To kill the natives or not?

[unmerged(170815)]

I'm at the stage of where I am constantly colonizing. I'm wondering if it is worth it to keep the natives alive, which would require me to have some units everywhere I am colonizing. My force limit is not very large though, it's fairly early in the game. So I can't really afford to put a lot of units on colonies. I'm wondering if it is worth it too because I haven't seen a population count anywhere. If EU IV does not keep track of populations of provinces, then what bonus does keeping the natives alive give?

The most important issue though is that I have to keep my land maintenance high in order to fight the natives when they decide to attack. This makes me earn far less money (takes about 70-80% of my profits). So is it worth it to go through the trouble of keeping them alive or should I just murder them all and then put my land maintenance low again? (and then I have to dedicate far less of my land force limits to colonies)

 

[Johan]

If i can station an army there, I never do

more basetax ftw.

 

[Nadrak]

The more you left natives, the higher will be basetax in the province after colonizing. By killing natives you are cutting future money. You can see it if you hover with your mouse somewhere during colonizing...sorry, I do not remember where exactly.

 

[semaphore]

I never do it. Even on half maintenance my regulars can shatter a native attack so I don't see too much point in it.

 

[unmerged(170815)]

Oh I never noticed that. 1500 natives gets you a whopping... 0.3 basetax. Doesn't seem to be worth it. Been looking at my provinces, is there any way other than keeping the natives alive or buildings or events during colonization to raise the base tax of a colonized province?

 

[semaphore]

Oh I never noticed that. 1500 natives gets you a whopping... 0.3 basetax. Doesn't seem to be worth it. Been looking at my provinces, is there any way other than keeping the natives alive or buildings or events during colonization to raise the base tax of a colonized province?

On 1 base tax province that's 30% more basetax.

 

[unmerged(170815)]

But the primary purpose of colonies is the stuff that they produce and trade, right? And not tax. Which is why there is a -90% distant province tax modifier. So, does keeping the natives alive lead to more trade goods? Does it somehow help trade?

 

[unmerged(80402)]

I never did it in EUIII, because pop gave you little bonuses, and natives added to pop. Same here, additional tax adds up, even if it is small amount, if you take it from 100 provinces, it becomes something. And even 1 ducat can save your neck.

 

[Comradebot]

If i can station an army there, I never do

more basetax ftw.

+11111111

Always been my mindset. And, despite the ravings of one poster, it's incredibly easy. Recently started playing through with the Iroquois, and dropping a handful (2-4) regiments of the MIL tech 5 native american units (while Westernizing), and I was losing maybe 20 guys to the natives.

Killing the natives is, about 99% of the time, just throwing away MP and shooting yourself in the foot by throwing away the base tax and manpower the natives provide.

And yeah, .3 base tax isn't a lot... but if you're a major colonial power, it'll noticeably build up. And with some of the African provinces, you're looking at nearly 2 base tax added to a single colony just for not butchering the natives.

 

[semaphore]

But the primary purpose of colonies is the stuff that they produce and trade, right? And not tax. Which is why there is a -90% distant province tax modifier. So, does keeping the natives alive lead to more trade goods? Does it somehow help trade?

Actually base tax do increase your goods produced.

 

[unmerged(170815)]

Okay, you guys saved some digital natives from getting slaughtered.

 

[The-King]

Indeed, Its best to leave all natives there. In eu3 it was okay to kill natives if you never intended to move your capital there because natives became apart of the province's population after the colony became a city and all population affect was 'units produced'(which was capped at 1.0 in colonies). Pretty much in eu3 natives didn't really do that much.

In eu4 natives can make a big difference as they affect basetax and manpower. For a single province its not much but it can add up a lot over time. The only annoying part is that you have to divert some of your army to sit on the province so natives can't hurt colonies and sometimes the growth is slower if the natives are aggressive.

 

[Parallel Pain]

Remember, natives count as tech1 infantry.

3 regiments should be enough go fend off uprising in any provinces. 1 regiment is enough in most actually.

 

[ByteJunk]

There are some very pesky provinces in Africa though. I've managed to get a 7-stack routed by natives - granted, it was early-game and I had cut army maintenance. But I even had a general there.

 

[unmerged(755241)]

If you have enough men to ship to a colony anyway, why kill natives :/

 

[Gabriel SPR]

Attacking natives will cost you MIL points, and will eventually decrease the value of the province (base tax and thus production and trade value). So you're actually spending MIL points to get less money in the future.
On the other hand, it's definitely an option if you need to colonize faster and expand quickly, as it increases your "extra-colonists roll" chances (no natives = 0 aggressiveness penalty) and allows you to move your troops somewhere else.

 

[Illanair]

I always let them live unless for very special reasons.

1. It costs MIL to kill them, and you need to send an army there regardless to do this at some point.
2. Less basetax (Admittedly not really a gamechanger due to colony income mechanics)
3. No native integration events (Which means much slower colonization. The +100 pop events and the ones that can increase trade or production for 10 years are a gold mine)

The only exception to this are when I get missions for "Put a colony in this place that you don't want to focus on", such as a Canadian colony as Iberia. I just setup the colony, remove the colonist, kill the natives and let it run its course so I can focus on more profitable colonies.

 

[Namm]

How do you deal with Jews and other minorities? Oh wait, stuff like that isn't in the game.

 

[Ratwar]

I tend to kill them in Africa where there's a lot, and then let them live elsewhere.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

Isn't it, that the more of them, the bigger is the tax bonus? Aren't you shooting your own feet?