IMPORTANT RULE CHANGE - Economic Dominance
This method of expansion involves using IC to fund theoretical colonists and merchants and bribing local rulers to incorporate them into your empire.
How it works
Your chance of success is determined by two things: the amount of IC you spend, and how strong the natives are.
Suppose you spend 4 IC on economically dominating, let's say, Syria. Now Syria has two major cities/population centers. For each IC you spend, I will run a random number generator. There are three equally possible results: you take over one of the cities, both cities, or none of the cities. So if you spend 4 IC, I will run it four times, and I'll take the best result: if I get 0,2,1,0, you'll receive the whole province, since I take the best result.
For a sparsely-populated province, like Tartary or Midwest, you'll have a 50-50 chance of it joining your country if you spend 1 IC on it. On the other end of the scale, such as a four-cities province like Shanghai, you only have a 20% chance, so more likely you'll only take over part of a province that turn. You can spend more ICs to increase your chances, but it's risky.
If you don't have the troops to invade a province, economic dominance might be a better option especially for sparsely-populated areas, and because the province is taken peacefully, there's a 20% chance for each city in that province that you'll receive a free factory for your troubles. On the other hand, simply invading a country may be quicker and based less on chance.
This method of expansion involves using IC to fund theoretical colonists and merchants and bribing local rulers to incorporate them into your empire.
How it works
Your chance of success is determined by two things: the amount of IC you spend, and how strong the natives are.
Suppose you spend 4 IC on economically dominating, let's say, Syria. Now Syria has two major cities/population centers. For each IC you spend, I will run a random number generator. There are three equally possible results: you take over one of the cities, both cities, or none of the cities. So if you spend 4 IC, I will run it four times, and I'll take the best result: if I get 0,2,1,0, you'll receive the whole province, since I take the best result.
For a sparsely-populated province, like Tartary or Midwest, you'll have a 50-50 chance of it joining your country if you spend 1 IC on it. On the other end of the scale, such as a four-cities province like Shanghai, you only have a 20% chance, so more likely you'll only take over part of a province that turn. You can spend more ICs to increase your chances, but it's risky.
If you don't have the troops to invade a province, economic dominance might be a better option especially for sparsely-populated areas, and because the province is taken peacefully, there's a 20% chance for each city in that province that you'll receive a free factory for your troubles. On the other hand, simply invading a country may be quicker and based less on chance.