Thanks for the props, Jambo It just occured to me that there's another subtle benefit of the no walls approach. Players can't rely on the towers and gates of walls to defend their towns, and there's no time to bring up a reserve army during the siege. You have to keep a garrison of decent strength in every border town, peasants and town watch won't cut it anymore. Of course, if rebels pop up, any city can become a border city without warning. The extra expense of training and maintaining those garrisons will limit the players ability to blitz the AI, making for a much tougher game.