Two distinct, but related questions:
1) Is higher taxes + growth + patrolling worth it vs just growth?
For example, I'm playing as MA T'ien Ch'i and their Eunuch gets a +15 patrol bonus plus their two guardsmen (imperial and ministry) have patrol bonuses of +2 and +1 respectively. This makes it pretty cheap and easy to get a patrolling force of 6 that equals 31. So, my capitol produces roughly an extra 100 gold/turn when cranked to 120% tax rate and the patrolling die-off SEEMS to be roughly equal to the population growth. My question is, is it worth it? In theory my population would keep growing if I weren't squeezing it and eventually I would get that extra 100 gold/turn without the cost and micro of maintaining a goon squad to follow the tax collector. What tax rates can the various levels of Growth support?
2) What tax rates worth of unrest can X patrollers handle?
It seems to me that the success of your patrollers on a turn-by-turn basis is random, but assuming average rolls, how much unrest can a force of 10 patrollers handle? It's nice having the extra chance of catching enemy scouts, so I may be tempted to patrol anyway, but I'm curious how much tax-related unrest I can throw at these guys while they are busy de-stealthing...
Area of Effect mentions in his
LA Man guide that a force of 21 patrollers (a single Judge) can manage the unrest from a tax rate of 120%. He also implies that you can break even on population with Growth-3 and 120% taxes. Has this changed? Has anyone verified this?