Greetings, emperors!

I promised you something big was coming. Today I want to give you the first glimpse of what is arguably the most ambitious addition to Imperium Sine Fine yet, a complete population system.

What does that mean exactly?

Every city will now have a real, living population. Citizens are born, they grow old and die, and, crucially, they are the people who fill your armies. Your city is no longer just a number on a resource screen. It’s a community.

Each race has its own birth and death rate, reflecting their lore and biology. Elves are ancient and slow-growing, they live for centuries but have very few children. Goblins, on the other hand, breed fast. Very fast. A goblin city left in peace will swell quickly. To give you a sense of the difference: a human city of 1,000 citizens grows by roughly 10 people per month in peacetime. A goblin city of the same size grows by around 17 or 18. An elven city? Just 5. Leave two cities of equal size to grow undisturbed for a decade and the goblin city will be dramatically larger than the elven one. Biology matters.

Cities are also home to multiple races. Conquer a dwarven city with your human empire and those dwarves don’t disappear, they stay, they grumble, and slowly, very slowly, they begin to assimilate into your culture. Some races resist this far more than others. Try forcing a dwarf to abandon his heritage and he’ll make sure you know exactly what he thinks of that.

Races also feel differently about their surroundings. An elf living far from any forest will be restless and unhappy, suffering a loyalty penalty just from the lack of trees nearby. A skulk exposed on open plains will be terrified, taking a significant loyalty hit from having no forest cover within reach. A dwarf, on the other hand, feels the stone beneath his feet and is perfectly content surrounded by hills and broken ground. These preferences add a rich new layer to managing a multi-racial empire.

This is just the beginning. In my next post, I’ll tell you about what happens when your cities send their people off to war, because from now on, your soldiers come from somewhere.

Cheers!