Taxation above 100 (long)

[Managarm]

Very interesting analysis Max!

Having a look to the results from my newbie point of view, I expected better figures for Growth-3 due to a higher population in a long term basis.
In fact, Death-3 is slightly better in terms of accumulated income and breakeven turn, and it only has a 2% population penalty (roughly speaking) versus the Growth-3 case.

In some of my SP games I wrongly set Growth to 3 expecting a better income in the long run, but now I see those gains are just peanuts.
The lesson I've just learned it is not choose Growth-3 for a raw income bonus, and make a better investment for those 120 points.
Nonetheless, Growth-3 is still advisable for Nations with elder mages (Mictlan, Marignon, etc) or with supersized units like Giants and bulimic Demons (Niefelheim, Lanka, etc).
Does it make sense?

[MaxWilson]

Managarm said:
In fact, Death-3 is slightly better in terms of accumulated income and breakeven turn, and it only has a 2% population penalty (roughly speaking) versus the Growth-3 case.

In some of my SP games I wrongly set Growth to 3 expecting a better income in the long run, but now I see those gains are just peanuts.

Just to make sure we're still on the same page: by turn 22, Growth-3 is going to be pulling in much more money than Death-3. The population percentages are relative to the same population, untaxed. That is, in a 30,000 province Growth-3 will be at 32k (110% tax) instead of 37k (100% tax), whereas Death-3 will be at say 26k (110% tax) instead of 28k (100% tax). I made those latter numbers up but I think they convey the point.

Growth can still be a good investment. I play SP, and I enjoy taking Growth scales so time is on my side. That said, toward the end game gem income is more important than gold income anyway so maybe I should take Death instead for extra points.

-Max

[Managarm]

Max,

Now I understand what's going on; previously I thought the percentages were based upon a fixed population, forgive my bad math skills... and missing your good explanations in the original post.

Thanks also for your Death/Growth scales comment, it seems reasonable to gear late game towards gem income for broken spells instead of pure gold for troops.

[jutetrea]

As a sheer non-numerical analysis, and speaking of SP - I like growth better than death if I can spare the points and get the paths I want. SP games tend to have many more "slow" turns and thus go longer. I've been around year 6 really wishing I didn't have death-3 as I'd like to sit back and hold my borders as I conjured/itemized and knowing I had to keep conquering to overcome upkeep. Huge swing though, even from death-3 to just growth 1