tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
This "Settlements grow to Size 3 without a Hospital" feature also confused me the first time I played Sengoku, but there is nothing in the .biq to indicate how this happens, so I only have an untested hypothesis as to how it works.To my big surprise, my capital grows to size 13?! Hmm, I checked it in the editor: none of the improvements in that city (palace, granary, archive, marketplace, barracks) allows city level 3, and level 2 has the usual limit of 12 citizens?! Anyone any explanation for this?
I believe that if a .biq includes 3 settlement sizes which can be attained before all BFC tiles are worked, but no building which specifically "Allows Size3", then once Size2 has been achieved, towns simply grow on to Size3 without impediment. That is, it's the presence of a "Size3 building" which tells the game to enforce the (Size2, Pop12) population-cap.
You do still get the Size3 population-pollution, though.