Happiness and Army Size

[Morbio]

In the games I'm playing I'm struggling to understand how to resolve problems with happiness related to army size. The current message is more useful than the early versions, it now makes it clear how big the negative (or positive) impact army size is having. However where I struggle is to know whether I need more or less army to improve happiness. If feel that at times I am building more army units because I think the army is too small and yet the issue isn't resolving and I wonder if I'm actually making it worse.

Could the message be more specific? Could it indicate if the populace is worried about the weakness of the army or if it is worried about the repression because of an excessive army?

I appreciate this may not be a quick fix, so in the meantime are there any guidelines or tips that could be shared regarding an ideal ratio of army units per population?

[stormbringer3]

In my games the unhappiness is usually due to the army being too small.

[Morbio]

That's my general assumption, but I'd like to be sure. What worries me is that there's often no noticeable improvement even when I build units.

[Morbio]

Pavel: Any thoughts or suggestions?

[pavelk]

Hi Morbio,
I am sorry for such delay in replying. I somehow missed this thread altogether.

I agree that the message about military size impact should be clearer. It is based on ratio between citizens in your army units (aka citizens withdrawn from your cities-resources) vs remaining citizens in your stockpile. In general, worse is when you have too small army (the impact is twice as big) compared to a case when you have the army too big. There is a special "case" when the number of your citizens is lower than 100 (there is a bit different calculation because otherwise it would impact the happiness too much).
The only thing which I can currently suggest is to observe the "Population" and "Soldiers" numbers (and its ratio) in State window and compare it to the "military size impact" in Happiness window. I would like to give you a better answer, but right now this is how it is.
To be honest, the reason why particular military size impact was not further explained (except for hints) was that it should be clear to player if the ratio (comparing citizens to soldiers) is too low or too high. On the other hand I agree that it is always better to point it out clearly.

[GiveWarAchance]

So basically you mean we have to balance the army size while staying aware of the ratio, not aim for big or small. If citizens are under 100, the happiness rating is more forgiving regarding the army size?

[pavelk]

Yes, that's how it is pretty much for now.