Greetings, emperors!

In my last two posts I introduced living city populations and the cost of war. Today I want to talk about the two systems that tie everything together: grain and province development.

Grain is a brand new resource in Imperium Sine Fine. Like iron, wood and leather, it is harvested from the land your cities control. Plains are rich farmland, producing 5 grain per hex per day. Lakes and oases are fertile at 4 grain. Forests and hills produce a little through hunting and terraced farming. But mountains, deserts and swamps? Nothing grows there. Your armies will go hungry in those lands.

What makes grain special is what it does. It feeds both your armies in the field and the civilians in your cities at the same time. Keep supply healthy and your people thrive, better birth rates, stronger loyalty, armies fighting at full effectiveness. Let it run short and things go wrong quickly. A city receiving less than half its grain needs will see birth rates fall sharply and death rates rise. Below 25% supply you are looking at outright famine, with severe consequences for population, loyalty and army organisation. Famine is devastating.

This means territory isn’t just about having more hexes than your rival. It matters what kind of territory you hold. A small empire with rich farmland may feed its armies far better than a sprawling empire built on mountains and dark forests. It also varies by race: a goblin army consumes only half the grain of a human army of the same size, simply because goblins are half the size. An Ende army eats barely anything at all.

Closely linked to grain is the Province Development Level, PDL. Every city has a PDL reflecting how organised and developed its province is. A higher PDL multiplies everything, your population cap grows, resource output increases, your workshops become more productive. To go from PDL 1 to PDL 2, you need at least 3 controlled hexes and a population of 300, and the project takes roughly 2 months. Pushing a city all the way to PDL 10 requires 27 hexes, a population of 10,000 and over two years of uninterrupted development work. It is a long road, but a grand capital at PDL 10 can support a population of nearly 90,000 citizens. That is an empire-defining achievement.

But you can’t simply develop a province whenever you feel like it. You need enough territory and enough people to justify it. Expand your hexes, grow your population, then invest in development. The two go hand in hand.

A newly founded city starts at PDL 1. Your capital, having existed for generations before the campaign begins, starts at PDL 4. Reaching PDL 10 is a remarkable achievement that only the most patient emperor will ever see.

The figures I’ve mentioned above may be adjusted during playtesting, but they should give you a good feel for how the system is designed to work.

Together, population, grain and province development create something I’m genuinely excited about, an empire that grows, breathes, and can bleed.

There is still more to come! In future posts I’ll be covering other mechanics that are being added and changed as part of this major update. Stay tuned!

Cheers!