a question

[Dictatress]

Yes, after more than 2 years of CTP, I still have a question. I have never tried slavery, so I don't know how such an economic system works.
Right now I'm rescuing my citizens, who were kidnapped by the evil Turks and sent into slavery. I noticed that Istanbul has a lot more slaves than the ones they stole from my empire.
So, when a slave-owning city grows, are the new citizens slave or free? I think there's a ratio of free citizens to slaves, but I forgot.... Are slaves more likely to increase in number than free citizens or not?

Thanks in advance (no, it does not mean I'm giving your civ an advance!! ).

[Jaybe]

AI slavers major in slaving anybody and everybody. I presume that they were not the only AI civ in that game -- the other slaves were from other civs.

Slaves do not have 'children' in CtP. New citizens are free unless the city is growing from newly captured slaves. Slaves are sent to the nearest city that has enough military garrison to control them. I forget the ratio, I think it's 1 garrison unit to 2 slaves.

I have used slavery occasionally. After all, the slaver unit is quite convenient in locating other slavers (and other 'stealth' units)!! It is also not too expensive, and is available from the beginning of the game.

[Dictatress]

That slave-owning city was (and still is) 3 tiles from two of mine. Turkey is bordered by my America in the north-west and by Canada in the south-east. These are the only civs in the area (there are 13 others elsewhere). I freed some ex-Canadian slaves from a city on the other side of Turkey, so I doubted if Turkey would send Canadians all the way across their empire.

[preacherman]

I love slaves they eat half the normal pop, and don't get paid. I build a slaver in every city so that stupied barbs can donate their labor to me. I also slave any slaver or abolitionist that comes knocking. If you get to many slaves you must get Emamcipation act or your cityies will revolt when it is built.

[Dictatress]

I have another slavery question (you can tell I'm a believer in freedom ). Why do some cities have two slavery icons next to their name? Sometimes it changes to two after I free some of them. I thought it meant "two slaves," but that's obviously wrong. What does it mean?

[Gregurabi]

Enslave the AI!

Not only do slaves consume half-rations and no wages, but they also don't count toward overcrowding and slider unhappiness in your city! A city with 5 real citizens and 7 slaves gets unhappiness penalties as if it were a size-5 city, not a size-12. But you have 12 workers (or up to 5 specialists, and at least 7 workers, since slaves cannot be specialists).

There are three ways to make a slave. They all require you to have a Slaver unit. The first and more obvious way is to send the Slaver to an enemy city and click on the Enslave button. This costs about 250 gold, IIRC, and has a chance of failing. If you succeed, the city loses 1 citizen and you gain 1 slave (see below).

The second way is to move your Slaver next to an enemy Settler (or let the Settler come to you), and click the Enslave button. This costs the same amount of gold, and has no chance of failure AFAIK. This kills the Settler and you gain 1 slave.

The third and most important way is to include a Slaver unit with your army and win a battle. (It doesn't matter if you're attacking or defending -- any battle you win, in which you have a Slaver, generates one slave for you.) The critical point here is that this does not decrease the population of any enemy cities -- the slave is generated from thin air (or from reanimated dead bodies or something).

This is why Slaving is such a powerful tactic -- you can generate a large number of slaves which will work in your fields without sucking up the AI's population -- just kill its lone wandering military units.

My typical "slave raider party" is 1 Slaver, 2-3 Samurai and 2 Mounted Archers. This stack can move 2 squares per turn on open terrain, and is enough to kill any lone AI unit in the early game without taking much damage. (If you find yourself fighting multiple battles without time to rest between them, you might lose a Samurai. Have replacements ready.)

When the game makes a slave for you, the slave is sent to the nearest city of yours that has enough military units in it to prevent a slave revolt. In unmodified CTP, that's 3 slaves per military unit (so you have have up to 27 slaves in one city, but that's not rational).

I generally prefer to spread my slaves out instead of letting them all end up in the same border city. To do that, you need a road next to your border cities. Move the garrison units out of your border city before your slave-raider makes its attack, so that the border city won't get the slave. (The game will keep trying one city after another, in increasing order of distance from the battlefield, until it finds one with enough units in it.) When you're done creating slaves for that turn, move the garrison units back into your border city, so that any slaves already in the border city will be controlled (and you won't be exposed to attacks).

[ZoboZeWarrior]

Don't forget : If you have no enough military units in a town with too much slaves, they will revolt and try to take control of the city. It's automatical if you have no more military units on your city.

[SoulFisher]

Most of the time, my Slaver patrols consist of 1 Slaver, 1 Legion, and 1 Archer. Most of the maps I've played on don't have much Plains/Grassland to move over anyway, so speed isn't an issue. These units can be gained through technology fairly quickly.

However, I have found enemy Warriors catching a glimpse of larger stacks (Slaver, 2 Legions, 2 Archers) and they run away! Needless to say, it takes a while to catch them.

I should try the Samurai/M.Archer approach. I would have more hit points and more mobility for use on roads/Plains/Grasslands.

Gregurabi:
Moving guards out of (then into) your boarder cities is a good idea. I've tried a similar approach already and I just need to perfect it.

However, Gregurabi, I've never noticed my slaves being immune to City Size unhappiness. My slave cities seem to have more happiness problems than my non-slave cities.

[SoulFisher]

Dictatress,

I think those double/triple/quadruple "arms-in-chains" icons you see over cities are supposed to report how many slaves are in that city. I just think it's a bug in the game that they don't display correctly all the time. It's also possible that an enemy Abolitionist is at that city freeing slaves.

Diplomats make excellant counter-slaver/counter-abolitionist units!

[jpww]

Originally posted by SoulFisher
Diplomats make excellant counter-slaver/counter-abolitionist units!

Diplomats make excellent spies if you ask me

[Boney]

Firstly, slavery use to be very underrated by me. Once I got into it I found it made a great difference in my early game. Samurai, mounted archer, slaver is a great hunter combination. I never realised that it was possible to put the slaves in certain cities by pulling out troops, I will certainly try that in my next game. All slaves guided into a mega production city would be awsome. A size 20 city before a.d. with loads of mines and mountains, just the thought makes my mouth water.

Whilst Diplomats may make excellant counter-slaver/counter-abolitionist units! slavers are much, much better, 'cos slavers and abolutionists are easy to defeat, thus your slaver is needed to take the slaves. I try to keep a slaver in all my border cities and pick up any lone units, slavers, abolutionists, clerics etc. etc. that come too close. Also if anyone attacks my city and loses I also get another slave.

One thing If your army has two slavers and you attack a stack of two enemy units, do you get two new slaves?

[SoulFisher]

Boney, I tried to test whether I could get two slaves from two slavers in my army. Unfortunately, I think I lost that fight! I'll have to keep testing before I will have an answer for you.

[preacherman]

I useally don't go looking for slaves, I keep a slaver in every city and when I get them a spy. I run barbs on roving hords so I get plenty of slaves. Any slaver or aboltanists, or clarec that shows up on my door step.

Having two slavers in you army doesn't seem to give you two slaves.