I had mentioned two units of peasants as being enough in most cases. One spearmen and two archers unts are fine too since that gives 20 extra men but I find that archers are not really suitable for garrison purpose since their maintenance cost is rather high (it exceeds the cost of an unit of X-bows and on a man for man basis spearmen and peasants).
My apologies Jxrc, didn't mean to misquote you. I was lazy and went on what I remembered. Yes, the cost of men guarding the area is an issue, though sometimes it is good for garrison purposes to have other people than peasants. For example, your border provinces are breached and you suddenly have only peasant rushes to swing into action, rather than some possible useful troops that can slow the invasion down until you can get more seasoned troops onto the battelfield.

I also pointed out that some provinces were more likely to go rebel. I would say if you want to set the tax rate to very high, you need (in addition to border forts):
- Portugal: 800 men;
- Livonia: 600 men;
- Lithuania: 600 men;
- Scotland: 400 men.
Maybe another thread, but definately agree. I have the first three as border provinces, so I need to keep a higher number of troops. I think I may have been 'gifted' Portugal again, as it was one of the spy dominated provinces I had after I demolished the Spanish.


I also always keep 400 men on any island I have since there is always the risk that you will lose the connection between an island and your king (enemy ship, tempest).
I have more on Sardinia, though some were added later, as the Italians have come back into Corsica in force. They seem to keep reemerging there, which is fine as it is easier to contain them there than on the mainland. I agree, losing the connection to the king can be a large factor. I'm fortunate that I am the only naval power now.

Bear in mind that the province religion also has an impact on the loyalty of your provinces. Before invading an unruly province, it's always a good idea to send a bishop spend a few turns there if you have the opportunty.
I have done this with everyone that is at war with me and provinces that I razed and spy dropped. I am also converting Byz, Argonese, Spanish, Turkish and Golden horde provinces as it makes them more likely to rebel and/or sometimes rebel and revert back to me ( I just took back more areas in the Iberian pennisula (Portugal, Cordoba) as well as Algeria, and also Nicea, Anatolia, and Lesser Armenia).

Finally, remeber that a drop in loyalty can be triggered by the presence of an enemy spy and that you need border forts, spies and assassins to get rid of them (but I have never experienced any spy-rush by the AI).
On that now, as I have spies already deployed, am in the process of dropping more into all my provinces (doubling up on the normal ones, checking the others). I haven't seen spy rushes, though I have seen strong AI activity with provinces that they are interested in.


Update

I forget what year it is now, perhaps early to mid 1230s. The pope has come and gone a few more times, though this time he's still here, finally in the Papal lands! He won a battle in Rome briefly when I autocalced (I had just one a long battle with the horde, mentally I needed a break), but I swept in the next turn and took it back. He is now in the papal lands, but we'll have to see if he tries to start trouble or not. I have an emissary waiting to make peace next turn.

The horde are still knocking, but they are bleeding bad. They occupy Georgia, Trebizond, and Rum. They have been whittled down, so they are mostly cav now. The fights in Constantinople drained their coffers and soldiers, and left me with a nicely valored up general (a viking, no less. I need to find him some additional men, if I can).

I am building some more farms and trading buildings. Still some trade money coming in, but my neighbors who dislike me don't help. I really wish we could all get along.

I am debating whether to hang onto the 'rebel' lands that were gifted back to me. I could simply move the troops out of those areas and use them for whittling down my border enemies or beefing up my own troops, though I can't say that the troops that emerged in those provinces are always quality troops (though axemen aganist cav is interesting, good use of resources). I just simply don't feel like I need the extra provinces, feel abit bloated, empire-wise.

Still putting out some replacement troops as I lost a few in the papal and horde wars. The horde were the toughest as I expected a shorter siege after the Khan died, but a son emerged and the battles continued. The golden warrior showers were the biggest nuisance, with the cav invasions coming later. Of course, some of that has to do with positioning. On the first battle map, I couldn't get any woods as cover. so I lost a lot more men due to arrow showers than I would have liked. On the second map, I took advantage of some woods even though the hill position wasn't the best. I felt the advantage gained in keeping arrows off and making it easier to deal with the cavs made the battle easier, my kill ratio was doubled 'from about 2.7 to 1 in the first to 5 to 1 in the second battle).

Regardless, as I mentioned before, the horde are slowly dying. I am not sure if the rebels, myself, or even another faction will finish them off first. Death is certain, that I'm sure of.

Thinking also if I need to build a few more ships or not. ahve a few caravels in action, and not all the oceans covered in pairs yet. But, I feel the troop coverage is more important now. The Novogod, the Polish, and the Egyptians are still at peace with me, everyone else is never happy to see my 'bloddy' axes! Some of my troops have had restful stays, but the ones on border duty have sometimes had very short vacations indeed. I suppose that is the life of a soldier.

Oh, one last battle tale from Navarre. I had a lot of extra older troops holed up there as the Argonese had not been much of a threat for quite some time. I think they felt squeezed by the rebels and my remerging self and attacked. I had 2/3 of my troops as xbowmen and archers, no lie.

Luckily as a defender, I was able to choose a very steep mountain. The AI came up the hill, and I kept potshotting his larger units of footsoldiers as well as later trying to kill his general, a unit of RKs. The AI units of cav and infantry did finally engage, but the hill advantage helped, though some of my archers had depleted their quivers by the time the AI grappled with my few front line infantry! With no replacements coming, I threw some of the archers in as a last resort when my front lines were almost breaking, finally driving off lancers and even some enemy halbs (though the halbs needed to be driven off 3 times, though by the last time they were down to 10 men in their unit). If you can imagine, the halbs were being chased by speedy scots at the end, the same unit who knocked off the lancers!

Great victory, with even a few of xbowmen depleting their xbows by battle's end (I haven't seen that very often except in some bridge or huge numbers per side battles). I forget the count on the casualities, as I was outnumbered maybe almost 2 to 1, but it was okay and I have now moved in some additional back up troops now. I'm not sure how long a vacation my general will get, the Italians are licking their wounds now, but like an injured cat, they won't forget any time soon who inflicted the wounds on them.