Crime and Provincial Order
Crime and Provincial Order is a deliberate economic brake on unchecked expansion. Without it, a city that claims hex after hex eventually drowns in more resources than its population and workshops could ever consume, and the tension between expanding outward and developing what you already hold quietly disappears. Crime exists to put that tension back — not as a punishment, but as an optimisation path. Ignore it entirely and a sprawling city suffers a real but survivable resource penalty. Manage it well and that same city becomes meaningfully more efficient than a neglected rival.
The Sprawl Factor
The core driver behind crime is a simple mismatch: how much territory a city controls versus how developed it actually is.
Sprawl Factor = Hexes Controlled ÷ Province Development Level
| Sprawl Factor | Crime Multiplier | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 – 2.0 | ×0.5 (suppressed) | 6 hexes at PDL 4 — tight, well-developed |
| 2.0 – 4.0 | ×1.0 (baseline) | 12 hexes at PDL 4 — healthy pace |
| 4.0 – 6.0 | ×1.5 | 12 hexes at PDL 2 — expanding faster than developing |
| 6.0 – 9.0 | ×2.0 | 18 hexes at PDL 2 — seriously underpoliced |
| 9.0+ | ×3.0 (maximum) | 20+ hexes at PDL 1–2 — effectively lawless |
A city with 18 hexes at PDL 6 sits at a comfortable Sprawl Factor of 3.0. The same 18 hexes at PDL 2 sits at 9.0 — the difference between "well-managed" and "lawless outskirts" comes entirely from how much you've developed what you've claimed, not how much you've claimed.
Crime Rate Formula
Crime rate is a single value, recalculated fresh every month, ranging from 0% to a cap of 40%:
Crime Rate = Base Crime × Sprawl Modifier × Garrison Modifier × Governor Modifier × Outpost Modifier
This is calculated per racial group, not once per settlement — a city of Elves largely governs itself, while a Goblin underclass in the same city needs active policing, regardless of how peaceful the Elves are.
Base Crime by Race
| Race | Tendency | Base Rate | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Krant | None | 0.00 | Hivemind eliminates individual criminal motivation entirely |
| Elf | Low | 0.05 | Disciplined and long-lived; crime is rare and culturally shamed |
| Dwarf | Low-Moderate | 0.08 | Culturally shameful, but smuggling occurs at society's fringes |
| Skulk | Moderate | 0.09 | Secretive by nature, but organised rather than opportunistic |
| Human | Moderate | 0.10 | Standard baseline — tendency scales with discontent |
| Ende | Moderate | 0.10 | Mirrors Human; mortal desires persist into unliving existence |
| Greenskin | Moderate-High | 0.15 | Aggressive and undisciplined; prone to extortion and raiding |
| Goblin | High | 0.20 | Scavengers by nature; opportunistic theft is deeply ingrained |
Garrison Modifier
Measured against hexes controlled, not workshops — a well-staffed city centre means nothing if the outer territory has no soldiers patrolling it at all:
| Garrison per Controlled Hex | Modifier |
|---|---|
| No garrison at all | +0.20 |
| Below 10/hex | +0.10 |
| 10–25/hex | No effect |
| 25–50/hex | −0.05 |
| Above 50/hex | −0.15 |
Governor Modifier
| Condition | Modifier |
|---|---|
| No Governor | +0.15 |
| Corrupt trait | +0.10 (stacks with low Logistics) |
| Governor Logistics 1–2 | No effect |
| Governor Logistics 3–4 | −0.05 |
| Governor Logistics 5 | −0.10 |
Inquisition works differently from every modifier above — rather than feeding into the formula as a fifth factor, it applies after everything else resolves, halving that population group's final crime rate outright. It's a blunt, brutal tool: highly effective against crime specifically, but carrying its own significant loyalty cost regardless — see Loyalty.
Outpost Modifier
| Outpost | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Marketplace | −0.05 |
| City Walls level 3+ | −0.03 |
| City Walls level 5+ | −0.05 (replaces the level 3+ bonus, not additive on top of it) |
Effects of Crime
Crime is intentionally mild at low levels and increasingly costly the higher it climbs:
| Effect | 10% Crime | 25% Crime | 40% Crime (Max) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resource loss | −10% | −25% | −40% |
| Project time increase | +5% | +12.5% | +20% |
| Recruitment reduction | −10% | −25% | −40% |
| Base loyalty reduction | −2 | −5 | −8 |
| Assimilation slowdown | Minor | Noticeable | Significant |
Resource loss applies after the Governor's Logistics resource-loss bonus — the two stack independently rather than one cancelling the other. Recruitment reduction and assimilation slowdown both use each population group's own crime rate individually, so a Goblin minority in a neglected city suffers a noticeably harsher penalty than an Elf minority in that same city. See Loyalty, Assimilation, and Population Growth for exactly how each of these connects back.
Crime is deliberately never an existential threat on its own — it never triggers rebellion directly, and it never reduces workshop capacity to nothing. Loyalty remains the actual gatekeeper for whether a city stays yours; crime is purely an economic drag.
Crime Tiers
| Tier | Crime Rate | Indicator |
|---|---|---|
| Low | 0–10% | No immediate attention needed |
| Moderate | 10–20% | Worth monitoring |
| High | 20–30% | Noticeable drain — act soon |
| Rampant | 30%+ | Serious drain — immediate attention recommended |
Managing Crime
Every tool available is something you already have — no dedicated crime-fighting building exists:
| Tool | Impact | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Develop Province (raise PDL) | High | Time, stone, population requirements |
| Inquisition | High | Significant loyalty penalty |
| Increase garrison size | Moderate-High | Manpower and troops diverted from elsewhere |
| Skilled Logistics Governor | Moderate | Cost and time to develop or replace a leader |
| Remove a Corrupt Governor | Moderate | Replacement delay |
| Build a Marketplace | Low-Moderate | Stone cost and build time |
| Improve city walls | Low | Marginal gain; rarely worth it for this reason alone |
| Accept the crime rate | None | Ongoing resource efficiency loss |
That last option is entirely legitimate — a distant frontier city deep in contested territory may simply not be worth the governance effort, and the system is built to let you make that call deliberately rather than forcing every settlement to be optimised.
