspicion... but I can NOT believe the extent to which it is decimating my poor people...

Wasn't even my war to begin with, and to top it off, it's the lowly French, so calling for peace will be all the more difficult (for my ego).

Watching 12 pop points go bye-bye in one turn... damn.

[Arrian]

OUCH! That's some serious war weariness! Democracies in CivIII are very intolerant when it comes to war, even if you got attacked. You first get a morale boost for a couple of turns, but then its down....down....down....*splat* You've either gotta end the war fast, or re-adjust your luxury rate. Sure, you will have to lower science to afford it, but as a short-term fix, it's worth it.

-Arrian

[dac]

'Ware the War Weariness monster

Beware of War Weariness in a Democracy. Even if you ratchet your luxury rate until all your cities are happy and content, if the war lasts long enough, your Democracy will collapse into anarchy. The entertainers can buy you some time, but it sounds like you're right at the point where you have to end the war.

I think they're trying to bring in some "lessons" learned during the Gulf War, where one of the discussions that lead to the end of the war so early was the footage that was starting to come back of US aircraft destroying fleeing Iraqi soldiers. Granted, they had been told that if they'd abandoned their weapons they'd be granted safe passage and they hadn't done that, but there were those who were terrified of what that footage would look like on the network news.

So, there is a significant portion of your population that no longer cares who started it, they are tired of losing their sons and daughters to the war, and they are tired of seeing your mighty empire pick on the helpless French. End the war, demand what tribute you can, if you've really been thrashing them, they ought to be willing to cough up a lot, if they have anything left.

[Zouave]

Did you have trade deals with the civ you are at war with? You may have lost some luxuries and/or a gold/turn for a luxury deal. This could account for the unhappiness and the loss of income. War weariness after 10 turns is normally nonexistent when you are attacked.

[Spatzimaus]

Also, if the civ in question (French) is one you had previously invaded, many of your cities will be full of French citizens, who won't like the idea of attacking what's left of their homeland. The moment war is declared, their unhappiness will go right back to where it was at the end of the last war.

This, incidentally, is one of the two reasons you should always wipe out a civ to the last man. (The other being reversion)