How Large Is Your Military?

[sethwbcl91]

I ALWAYS use conscription

[Fox]

i have a max of 140 troops but most got slain back in a rebel assualt...but nointheless i maintain a 135+ standing army. i mean for real.. i always maintain a 135+ standing army ready to fight.

[sethwbcl91]

That is really good. Usually I end up having a large army too...

[Buenpresidente]

I like to have a large army as well. I love seeing a soldier kill one of the rebels. Plus, I find I can easily please the military faction by just having outposts and guard stations. I use the view bar to make sure I have control over the populated regions. It can take a lot of military to keep everything out of the red sometimes.

The only downside is that they demand more pay. This is not a problem though when my nation becomes profitable.

[Coconut Kid]

...  I tend to have around 5 Soldiers for every 100 citizens, plus the associated Generals to support this number, and a further 5 policemen for every 100 citizens.
Granted, by the time you get to a population of 500-750 your island can look like a mass of green camouflage, but hey, that is why God the programmers gave us Army Bases (plural intended!). ...

Actually, that is an awkward way to state it for most players since the Soldier to General ratio is really a Guard Station to Armory ratio (yes, the Army Base messed-up the computation by providing Generals without an Armory -- a pseudo-armory) ; and Police Station employees are not divisible by five.

Let's try a chart. 

|Population in Hundreds	|Soldiers \ Guard Stations + Palace Guard @ four	|Required Generals \  Armory +1 Army  Base for 3 ea.	|Policemen \ Police Stations
| ONE (100)	| Five (5) \ One (1) + 'full'	| One (1) \  Armory	| Five (5) \ One (1)
| TWO (200)	| Ten (10) \ Two (2) + 'full'	| Two (2) \  Armory	| Ten (10) \ Two (2)
| THREE (300)	| Fifteen (15) \ Four (4) + 'full'	| Four (4) \  Armory +	| Fifteen (15) \ Two (2)

¹ One Armory building is required as the foundation of the Army. One General is required for every three Soldiers except the Palace Guard. So after the first Armory, further required Generals may be employed at either another Armory or at an Army base.

I'll leave you at three hundred population because I think you can construct the rest of the chart to fit your target population on your own.

You also may wish to check this cross reference link:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=7060.msg212841#msg212841

[Coconut Kid]

A "follow-up" I happened across:

Mmmm, I tend to find I don't have any more than, say, 12 rebels. I would normally aim for an army of about 20 - 25 soldiers per 500 Tropicans, which is usually more than enough to handle the rebels.

I find my Tropicans go straight from vocally complaining to rebels, I have had no uprisings whatsoever. I really must try harder!

From an AAR about large numbers of Rebels. It seems that having the NPCs "go Rebel" is typically one thing; while the progression from Protester to Uprising is quite another. I'm not sure Mr.P meant to be literal that his protesters specifically "went Rebel" ; or just that having a number of protesters could be associated with an increase in the number of Rebels.

I opine that "Protesters" are far more dangerous than Rebels. Therefore, the Police are much more important than they have been credited with being. Not only do they (including the Prison) help control the Army, but they serve as the first line of defense against Protesters.

So the critical question is not just the size of the military, but rather the size of the Army supplemented by the Police. How many vacant cells do you have ready in your Prisons?