How do you deal with criminal syndicate branch offices?

[Kryndude]

Do you build enforcer buildings? Or do you negotiate with crime lords? What are the ups and downs for each option?

It's early in the game when each building slot is invaluable so for the first time I'm considering negotiation. The wiki also says that it would prevent any negative crime events so I guess it's fine?

 

[Dlin369]

Declare liberation wars on the Criminal Syndicate and bring Peace, Justice and Freedom (and Democracy) to their little empire

 

[GonDragon]

If you're an authoritarian and you have low balance thanks to lots of Slaves, a Criminal Syndicate Branch Office may be very helpfull, as negotiatin with crime lords gives to you +10 balance on that planet. The only downside is that a planetary modifier may appear that can generate up to 4 criminal jobs (+1 basic, and +1 for every %33 of criminality on the planet)... and, of course, the criminals from the Criminal Syndicate. In the long run, I think that a few criminals with higger balance are better than lower balance and, maybe, some unemployment. So, it may be a good decision to embrace the crime until you can Nerve Staple your slaves.

 

[Nirmara]

Crime tend to either be a symptom of some bigger issues or simply generated by a branch office. In the former case, it's a real problem, in the later, it's not something to worry about. In this case, dealing with the crime lords is pretty much free stability with no real downside beyond some pop working as criminal and reducing the trade value of the planet so it's by far the best option.

Expelling them is an other possibility. Just make sure you win the war decisively and force their surrender, a Status Quo would force you to pay for their closed branch. If you succeed, a thousands energy credit per branch office can really add up, in particular in the early game.

 

[ShaTiK]

Crime tend to either be a symptom of some bigger issues or simply generated by a branch office. In the former case, it's a real problem, in the later, it's not something to worry about. In this case, dealing with the crime lords is pretty much free stability with no real downside beyond some pop working as criminal and reducing the trade value of the planet so it's by far the best option.

Expelling them is an other possibility. Just make sure you win the war decisively and force their surrender, a Status Quo would force you to pay for their closed branch. If you succeed, a thousands energy credit per branch office can really add up, in particular in the early game.

Problem with having a war with syndicate, as I recently discovered, is in warscore. To enforce your demands when expelling syndicate you immediately have -150 warscore modifier: -100 for 'demanding surrender', which is usually counter-balanced by war exhaustion, but then you have additional -50 for 'expel wargoal'. And to get these 50 points you have to both utterly destroy their fleet and occupy most of their territory. And if said syndicate have an ally - you could forget about enforcing your demands. I found it much better to settle on 'status quo', since in this case the syndicate get back 1000 credits for every branch office, but it's not me who pays that. And status quo requires very little warscore.
Another problem with syndicates is not every empire have 'impose ideology' wargoal. So, if you have a neighboring syndicate empire, there are only 2 things you can do to stop these pesky branch offices - wage war with said syndicate every time truce ends and settle with status quo as quick as possible, or wipe out the syndicate completely, take all his possessions for yourself or make a vassal out of them.
And if you can't get to the syndicate 'by foot'.. Well, then you just have to suffer the penalties. It's not that terrible, since in most cases crime could be fixed by having only 1 upgraded police station+crime fight campaign. You loose a building slot and a bit of credits, but if your crime is 0 the branch office would auto-shut down sooner or later. The problem with this is the fact that on a 80-pop planet branch office could generate up to 200 crime if I recall correctly. Which would be barely balanced by upgraded police station+enforcers from the capital building, even with 'crime fight' planetary edict.

 

[beckermt]

Problem with having a war with syndicate, as I recently discovered, is in warscore. To enforce your demands when expelling syndicate you immediately have -150 warscore modifier: -100 for 'demanding surrender', which is usually counter-balanced by war exhaustion, but then you have additional -50 for 'expel wargoal'. And to get these 50 points you have to both utterly destroy their fleet and occupy most of their territory. And if said syndicate have an ally - you could forget about enforcing your demands. I found it much better to settle on 'status quo', since in this case the syndicate get back 1000 credits for every branch office, but it's not me who pays that. And status quo requires very little warscore.
Another problem with syndicates is not every empire have 'impose ideology' wargoal. So, if you have a neighboring syndicate empire, there are only 2 things you can do to stop these pesky branch offices - wage war with said syndicate every time truce ends and settle with status quo as quick as possible, or wipe out the syndicate completely, take all his possessions for yourself or make a vassal out of them.
And if you can't get to the syndicate 'by foot'.. Well, then you just have to suffer the penalties. It's not that terrible, since in most cases crime could be fixed by having only 1 upgraded police station+crime fight campaign. You loose a building slot and a bit of credits, but if your crime is 0 the branch office would auto-shut down sooner or later. The problem with this is the fact that on a 80-pop planet branch office could generate up to 200 crime if I recall correctly. Which would be barely balanced by upgraded police station+enforcers from the capital building, even with 'crime fight' planetary edict.

Who doesn't have Enforce Ideology and can be affected by Corporate Branch Offices?

 

[ShaTiK]

Who doesn't have Enforce Ideology and can be affected by Corporate Branch Offices?

