Quote Originally Posted by Procrustes
Very true. I did this a lot when I started playing - even if they never attacked me eventually I would feel I needed to attack them because I was broke from building troops.

As an aside, I've found it's a good tactic to build an army one province behind my borders and kill any emmisaries that head that way. That way I can have a ready made army to spring a suprise attack or counter-attack with, and I don't prompt my neighbor to start building armies that could stop me because he never sees mine grow.

I employ this strategy as well, although I usually don't bother trying to kill enemy spies (as they always eventually find out about my uber-army anyway). I'm a big believer in the "defense-in-depth" philosophy. I like to station large and powerful armies in my my most important territories (which I usually refer to as "hub" provinces), and then place modest garrison forces in my lesser "satellite" provinces. Finally, I also keep a few uber-armies in key coastal provinces as "rapid-response" forces, should the need arise where I need to dispatch reinforcents to an area quickly (as in case of an unexpected invasion). This is where having a strong navy tends to be really handy--even setting aside the trade income it brings in.