Well aside from that not being a question (other than the topic), I recommend enslaving only when your economy is suffering, and exterminating only when the city's population is VAST!

If the population is like 100 or less, just occupy, w/e, it's much better than enslaving those little people

When you're really in teh pits, try enslaving a MASSIVE populace for a big boom all of a sudden. Quick cash, exterminate

well I enslave in the beggining. as all slaves go to your cities with govenors, and 25 % of all slaves go to rome. so if you enslave a city of 1000 and are left with 400 base pop. (as low as it can go) 150 slaves go to rome and you get the rest spead out amongts your cities with govenors over so many turns. mouse over the chains to see how many and how long for a particular settlement. I hope this helps. exterminate at 25,000 population or you get the plauge. brings the pop down to about 6000. I have never had a city go plauge on me. Don't build "city plumbing" or the govenor with come out wildy extravegant as seen in the desc strat document in the game folder on your hard drive. I read all the ancillaries and traits it gives you.

As barbs I exterminate a lot, as all others I only do it when I'm in need of quick cash. If I'm desperate for money I usually just capture a settlment with a large population, exterminate, destroy all buildings than go back home. Also known as sacking.

My population control strategy is to occupy if the public order is 100% or more, enslave if my economy is suffering, and exterminate if the public order is 80% or less. Usually watching your friends, neighbors, and firstborn die makes the survivors that much more content. I would rather occupy because it is usually these conquered cities that provide the bulk of my troopers (I'm in love with Scythia and they don't fight as soldiers but as cavalry troopers) for the follow on campaigns. Also, exterminating small and mid sized populations typically ruins their population base to the point that even training the forces necessary to defend the city becomes a chore, and may require outside reinforcements.

The exception is when I'm dealing with cities in my backfield that rebel, or when I know that an enemy is more likely than not to capture my new city before I can reinforce and drive him off. In those cases, I exterminate, and in the latter case, I pull my troops out to protect them from harm. No use wasting valuable troopers defending an indefensible town anyway, when letting the enemy capture it will split his forces and pin him in place. Thank God, the AI doesn't think so strategically.

The odd thing is if you exterminate the income from that provence shoots up. Provences with more people tend to earn less money-they usuall lose cash once they get about 5000. That's why taking small rebel villages can be smart because they're easy to get and pull in a consitent income, it may be small but get 4 small rebel villages and you can start raking in some good cash!

a great strat is to enslave small setlements beacous they dont lose much pop and slavery increase pop growth slavery also(as mentioned) increase income (good for barbs and other w money probs.

Interesting thought that larger Citys (larger then 5000) make less money? is this really true? i usually deal w rebellious setlements by queing up the unit que w peasants (works best on huge unit stacks)(this lowers pop but its not a true solution rather a delay(releasing peasants increase pop growth and if you remove units from the que they will return to pop and adding to unrest.

But i usually find that the delay helps me make nessesary adjustements (swiching and or building temples and so forth) if u find youreself w a city full of peasants try sending them to a small town and disband them to raise pop of the small one.

Also Enemy spys cause lots of unrest so keep counter spys in settlements close to enemy lines...

TotalWarFanatic,

Large cities only run lower profits because military expenses are distrubuted among your larger cities. No one city is responsible for maintaing your armies. So the city may make less percentage-wise, but it will make more money total even if the figures are in the negative.