Let's say you're at 1000 acres with 5% pop science and you've played just like gojete does and overdrafted because you need less pezzies for a nice BE; say drafted up to 75%. You're running 50% homes.
You'll have these kinda numbers (for simplicities sake, everything is built, 1.5 raw wpa not halfer/faery, not accounting for honor. None of these things will effect the change that much)...
Current Pop: 30450
Max Pop: 30450
Pop in Military: 22838
Wizzies: 1500
Pezzies: 6112
Now, let's say you send your army out and the other kd hits you down to 450 acres (A real kd would not stop at 450 acres mind you). Adjusting your science due to the land drop you'll have 7.45% Pop science. You'll have numbers looking like this (not accounting for military losses, but again, they aren't significant enough to change the outcome.)...
Current Pop: 30450
Max Pop: 14022
Pop in Military (army out is not releasable): 22838
Wizzies: 1500
Pezzies: 6112
So you're 217% overpopped. Now by this point...
- You'll have 7% of your pezzies leaving per tick (428 pezzies)
- You'll have 20% of your military trying to desert on each tick (4567 troops)
- Your thieves will be refusing to work
- If you had any army at home, they will refuse to work
- You will have riots, -50% income.
So let's say you had 15k troops out on that attack and they'll be home in 10 hours. So you'll be losing 20% of your military per tick (not the army you have out). By the time your army gets back, any military you did have at home will be gone and you'll be down to 2958 pezzies. So even if you did do a land grab for say 150 acres and even got aid to train those acres AND you were on the same tick your army got home, you're looking at something like this...
Current Pop: 19458
Max Pop: 16263 (While your buildings are coming in), 18496 (when your buildings come in)
Pop in military: 15,000
Wizzies (if you chose to keep them): 1500
Pezzies: 2958
So now at this point you're STILL 120% overpopped and...
-Thieves still won't work
-Army still won't work/deserting
-You've got no thieves left
So on the next tick you'll be losing 3k troops, and 207 pezzies
Now I know what you're going to say. "That's just how good chaining and overpop is. That has nothing to do with high homes. A prov would be devastated either way." So let's compare...
1k acres
No homes
65% Draft
All else equal
Current Pop: 26250
Max Pop: 26250
Military: 17063
Wizzies: 1500
Pezzies: 7687
Now then, we'll say they send out 10k troops and still make that 150 acre hit. So you get chained down to 450 acres...
Current Pop: 26250
Max Pop: 11250
Military: 17063
Wizzies: 1500
Pezzies: 7687
So yea, you are still very much overpopped (233%) and will suffer from the typical overpop issues, and by the time your army gets home (allowing 10 hours like before) and you build up your acres you're looking at...
Current Pop: 15220
Max Pop: 14037 (buildings under construction), 15967 (buildings complete)
Military: 10000
Wizzies: 1500
Pezzies: 3720
Much less severe overpopping. Your thieves will work (if you have any), you can send your army out without waiting and they aren't deserting and by the time your buildings are complete you'll be underpopped.
The most important factor here is that the chain stopped at 450 acres. Good kds will knock you far below that if you're starting at 1k acres, but even at 450 acres the effects of high homes and overpopulation are very clear.
High homes is a setup for disaster if you're actually willing to grow a pair and war a real kd that knows how to war and not a bunch of ghettos that don't know what they're doing.
Saying that high homes is a good strategy because you can beat ghettos with it is like saying a good opening move for chess is a rook pawn because you can beat beginners on yahoo chess with it.
I've tried high homes for myself. I tried it at it's very best. Halfer/freak (still 5/4 bonus) with 40% homes and the minute I ran into an actual war I fell like a ton of bricks.
Can we be done with this now?