Well, you have to have 'liberation wars' as war policy. It's not a big issue to change it and then change back when needed. And I totally missed it in my game, I was sure that impose ideology is all about democracies.
Still, to win a war with impose ideology you, again, have to capture ALL of the enemy territories (-100 for demanding surrender and -100 for impose ideology wargoal). Which is fine when an enemy is alone and become a huge problem when he isn't. So, if your neighbor is a syndicate, you are basically forced to declare as soon as possible with 'impose ideology'.
As for 'how can be affected' - well, anyone can. Sure, one upgraded precinct with 'fight crime' planetary edict is enough. But t2 police station is a tech that you might not get for a looong time. And before that you might have to build 2 police stations. And that's 2 buildings slots not dedicated to something useful. Crime is not that big of a deal to, well, deal with, more a nuisance. But it makes you want to deal with the core problem - syndicate rather then all these branch offices.

 

[beckermt]

Well, you have to have 'liberation wars' as war policy. It's not a big issue to change it and then change back when needed. And I totally missed it in my game, I was sure that impose ideology is all about democracies.
Still, to win a war with impose ideology you, again, have to capture ALL of the enemy territories (-100 for demanding surrender and -100 for impose ideology wargoal). Which is fine when an enemy is alone and become a huge problem when he isn't. So, if your neighbor is a syndicate, you are basically forced to declare as soon as possible with 'impose ideology'.
As for 'how can be affected' - well, anyone can. Sure, one upgraded precinct with 'fight crime' planetary edict is enough. But t2 police station is a tech that you might not get for a looong time. And before that you might have to build 2 police stations. And that's 2 buildings slots not dedicated to something useful. Crime is not that big of a deal to, well, deal with, more a nuisance. But it makes you want to deal with the core problem - syndicate rather then all these branch offices.

You can Status Quo an Ideology War to gain a vassal of proper ideology out of the occupied systems and planets (but never their capital). As long as you're not a megacorp, this works fine.

 

[Kryndude]

I was sure that impose ideology is all about democracies.

So other authorities don't get the CB? Currently I'm playing authoritarian. Is there a way for me to impose my ideology?

 

[Zulark.]

If in not my capital and that I'm getting along well with the corpo.
I negotiate with crime lords and I'm turning my planet into a "criminal world" to decrease crime on other planets.

 

[beckermt]

So other authorities don't get the CB? Currently I'm playing authoritarian. Is there a way for me to impose my ideology?

Yes. Select the Liberation Wars policy instead of Unrestricted Wars policy. You can no longer make claims in an offensive war, but you can declare war with the Impose Ideology CB. You can change your war policy back and forth every 10 years.

 

[Matoro_TBS]

Make a deal with the crime lords, drop your enforcers. Only bad thing about 100% crime is 1 criminal job per 33 pops, and criminal jobs reduce like -1 trade value. Of course those pops won't do anything useful, but then you free the pops that would be otherwise enforcers to do something actually productive. As long as you keep your stability high, crime isn't really a problem.

 

[Kryndude]

If in not my capital and that I'm getting along well with the corpo.
I negotiate with crime lords and I'm turning my planet into a "criminal world" to decrease crime on other planets.

But don't they eventually build on all of your planets? Is there a limit to how many branch offices you can build?

 

[ShaTiK]

Make a deal with the crime lords, drop your enforcers. Only bad thing about 100% crime is 1 criminal job per 33 pops, and criminal jobs reduce like -1 trade value. Of course those pops won't do anything useful, but then you free the pops that would be otherwise enforcers to do something actually productive. As long as you keep your stability high, crime isn't really a problem.

What about triggered events from high crime, like -20% trade value, killed governor and such? Or they don't happen when 'negotiate with crime lords' is in effect?

 

[ShaTiK]

But don't they eventually build on all of your planets? Is there a limit to how many branch offices you can build?

There is no limit. And AI (at least Glavius AI) is semi-smart about it, so he tries to have branch offices on planets with nice trade value and >30 POPs. The only limiting factor is the price for opening branch office in influence (and money, but money are easy when compared to influence). 100 plus distance mark-up. And this mark-up makes long distance branch offices prohibitively expensive on mass scale. Still possible if you limit them to 2-3 best planets tho

 

[Duuk]

Armageddon Bombardment solves the problem nicely and you don't need to worry about pesky wargoals.

 

[ShaTiK]

Armageddon Bombardment solves the problem nicely and you don't need to worry about pesky wargoals.

While nice thematically, it takes years and years, and it limited to Fanatic militarist/Xenophobes iirc

 

[pryr]

Enforcers usually. But usually i trying to prevent them spawning. Dealing with syndicate is one way, friendly normal megacorp is another.

 

[Kryndude]

What about triggered events from high crime, like -20% trade value, killed governor and such? Or they don't happen when 'negotiate with crime lords' is in effect?

At least that's what the wiki says.

"Making a deal with the Crime Lords. While this drastically increases crime (+100% Crime), it will also block any of the more severe Crime events from firing. Reverting this decision will add a -10% stability penalty for 3600 days."

source: https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Crime

 

[Matoro_TBS]

What about triggered events from high crime, like -20% trade value, killed governor and such? Or they don't happen when 'negotiate with crime lords' is in effect?

I think so. I've had a lot of those events with pretty small crime rates, but then my ecumenopolis in different playthrough was ~200 years with 100% crime and deal with crime lords with not a single one crime event.