population

[sushidog]

On the (F5) Production screen, in the middle of the screen, I'm having trouble figuring out what the population info is about, and what to do to improve my situation. I'd welcome info on the first and third boxes (I think I understand the middle one), but the population box in particular. When playing as the WA, my population box for the UK goes into negative early on. Does that mean I can no longer build? What do I do to rectify it?

-sushi

[Lucky1]

Basically, you are constrained by population in terms of the number of units you can generate each turn. For England, she usually generates 5-6 population points per turn. Each unit produced takes up two population points. As a result, England can generally only make 2-3 units per turn. This means that you should time your builds so that are not stuck in queue awaiting sufficient population points. You might need to place builds on hold, depending on what you need to purchase at a given moment. There will also be a bounce to your population after you take a lot of territories (containing population, although I cannot recall the exact mechanics) or have a large battle with high damage units (damaged units returned something to the population pool?).

[sushidog]

ORIGINAL: Lucky1

Basically, you are constrained by population in terms of the number of units you can generate each turn. For England, she usually generates 5-6 population points per turn. Each unit produced takes up two population points. As a result, England can generally only make 2-3 units per turn. This means that you should time your builds so that are not stuck in queue awaiting sufficient population points. You might need to place builds on hold, depending on what you need to purchase at a given moment. There will also be a bounce to your population after you take a lot of territories (containing population, although I cannot recall the exact mechanics) or have a large battle with high damage units (damaged units returned something to the population pool?).

Ah. So if England has an excess of production points, but is short of population, you must use the production for either supplies or research?

Also, if you don't place builds on hold but don't have enough population, does the game just let you build some of it and then leave the rest in the first box of the production spiral?

Thanks for the answers. Sometimes reading the manual gives me a headache.


-sushidog

[Lucky1]

You should spend all your production points each turn. This can be in the form of research or supply if you are constrained by population in terms of what you can produce. Of course, you can also use the production points to build more expensive units that need several turns to get to the last stage where population and additional resources are expended.
 
You should manage your builds carefully - if you have queued too many units for production in a given turn (exceeding your population), they still consume resources, despite the fact they are not produced. Too, you do not have control over which units are produced and which are not (but you can anticipate that the more expensive units get priority, if I recall correctly). So, it is really best to place units on hold to ensure your population and output are in balance according to your needs etc.

[sushidog]

ORIGINAL: Lucky1

You should spend all your production points each turn. This can be in the form of research or supply if you are constrained by population in terms of what you can produce. Of course, you can also use the production points to build more expensive units that need several turns to get to the last stage where population and additional resources are expended.

You should manage your builds carefully - if you have queued too many units for production in a given turn (exceeding your population), they still consume resources, despite the fact they are not produced. Too, you do not have control over which units are produced and which are not (but you can anticipate that the more expensive units get priority, if I recall correctly). So, it is really best to place units on hold to ensure your population and output are in balance according to your needs etc.

You should manage your builds carefully - if you have queued too many units for production in a given turn (exceeding your population), they still consume resources, despite the fact they are not produced. Too, you do not have control over which units are produced and which are not (but you can anticipate that the more expensive units get priority, if I recall correctly). So, it is really best to place units on hold to ensure your population and output are in balance according to your needs etc.

Ah, I didn't realize that they still consumed resources even if they weren't produced. That's a major leak of resources for me. Thanks for that, that's something I can concentrate on fixing.

-sushidog

[jermanie]

I am new to this game too. Say, I have East and West Germany, showing the same number of population points. Does that mean each country is separate when it comes to population points, or do they share them? Can you tell me what other countries share the same population points? I mean like Italy, Austria, Hungary, etc. (I am thinking before invasion of Russia).