Quote Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] (Beorhtwulf @ July 25 2004,15:43)]Massive garrissons are usually pointless and costly. The only garrisson size that matters is the 100 troop garrisson. Anything above this is only useful for holding down a recently conquered disloyal province to stop it revolting while it adjusts to your rule. Once you've occupied for a few years the population will adjust (and the religion if necessary). This isn't due to the actual size of the garrisson you had there, it's due to your actual occupation of the province. More troops does not increase loyalty any faster, you have to keep them loyal with a large garrissons presence as well as spies and any loyalty improving buildings.
the 100 garrison is pretty much a standard. You do need it because otherwise you will get the bandit type of rebellion, IIRC.
You may need bigger garrisons for the more rebellious provinces, and for deep in-land provinces (distance from the king is very important).
But more troops sure DO increase loyalty. That is exactly how you maintain a decent level of loyalty when you conquer a province: put a lot of troops in there, until they get used to it and you don't need as many troops. But for the initial period (which varies a lot from case to case, as Sociopsychoactive well pointed), that is practically the ONLY way to boost loyalty: lots and lots of troops (peasants are as good as anything else).

And btw, there seems to be a lot of confusion about the loyalty threshold.
You need it above 100% to prevent all but one kind of rebellions: re-emergences. For that, you need it to be above 120%. Pre-VI autotax is set to 100%; VI sets it such that loyalty is always above 120%.