I was playing France and trying to minimize my standing army and at the same time to be relatively safe from the AI.
I had already "united" what I defined as my homelands (modern day France including Metz and Benelux) and both Corcega and Sardina (the southern islands).
Now beeing a person who enjoys turtling a lot and also having strong enemies (hence I don't want to raze the factions next to me) I decided for a Maginot line approach taking advantage of the natural barriers...
(Notice the location of rivers and mountains which blocks the passage of enemy armies)
Having 1 peasant or 1 militia in every fort gave me 2 extra turns before the AI could make any significant progress into my homelands. This allowed me to have a relatively small standing army for a lot of safety...
... which ment 15k in profits before buildings and trainings (I call it the marginal contribution)... Now beeing 11XX but before 1150 (I play 1 turn per year) this will allow me to have 80% of my settlments fully developed before 1200 (I have 3 castles, the rest cities and no merchants).
This approach could be done with other regions such as Spain and Italy and serves as a detractor to the AI which will think twice before attacking you (and usually takes 2 or 3 turns before assaulting a fort).
Note that:
- This is really helpful with version 1.0 were the AI was not crazy about relocating via naval invasions
- The trebuchets were not really part of the army as they would delay it, I had 3 of them next to every border for a swift counterattack
- Although there is unprotected territory, all the cities and castles are behind the forts wall (except the port at Antwerp but the city is protected). This means that my income and troop production facilites are relatively safe.
- If the AI attacks with siege equipment, this means that their armies move at a slower pace, so it should gave the player some breathing time to react.
- I was playing in M/M
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