If anyone remembers Lords of the Realm 2, or otherwise know a lot about medieval demographics, I'd appreciate to hear your input here. Basically, the other day I was thinking about what I would have like to have seen in that game, and what I could implement myself in a similar game on the strategic level (ie. not the battles, but the province management). I've had this in mind for some time now. Among these things is improved demographics. My guess is, that in the original LotR2 (confusing shortening ;) ), population never was stored and computed like anything else than the number shown to the player. That is, all army recruitment management, births, deaths, immigration, emmigration, health, rations etc. were computed on one integer number which represents the entire population. Of course, for example the task of recruiting an army was still limited to the morale of the population, but there was no way the number of males fit for military service was tracked. To improve upon the demographical calculations in this system I think it should be split up in several categories, but albeit a limited number of ones. Namely a certain number of people would be in one category, and all categories would then make up the total population in a town or province. What I imagine are the most significant attributes that could be used to the sort the population would then be gender and age, with all other attributes still applied to the entire population such as health and morale. A quick very simple example of a different number of categories would be (based on my knowledge, I haven't done any specific research yet): Male babies, 0-5 years. Male children, 6-15 years. Male adults, 16-40 years. (The ones eligable for military service.) Male elders, 41-max years. Female babies, 0-5 years. Female children 6-15 years. Female adults, 16-40 years. (The ones fertile.) Female elders, 41-max years. Bear in mind here that the goal is not to set up an exact demographics representation, but rather to allow the effects on the population to vary depending on the causes. If for example an army is recruited, this will be limited by the maximum number of males in a suitable age for the task. If a famine strikes a country, babies and after that children are more likely to die as the adults struggle to feed themselves. If an usual amount of children is born one year, this does not affect the number of potential soldiers significantly until 15 years later. Elders are not as likely to immigrate or emmigrate, but then again they basically just cost food to feed and may not contribute with as much labour. All of this would still be hidden to the player; however a couple of situations where the player is annoyed with the normal unreal effects are avoided. As for the aging of the population, a seasonal tranfer (a year in LotR2 was divided into 4 turns or seasons) of one category to another would be calculated. I.e. on a per year basis 20% of all babies would be transferred to the children group (or 1.2^0.25 = ~4.6% seasonally). Similar transfers would be set up between the rest of the categories (except between male and females ;) ). Each category would also have a growth rate (negative for all but the baby category), and this would depend on general health and rations etc. Immigration/emmigration would have to be handled explicity though since it is an interpolation of the different in morale between though provinces. Is this system too complicated? I do not think so, since I demonstrated that only a limited number of population categories would be needed to represent the population in a LotR2-esque game. These are still relatively simple calculations that are needed per province and if there are as few in as in original LotR2 then it certainly is a zero problem. Thank you for your time.

Male babies, 0-4 years.
Male children, 5-11 years.
Male adults, 12-24 years. (The ones eligable for military service.)
Male elders, 25-max years.
Female babies, 0-4 years.
Female children 5-11 years.
Female adults, 12-24 years. (The ones fertile.)
Female elders, 25-max years.

Exagerated a bit, perhaps, but this is the middle ages, right?

Quote:

Original post by NecroMage Male babies, 0-4 years. Male children, 5-11 years. Male adults, 12-24 years. (The ones eligable for military service.) Male elders, 25-max years. Female babies, 0-4 years. Female children 5-11 years. Female adults, 12-24 years. (The ones fertile.) Female elders, 25-max years. Exagerated a bit, perhaps, but this is the middle ages, right?

I know people didn't live that long actually, but I do think women were quite as fertile as today, even if they died in their thirties/forties. What I would have is a comparatively high death rate for that group (counting in deaths during child birth makes it even higher).

You might find "Life in a Medieval Village" a valuable resource. Reviewers say it was very dry, but I found the tiny details to be extremely interesting, and very relevant towards possible gameplay. It's a somewhat popular book, so may be at your library (it was in Oakland, CA).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060920467/

As I understand the world between -infinity and 1800AD, Women outnumbered men at something like 2 to 1, because the missing 50% of the male population kept getting killed in wars or by plauges. Of course, this knowledge only comes from stereotypical hearsay, which is more often wrong then not.
Anyways, some interesting evidence is the Catholic Church and Nuns. Apparently the thinking is that Nuns were married to the church, as a means of assuring a life for the unmarried women (2:1 ratio) of the "civilized" world.
Also, I think currently the population of australia is weighted female on a 5:1 ratio, while the entire earth holds a 52%:48% ratio.

Some interesting facts to consider.

True, men were killed left and right in battles. But remember that women gave birth to a *lot* of children, something that was very dangerous in those days.
And I guess plague would kill everyone.
Still, Islam allowed multiple wives since a failed military campaign could lead to a significant shortage of men.