u/Durch-a-Lurch

The background:

I'm new to the game. This is my first time experimenting with the world map and conquering regions. This captured region (my first and only so far) is majority Tilapi. I did not persecute/exile/massacre anyone. The initial population crash has already come and gone, we're about 1.5 years after the capture. My capital at the time of capture was only ~550-600. I'm now at 650 and have Nobles, one of which was assigned to governor points so I could play around more with that. I do not have any tech related to governing/region stuff unlocked. I just doubled the troop presence from 20 guys at 54% training and full kit to 40 guys, with the new division of 20 at 100% training and full kit.

The question(s):

What is "region capacity"? What controls that -1.10 that I'm seeing? Do I have any control over it? I checked a few days ago and it was -0.90 for the Tilapi. Why is it changing? Why are other species' values between -0.80 and -1.10?

Related questions:

I understand the 2.87 (it's my army presence + tavern bonuses) and how I can increase that. I understand the *0.68 (it's just the 1.05*0.86*0.75), but do I have any control over those three factors that contribute to it? What about the army presence? I just doubled the troops from 20 to 40, and the number shot up from like 0.77 to 1.87. Okay, more and better troops has a big impact. But that 0.77 from 20 troops had been a 1.00 a few seasons ago. Why was it contually dropping all this time?

I started playing a couple weeks ago and just conquered my first city on the world map - a single city nation of Ekraft - at the end of year 9. I massacred the Tilapi, Garthimi, and Amevia. This gave me four new neighbors, three of which were none too pleased by my actions and had opinions drop to the 0.00-0.50 range. It is now summer of year 10, and one such nation - Sumia - dipped below 0.00 and declared war. Not a moment later they proposed peace, and I rejected it. I loaded an autosave and saved a backup in case this was a terrible decision.

Sumia started with three cities, one of which was a small island of Slijtetic. This city went independent around year 6. They then conquered a single city nation of Yunalesca pictured (but name not visible) just above the text box in my first image. This city is key, as it links to three free lands I plan to conquer to the south. One of those free lands links to the island of Slijtetic, which then links to a chain of Dondorian free lands to the west, which I definitely want (I'm Dondorian/Cretonian/eventually Human).

Right after declaring war on me, their 370 man army on my border began marching to siege Slijtetic, to my delight! Probable death avoided. Worst case scenario, this buys me more time to continue building my army and growing my population. But I'm greedy and thought, should I take this opportunity to attack Yunalesca, giving me access to the three free lands to the south?

I figure we're already at war, and if their army is distracted sieging that island, I could siege Yunalesca and starve out their 170 man garrison. I have 120 soldiers split evenly between 94%, 64%, and17% training. The two better thirds fully equipped, the bottom third full weapon and 2-3 ticks in armor. I have one 20-man group building loyalty on Ekraft and of course need something for raiders back home.

So what would you do? Let them siege Slijtetic and build up a force to take on their 370 man army that will (I assume) eventually come for me? Or take this opportunity to attack Yunalesca? Or load the backup save and peace them out, but instigate a war in the near future with some trespassing? Or any other options that I, as a new player, am not thinking of / understanding?

Spotted the first adult lantern fly of the year, derped in the sticky, sappy poop of his brethren to the roof of my car. One down, one million to go.