ND/Taxes and Spending

## Population Centers and Revenue

Every orc fortress or citadel and each city on a theater map or national map represents thousands of peasants, villagers, and townsmen. Most of these people live in villages of 200-800 people that are too small to represent on the map, and almost all the rest live in towns of 1500-4000 that are also too small to represent on the map. The remaining few live in the cities that are on the maps.

Collectively, these fortresses, citadels, and cities are called population centers. The total population associated with a population center, the number of that population that are paying taxes to The Liberation, and their per capita income are listed on the City and Army Tracker spreadsheet on the "Cities" tab.

### Maximum Recruiting

No more than 25% of the population of any population center is fit for military service and can recruited into active duty in the army or standing Militia. Each element that is recruited increases the count of recruited elements for that population center by 1, and if the total recruited elements is more than the maximum number of recruitable elements, no more elements can be recruited. Each recruited element also reduces the revenue from a population center. Regular army units that are disbanded and militia units that end their active service are returned to the population and reduce the count of recruited elements by the number of elements.

The recruited element count is reduced by 5% of the maximum recruitable element count on January 1st of each year. This represents young men and women coming of age and becoming available for military service.

### Revenue

Each population center has an average per capita monthly income, representing the wealth generation of the population center. In general, cities are richer that the countryside, and hills and mountain are richer but less populated than coastal plains. Forests are usually more populated but not as rich as hills, but deep forests tend to be sparsely populated.

Each population center can be taxed at 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, or 100%, and the tax rate can changed on a monthly basis. Resource income is effective population \* average income \* tax rate, adjusted for any income penalties. Effective population is population taxed by the Liberation - 15 \* number of recruited elements (each element is around 10 people, but as most elements are recruited from the most vigorous and able-bodied adults, the impact is greater). Effective tax rates of 20% or higher have a random chance of inflicting a income penalty of -5% or worse, increasing with the effective tax rate and the number of moths that population center has paid at 20% or higher.

Tax rates generally represent net effective tax rates that can be spent on the military. For game purposes, there is no effective difference between between a high tax state that taxes everything at 40% and spends 75% of it on law enforcement and providing food and shelter to the poor, leaving 10% of the total income to be spent on the military, and a low tax state that taxes at 10% and spends all of it on the military.

Taxes are usually collected on the 1st of each month, but raiders can forcibly collect taxes on a territory they do not control at other days (see below).

Any population center that experiences experiences more than a week of two enemy forces in its area, or is subjected to raids that inflict 5% or more extra effective tax rate, or has its population temporarily evacuated has a temporary income penalty of -50% for the next month's taxation (and any additional raiding). This penalty continues as long as multiple enemy forces stay in its area, it is subjected to raids, or the population remains evacuated. It goes away one full month after all those conditions cease.

Income penalties are reduced by 1% on January 1st of each year. Income bonuses are not removed.

### Raiding

A raiding force's raiding strength is equal to it's TS + the TS of Cv elements + the TS of Rec elements. At the end of each week of raiding, a raiding force can effectively tax a population center of up to 100x its raiding strength at up to 20%, a population of up to 200x its raiding strength at up to 5%, or a larger population at 1%. The resources produced by raiding then become a supply caravan at the approximate center of the area being raided, and the supply caravan moves as civilian wheeled unit to a population center controlled by the raiding force where they can be spent. The raiders may continue taxing the area they are in, move on to a new area, or escort the supply caravan as they think appropriate. The supply caravan can also be intercepted by forces hostile to the raiders and sent to a location controlled by those forces. If the raiders are destroyed in Mass Combat or choose to flee the area before the end of the week, then they don't generate any income.

A population center that is subject to regular taxation and raiding risks an income penalty if the total effective tax rate from the regular taxation and the raiding is more than 20%. If friendly forces capture the supply caravans and return the resources, all effects of the raid are cancelled.

A raiding force that is in a hurry can generate income at 10% of its normal rate per day, immediately generating a small supply caravan, and potentially allowing the raiding force to move on. Hurried raiding is less efficient, but it allows a raiding force to seize some income before fleeing. The raiding force must decide if it wants to perform hurried daily raiding, or normal weekly raiding, before it begins raiding. A force that is performing normal raiding can abort to hurried raiding and generates 5% the normal income per day it has spent raiding.

## Non-Combat Spending

The Liberation can spend revenue on certain effects that have a mechanical effect.

### Non-Combat Spellcasters

The Liberation can hire non-combat spellcasters as long as it can recruit at least Poor quality mages and has access to the Black Library. Non-combat spellcasters have no raise cost or time, but are more expensive to maintain that combat spellcasters of the same quality. Non-combat spellcasters can be used for a variety of tasks, such as instant long-distance communication, rapid creation of high quality equipment, or rapidly building fortifications. See the Non-Combat Spellcasters page for details.

### Prisoners of War

Prisoners of War can be put to work or put into camps. PoWs put to work raise no revenue but cost nothing to support and have a slight possibility of escaping their guards, depending on the GM's exact evaluation of the PoW in question. More dangerous PoWs (such as ogres, dynfarches, or dragons) that are put into camps must be maintained as Basic/Average troops: this represents building and maintaining the necessary camps and supplying it with guards. PoWs in camps will never escape.

### Resettling Refuges

The Liberation can relocate and resettle refugees. It costs $0.5K per ten refugees to relocate them to a new location within a thousand miles and the movement takes 4 weeks. After the refugees have been relocated, they can start producing income (which is turned into revenue based on population and tax rate as normal). The Liberation can choose their average per capita monthly income, depending on the thrift and industry of the refugees, but usually between $600 to $900 per refugee per month. It costs 1.2 month's worth of the desired income, per refugee, to resettle them. The resettlement fee does not have to paid in full at once but can be paid in stages. Refugees begin producing income as soon as they are relocated, but their effective per capita income is multiplied by the square of the percentage resettlement fee paid. The desired average income is chosen when the refugees are relocated and cannot be changed later.

### Removing Income Penalties

The Liberation can repair damaged economies or improve undamaged ones. Each 1% income penalty costs population \* per capita monthly income / $50K to remove; the penalty is removed for the next month after the money is spent. Each 1% income bonus costs population \* per capital monthly income / $25K to generate; the income bonus comes into effect for the next month after the money is spent.

### Fast Travel

Priority stage coach rides within Liberation territory allow no more than 10 people to travel 100 miles/day on Imperial highways or 80 miles/day on Imperial military roads at the cost of $1K per day of travel.

### Militia

The Liberation can raise quality militia forces. They are not tracked in the purchase sheet or the army lists, but on the Cities page directly. The Militia page has more details.

### Fortifications

It normally costs $6M over at least 2 months to create a +4 DB simple stronghold that can house 100 infantry + 20 cavalry, $160M over at least 15 months to create a +8 DB fortress that can house 1000 infantry and 200 cavalry, and $300M over at least 24 months to build a +9 DB citadel that can house 2000 infantry and 400 cavalry. However, these costs can vary substantially depending on the availability of magic and the location of the fortification, see the Fortifications page for more details.

### Roads and Bridges

It normally costs $1M and at least 2 weeks to pave 1 mile of military road and $10M and at least 2 months to pave 1 mile of highway. A narrow river can be spanned with a high quality stone bridge for $81M over at least 12 months, while a wider river can be spanned by a high quality stone bridge for $200M over at least 24 months. Wooden bridges are cheaper but are more likely to be destroyed by storms or floods. See the Roads and Bridges page for more details.