Well I really liked, the Fort/Town choices in M2TW, it certaintly adds more flavor and tactice.

However, I also agree what everyone says here, which also gave me the following ideas, it could have been made differently, in that, all settlements are of the town type, and generals with armies can build Forts (as they do now) that could evolve to Fortresses, cstles, citadels within the same territory as a give settlements.

When in enemy territory one could build a Fort but not evolve it to a fortress and beyond.

And finally, the cherry on the top, Fortesse/castels could ultimatelly participate in the economy of the province by having roads etc (It would require a more dynamic road system because the placement is selected by the player.

To offset some placement of a Castle to some more sensitive areas, there could be some restrictions as to where a fort encampement can evolve beyond.

Like if lets say you made a fort in the middle of the road because you were fighting and defending etc, it would be considered a temporary thing just if you were in enemy territory, while if it was a bit farther in the green pastures/desert etc it could be good terrain to evolve it more.

What this means is that a Province can have more than one "settlement", it can have a sprawling town which is the basis of that territory, but it can also have Castles(there can be a maximum of castles able to be built depending on how big a prvince is).

Castles pretty much can have same function as they do now able to make better units etc. And of cource, would add to the overal defense of the province.

At this point we can intruduce astate in between A or B ownership.

For instance if the enemy captures the City of a give province, but that province does have a Castle , then the ownership becomes contested between the sides A and B.

Additionally, Ctles can draw their recruitment from the City Pool (this can also help with issues of over population in towns). If the city falls to enemy hands the castles of the contested province cant recruit anymore.

So the idea is for the player to mobilise a relief army.

Vice versa, an enemy could contest a given territory by taking over castles.

Holding all castles but not a city will dramatically reduce the production of a city its trade and limit its devellopment, it could also sclae it production queues 10 fold, the city could still contruct buildings but at 2x the original build times.

And finally castles can be Abandoned by owning player or destroyed all together by enemy (instead of captured). It is a choice.

As destroying castles captured by the enemy is a way to uncontest a province.

This could indeed be a real revolution to the series, and its future devellopment.