Re: Wisdom on Pyrithum killing?
 

100% is safe. 200% in the first couple of turns is a tactic if it will get you mercs and major mages. Major Mages become important since getting them as early as possible allows for as much research as possible but that is the trade. Population for research, or population for mercs.

testers: With 100% as safe and 200% as bad, does 0% promote growth? As noticably as 200% promotes decline?

Re: Wisdom on Pyrithum killing?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The ingame tips say having taxes at below 100% only reduces unrest, no effect on pop growth. So 0% has the same growth as 100%.

Re: Wisdom on Pyrithum killing?
 

you can go up to 130%, which costs you 0.9% of total population each turn. If you lay down the figures on a spreadsheet, you will see that doing this for 3-4 turns is worthy of interest for the extra gold taken, but only if you happen to have units standing by in the provinces and not dedicated patrollers (eg waiting for an army of sufficient size to be gathered).

Note also that growth is not that bad in this respect, as you get +0.6% growth for the +3 scale, compared to say -0.6% for a 120% tax rate. On a maximized econ (250 gp roughly in your home province), thats net you 50 gp more a turn without change on your population. Your initial army can handle the 3-4 pts of unrest w/o problems too.

So to disgress a bit : order 3 give +21% gold income, and growth 3 +26% gold income (+20% from taxes, +6% from scale). Growth is not that bad in places where you can patrol for the extra taxes.

Re: Wisdom on Pyrithum killing?
 

I've had great success as Ermor (again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif ) with a Nature 9 Death 1,for now, Pretender. I summon all the natural things, pun intended, and that seems to hold them off...so far. I've had a peek inside their Capital and their Pretender has got some heavy duty spell power: water, earth, nature, air, astral and blood...most at three or four http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif i've been at it since 10:00 am yesterday http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif and i still am not certain of victory http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif . No rest for the wicked http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif .

Re: Wisdom on Pyrithum killing?
 

I agree, 100% is safe, but I want to push it higher. Patrolling is not so expensive, particularly in sea provinces where the units are often flying. You do not need many of those to be effective and if you can boost taxes 20 or 30 pieces a turn, you rapidly cover your costs. Throw in you have a ready to go reaction force and it is a pretty good deal. I saw in another thread that one person uses wounded units to patrol. That is a bit more micromanaging than I do, but it is a good idea. The wounded unit is a liability in combat, but can give you good value patrolling.

So, any suggestions on a nice percentage where you do not reduce your population too much?

Re: Wisdom on Pyrithum killing?
 

Thanks for the guidance on the tax rates. It is a bit sad to hear that the population decline is so immediate and that lower taxes do not have the reverse effect. Still, taking the sea provinces just for themselves (vs the AI) does bring in some extra cash at low risk, so I will continue in a modifed, less evil landlord fashion.