Quote Originally Posted by Steppe Merc
Well, I think more provinces are key. They allow expansion of the the map, and make it harder for people to conquer historically difficult lands. Besides, there were a lot more cities than are represented, not less.

And by having more factions, as some mods do, it alows the amount of field battles to be the same, as well as creating "push effects".
I do not agree. Of course there were more cities, more than can ever be put on the map. That is not the point.

The push-effect is the Hordes' incursions into Empire territory. Without the Hordes the barbarians would have a hard time pushing into the Empires. If the Huns and Vandals are soaked up by the increased numbers of Goth, Sarmatian and Burgundian cities (not to speak of Frank and Alemanni cities) then where will the push come from? The Huns and and Vandals are exhausted from their march (most units have returned to peasantry). The Goths, Sarmatians and Burgundians are weakened by losing lots of units and cities (percentagewise). Left are only the western barbarians that so far in my games have done little against the two empires (indeed the Franks have expanded eastwards).

But of course, I cannot and won't stop you from making more cities. It would be a great way to actually see if I'm right or not. And in the end I could personally chose not to play the mods with many cities (though the general trend was towards lots of cities).