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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5884736" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Part of the premise is that, as crops yields fall, cities need to control more arable land in order to support themselves.This creates logistical issues, as the normal limit is lands within a single day's travel, so a farmer can bring his goods to market within a day of harvest.  Spoilage is an issue in a world without refrigeration.It also creates internal pressures within an Empire, as several cities may be trying to expand into the same area, or in more densely populated areas they're already right up against each other with no room for expansion other than by conquest.It's theorized that pressures like this were among the factors that brought down the real Roman Empire.In the real world of the era, meat was a luxury.  It takes 10 pounds of vegetable matter for every pound of meat you produce, and that proportion grows worse as you move to larger livestock.So livestock tended to be grazing animals (no "100% USDA corn fed beef" anywhere), and pretty much had to be multi-function.  Sheep were raised for wool, with meat almost as a byproduct.  Cattle were primarily for dairy.  Where I live there are a number of historical ranches preserved, and I've visited a few.  In early American days cattle were raised and slaughtered more for the hide and tallow (fat) than for food.  Again, meat was almost a byproduct.  Leather and oil/fat were the big money items.But in a time and place where acreage wasn't just sitting there it would be quite different.  Huge herds of anything simply weren't possible.  You didn't have the grazing area for them.  So I'd expect that a lot of the meat on the table was from poultry and rabbits.  (Chicken is a far more efficient way to turn grain into protein than cows are, because of eggs during their lifetime and meat at the end.)So while there won't be huge herds to send to the slaughterhouse, the lack of good grazing will reduce herd size on its own.My next time as DM will be upping the ante on this game consideration.  I was just looking for other creative input along the way.</blockquote>

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