The uses of Homes . . .

[Bishop]

I'm running Elf Mystic, don't have particularly high science in anything.... I'm running 52% homes. .

your prov would explode if my orcs hit you - youd be so overpopped after even 1 hit it wouldnt be funny

[VT2]

Normally, I'd tell you the answer to you question, but since Mourhelm is still a mod, I won't.

[Delryn]

Obviously I'm ignorant as to some background, because I'm not sure why Mourhelm or anyone being a mod would keep you from answering, unless you were simply going to be . . . silly . . . in your answer.

Why would homes increase the ability to overpopule as opposed to anything else? You get hit, you still have the peasants but not the land, same as any other time you get hit. Again, I'm just getting back into this and its been a long time and I don't have an analytical mind, so perhaps I'm failing to see the obvious. Anytime you get hit for a bunch of land, aren't you in danger of losing either peasants or military because there isn't enough room for everyone in your province?

What about running 20% homes as either a high science human province (say Sage) or a Gnome province?

[Mystical Legions]

Delryn,

There is no real right or wrong answer to using homes some situations mandate you should use them and others dont.

Homes work to increase your BE and population as well as helping with your recovery rate from heavy fireballs etc) and CAN be part of a viable strat.

In the way ViscountGrey has indicated the true advantages of homes dont show until about 30% with the BE when it starts getting your required jobs for max BE close to your available pezzies. (this is the reason for that % NOT the extra population it gives)

That extra BE lets you move your essentail buildings around a bit more giving you a few % to play with.

I also wouldnt advocate loosing TGs if you can avoid it either because as people have said it IS offense thats still there. But thier fogetting something as well..

1. You make a hit,
2. You get land in,
3. The % of TGs drops (drops the offense boost)
4. Then have to build and wait for them to arrive to get the full bonus.

With homes you still have to build and you dont get the full population boost until the land is in (for that extra 8/10 from homes) which yes can delay you a little bit from getting your full offense in.

However your land fills quicker because of the increased birthrates of your current homes your population will likely be maxed before your buildings are in.

For those who dont realise. Its not the population boost for homes its the BE boost for other buildings because they dont have jobs. The extra pop is just a nice bonus for it ;) I personally would rather run homes and TGs.

I did some calcs for my current military recently. and to put stables in I would have to use 22% of my land for it which would leave me without quite a bit of stuff that my prov needs.

[VT2]

Only in the ghetto is 30% homes considered a good thing.
Stables blow just as hard as homes.

Homes should only ever be thought of as a necessary evil. Without them, you won't have the population necessary to run an effective hybrid.

[ViscountGrey]

your prov would explode if my orcs hit you - youd be so overpopped after even 1 hit it wouldnt be funny

However, in order to have the offense necessary to get through my mahoosive military, you'd be so big you wouldn't get significant gains to overpop me too much..... plus I would then be able to quite safely send my army back for much better gains from you.

[daggermouth]

I actually ran them for a while for the birth rate :D
Fun times in lets keep the peasants dead and gone land

[Bishop]

However, in order to have the offense necessary to get through my mahoosive military, you'd be so big you wouldn't get significant gains to overpop me too much..... plus I would then be able to quite safely send my army back for much better gains from you.

i said my orcs ;)

[_greenie]

once you get enough pop sci, homes become viable
and ViscountGrey, you're prov is in serious trouble =)
50% homes on anything is bad... 50% homes on a race with -50% losses, well, i hope you never get hit more than once =)

[vines]

If war breaks out it is better to have higher homes. Homes give a larger over all population. They allow you to draft high with out lowering your BE.
Right now I plan on running 99% army with my rawBE at 100% and my RawME over 107.6%.

There are things about this game that 99.999% of the people that play do not know. For example, for the longest time people were saying stuff about an "auto fail" that humans had on spells. Yes I know what your thinking: how can people be so dumb to think up something so dumb but it's true. People really thought their was a such thing as an "auto fail" for human spells. I myself got in an argument with a few expret players on the subject.
Delryn the best way to find out if homes are as great as people claim is to run 30% homes and see how it works for you. As with anything if you want to know the truth you have to find out firsthand.

[Dolgil]

The amount of pop from a home has varied in the past from 5 to 10. From experience back then, 5 leaves homes a very poor choice. Ten is overpowered. Eight is about neutral, maybe a bit strong. Still, I wouldn't go much over 10% to maybe 12.5% as that gives you one extra unit per acre. Science and honor does compound that. As for just getting a large army, those tend to be net worth inefficient when homes bite into training grounds and/or forts. Better to have a medium army and high modifiers for it rather than a large army with no modifiers for it.

[CGG]

homes blow. because they do.

[UnknownGhost]

i said my orcs ;)

You're welcome to try to hit him.

[Mystical Legions]

Bishop - Thats why elves arent alone in a kingdom..

Dolgil - Its the second bonus from homes you need to look at to make more than that "potentially" worthwile.
If you look at your increased BE then you can run a lower % of the TGs etc and get quite good bonuses as well as the larger army. (105% BE as compaired to 76% given previous kingdom values. You would be looking at for 20% TGs on no homes being +18% offense after BE Effect and depreciating returns you'd then only be looking at 13.34% TGs for the same effect from a home provence that 6.66% of your acres can be used elsewhere) I admit 6.66% of your acres isnt a lot on one building but all the savings can add up to be able to have similar offensive bonuses/attacktimes. IF you plan the strat right.

UG - It would be funny to see the response he gets wouldnt it

So far here. I see a several people providing numbers for why homes SHOULD work (myself included) but I've not seen anyone really doing anything other than saying basically "it wont work, your stupid" as an arguement against a strat containing homes. No numbers no examples...

[otokonoko]

running 99% army will be having 1 pessie per 2.5 acres and that is with a high pop science and very high homes on a gnome. Another way to put it is 0.4pessies per acre.

Put it this way, one hit would overpop and kill your provence. The hit could be a raze.
Vines, your idea is fine, but practical definately not.

If you can provide better details on how you would be able to pay an army with those numbers above 50% pay rate.

I have just provided 2 reasons against vines idea against its practical useage.

Vines if I have it wrong, a rebuttle with actual sound logic, not just an idea of a theory would be good.