Quote Originally Posted by Vladimir View Post
What about the go to war with what you have truism (demonstrated in early Iraqi Freedom)? Spawn the maximum amount of the most basic free upkeep troops for garrison purposes and disband them when the conflict it over. Don't let the combatants recruit any additional troops (except for mercenaries, maybe?) This will create an in-character incentive to ensure no avatar controls too many units.
Free upkeep troops are poor troops, so I don't think it addresses the issue that motivated discussion of this topic - the desire to model genuine civil wars, rather than military coups. In most civil wars I know of, most of the combatants were levied during the war. The early Iraqi Freedom was not a civil war. The insurgents in the more civil war like later Iraqi Freedom were "units" that did not exist when Iraq was invaded.

Get rid of all this confusion and wasted effort. Let’s try to be respectful of people’s out of character time.
This is a brainstorming thread - there's no obligation to waste any of your time reading it. When we have identified the best solution or clear options, Zim or a poll will decide. As I said, I think we are nearly done.