Rushing Question. This will cause the lives of 2 citizens. Yes or No?

[Artifex]

Is it taboo to rush and cost the lives of 2 citizens? I do it with one citizen all the time but wasn't for sure if the penalty was really stiff when you cause 2 to die.

How many shields do you need to have left to have the option of rushing the project by killing off 2 citizens? I'll guess 40?

In my current game I am trying to build a courthouse so I can start a forbidden palace with more than 1 shield a turn in my city. So I want to get this courthouse done asap, so I can start the fp.

I play emperor level btw.

[theNiceOne]

It isn't taboo, but you must consider the consequences. In addition to two lost citizens, you also receive two additional unhappy faces for the next 20 turns. On regent this means that a size 5 city will need a temple, 2 military police and two luxuries (or similar from the luxury slider) to avoid civil disorder. But there are times this may be worth it.

Each hurried citizen gives 20 shields, so yes, you must have maximum 40 shields left to rush with two citizens. You also need at least 4 citizens, bacause you cannot rush more than half of the citizens in a city.

[Arrian]

Artifex,

Yes, 40 shields (although not if you're trying to build a 40 shield building from scratch, since "from scratch" doubles the cost. But in this case, you're building an 80 shield building, so that's moot).

Using up 2 citizens will have some pretty serious happiness repercussions. When building a FP, I tend to try to get the city into WLTKD to reduce shield waste, coupled with a courthouse. That's gonna be hard if you kill off people.

I guess it depends on several factors:

How many troops are in the city (2 would be best)
Does it have a temple?
How many luxuries are connected to it?

Emperor level makes happiness even harder to achieve. If WLTKD isn't feasible (typically on Monarch I can manage it at size 6 with troops, a couple of luxuries & a temple, but that's Monarch), then perhaps it is worth the 2 citizens to get the courthouse built ASAP, so long as you aren't going to have to deal with rioting.

-Arrian

[RGBVideo]

Add the amount of troops. MP rules.

[DaveMcW]

I don't think pop rushing a courthouse is worth it. In addition to the unhappiness, you have less citizens producing shields.

I would head for Republic or Monarchy. Both have the same empire-wide corruption reduction and let you cash rush the courthouse. Monarchy gives 3 police to help get WLTKD, but you can use the extra cash from Republic to rush a cathedral or coliseum for the same effect.

[Spec]

I never pop rush! It's not worth it. You get Monarchy so soon that you better wait and buy your stuff because your people wont forget it soon. I think that every pop rush you do kills the happy citizens and leaves you the unhappy ones....useless IMO.

Spec.

[Ephesos]

Pardon my peaceful ideas, but pop rushing seems basically unethical, not to mention stupid. Particularly if you're going for a FP, you shouldn't bring penalties down on yourself in the city the FP is being built in! The more unhappiness the city has, the longer it will take, due to civil disorder, etc. It's kind of ironic, really. (A FP reduces corruption, but when you try to speed it up via pop rushing a Courthouse, it causes more unhappiness and lost trade)
It's easier to just place your cities close together and head for Monarchy ASAP.

[badams52]

Ephesos said:
Pardon my peaceful ideas, but pop rushing seems basically unethical, not to mention stupid.

(emphasis mine).

Ah, but if you're Babylon, try pop rushing a temple and library right before switching to monarchy and watch your culture and science soar.

[Arrian]

pop rushing has its uses. Most notably, IMO, early temples in corrupt towns.

Back when the game first came out, and there was a bug that gave you double the shields you should get for the first citizen killed (so 40 shields for the first cit), Babylon was a rushing MONSTER. Temples & Libraries for 1 citizen each. Culture bombing was a breeze.

-Arrian

[Kirby]

I only use population rushing in captured cities to purge the city of the other civ's citizens. This is to try and prevent flips.

[Ephesos]

Nice tactic, although it probably won't work past the ancient age (provided that you switch out of Despotism), unless you change to Communism (god forbid).

[cumi]

I usually rush in hopeless & helpless cities with a huge corruption. In far cities, you need 80 shields for a courthouse, 40 for library. But if your citie grows much more faster than that rushing is not a bad idea. At least for me.

And I do the following for FP:

1. Stay in Despotism.
2. Rush a courthouse (and other buildings in other cities, use the last chances of pop-rush abilities before the revolution)
3. Start building FP.
4. Revolution and switch to republic.

I usually don't have enough money to buy buildings, because I am trying to sponsor my scientists.

[Wazell]

I know my strategies are far from the best, but I often go through Despot-Monarch-Commie path. In this line you'll be pop-rushing most of the time: first all the necessary buildings and in last phase killing off conquered cities (though I usually starve 'em). FP city is developed mostly under monarchy, except when it's needed early on, I disband warriors there to speed up production.

[Catt]

Originally posted by Wazell
FP city is developed mostly under monarchy, except when it's needed early on, I disband warriors there to speed up production.

You need to watch very closely -- I suspect you're wasting some good "disband shield potential." You can't rush the FP or any other wonder (great or small) by disbanding units.

Catt