Building Tall Options?

[acidia]

I've played a few games to the point that I'm beating minors militarily but I was curious what the building tall options were as opposed to conquest? My goal is to consolidate power into a single high density metropolis but that just doesn't seem to be possible. Massive solar farms paired with advanced demetalization facilities ensure I have plenty of endless resources but I don't have the people to keep expanding them. The other annoyance is that I've outgrown the market such that I'm flooding it with oil, metal, food, water, and rares just to balance my worker payroll.

I can't find any real options for boosting population growth beyond a trickle. I already build new cities when I get good zone relic cards, especially the cloning facility for +1000 pop.

I have surrounded myself with client state farmer minors but I can't find a way to steal their people without being responsible for their land, which I don't want to micromanage. I can't find a way to conquer, steal population, and release them or emigration policies.

Options:
Autocracy has pillage cards towards the end of their tree but I don't know if those steal population?

Meritocracy has "Call to Success" but I don't know what that does mechanically and I can never keep it above 70 for long enough to get the card.

Slavers sell population randomly but I've never seen it go above 2000 people... if you keep them around for long enough will it become significant?

My client state minors seem useless, they give me 30 credits a turn and act as a boarder that I don't have to guard. Is there anything else I can do with them?

[Palo Blaze]

It is a game of conquest. I doubt the developer considered going Tall at all.

There is a Government Strat card called "Attract Free Folk".

For client states, I usually use Meritocracy "Plea of Friendship" strat card on them to raise their opinion of me. Then either Annex or Unification cards once the roll is reasonable.

If you go Meritocracy, it is an easy way to gain a lot of territory without fighting.

[acidia]

I enjoy conquest but the detail of the game means that managing large empires is a real slog. I never have enough soldiers to man the borders with the untamed wilds. I would like vassal states that I can actually get something from...30-100 credits is useless when I have 40k in the bank. The money isn't even really useful because I'm waiting for technologies or for population growth, neither of which I seem to be able to boost with money.

I've gotten 1 Plea of Friendship card, could never find where it came from. I think it is being moved somewhere else between versions because I don't have it in my meritocracy tree.

I think "Attract Free Folk" only target the asset towns in your own territory. I usually convince them to join my cities just by increasing quality of life.

[Thomas]

There is also random event 'Slave Trader' where you can choose to ALLOW Slave Trader to live in zone. Then Governor has option for 3PP to buy slaves every turn (2000 slaves for 200 - 800 credits). I have low POP world right now with no minor around (Medusa class) so this event is blessing for me - I was forced to play tall for first 90 turns right now.

[acidia]

Nice, were you bordering a slaver clan? I haven't gotten that event in any game yet.

After a couple hours I finally was able to get a Call to Success I card at Meritocracy 4...
for 56pp you can roll for 1d3% (2d3% critical) of a Major nation's zone with a hard max of 4000 pop. Equal % hit to relations. There are levels II and III that are probably better but keeping meritocracy high sucks because you can't spam "Cabinet Retreat" in democracy 2, one of the strongest admin cards (cheap boost to all cabinet relations and XP)

[Palo Blaze]

Plea of Friendship comes from "Accomplished Envoys".

You get more Strat cards from friendly factions with those attributes. So if you have factions with Meritocracy, you get more Meritocracy strat cards generated.

[acidia]

Originally posted by Pblaze:

Plea of Friendship comes from "Accomplished Envoys".

You get more Strat cards from friendly factions with those attributes. So if you have factions with Meritocracy, you get more Meritocracy strat cards generated.

I'm still learning the game, how can you tell? The only card I have listed under Accomplished Envoys is Recruit Talent. Under benefits it only lists that card and Diplomacy Rolls +30

[Palo Blaze]

Manual, page 229, under 5.6.11.1. REGIME FEATS LISTING

Part of the reason SE hasn't been Steam released is stuff like this. The online screens say nothing, you have to refer to the manual.