Stationing Troops

[MechaStorm]

i agree with fire. it will only help with attacking. youll be able to out as many troops as you want in a city and you can kill anyone near you. and if you did that i would just attack the other cities you have from where those troops came from

[LazerusLong]

I think this is a great idea.
First it allows you a chance for suprise attacks, with all the scouts and instant reports its hard to hide your intentions and fool your target. This gives you back some of the element of suprise, which is essential in warfare. This puts some of the strategy back on level ground and makes the advantage of money less of an advantage. (I keep getting rolled over because im a working man and dont have the money some have.)
Second if your concerned about someone taking a barb city next to your large city in preperation for a quick invasion, then you you need to weigh the need of farming that barb against the safty of your city and take it before he does.
Third when you realize your attacker has moved his attention to target another of your citys you can quickly move troops over to that city without recalling and resending.
There isnt a need to have seperate farms or culling ratios for the added troops, they are supported by their home city. If something needs to be done about this then have all farms add into one total population pool.
Keep in mind if you have all your troops staged to invade my city i may let you have it because im going to come in behind you and take all the citys you left undefended. (Now i have 5 of your citys and the troops to go with them. Lol) this is a great idea and the potential for stratagy should not be under estimated.

[LordFirefall]

Although I agree there doesnt need to be a separate farm, I disagree on being supported by their home city. Medieval armies rarely brought large amounts of food with them - they foraged off the land they conquered or were passing through. Also disagree with troops and farms going into one population pool as it doesn't make sense from a logistical standpoint.

[Fire820]

It still has no addition for defense. It leaves no time to call in support. And the money aspect still won't go away. Instant spy reports

[Fire820]

So we are still at a standstill on how the troops are supported. This now takes away the main counterbalance

[MagicPie]

I think it is a good idea but it somehow needs to be blanced.

[LazerusLong]

The troops that support your citys now are supported by their home citys, by supply trains i guess, lol. The only difference would be being able to send orders to your outlying troops to mobilize and go to a diff city (attack or support).

[Fire820]

There's no counterweight still

[LordFirefall]

I still believe starvation could factor in here. Soldiers need about 2-3 times as much food to stay within fighting shape as peasants, and start to starve in around 3 days. They also do silly things like eat seed corn and milk cows. And clearthe surrounding area game animals. Starving peasants don't work and horde food. That being said, here is my proposal:

Any over population due to stageing begins to become combat ineffective after the first day at a progressive rate. The first day is 5%, the second day 10%, the third day 20% and so on. If troops remain overpopulation for more than 3 days, they start to die off at a similar progressive rate. This would end when they are recalled. Infrastructure also begins to degrade. The farm starts to lose a level per day to recognize the fact the troops are slaughtering milk cows and eating feed corn and such. Other structures also begin to degrade because the troops that are stationed the city are rioting for more foodand tearing the place up. Peasants are refusing to work because they are starving. Finally, game is the first to get harvested and neighboring cities see this starting on the 2nd day.

[LazerusLong]

I dont believe a counter balance is needed, battles have long been fought over the high ground, for the purpose of staging troops for invasions or for defence. The counter balance is reconizing those strategic high grounds and takeing them before your opponant. Your planning should prevent someone from takeing the city next to you. If someone cant recognize and defend the strategic weak points in their kindom they dont deserve the kingdom. The game should be decided by ones ability to play not by the number of citys and troops, which is determined by the amount of time one has to play and the amount of money one has to spend. Assuming i am facing an opponent of relatively equal size, stageing most or all of his troops in a city next to me does not put me at a disadvantage. So i believe no counter balance is needed. I also believe you and i are going to have to agree to disagree.