Great strategy!!! Call me a fool, but I don't think taking cities should be too easy and therefore don't mind taking a few casualties doing it the traditional way ie meat waves. However I may have to try this out in my current Russia campaign because Const. has a huge garrison (~15 units), pretty unusual for the AI. I won't be ready to go down there for 20 turns or so but my spy has been checking it out. Right now I am torn between my original goal (and Victory Conditions) of an Asian Empire vs extending my recent conquest of Scandanavia over to the British Isles. I have all the steppe provinces except Bulgar, ready to build an army and pounce on Tblisi and Yerevan, but at the same time Britain is so much closer and richer... I have to decide between conquering and building up Asia and battling the mongols on my home turf (~50 turns away) or evicting England and Scotland (both have regions on the mainland, as Scotland took Bruges!?!?!?) which would give me a nicer economy to face the mongols from a safer distance (unless they appear by Sarkel ). The Britain route is much more interesting to me as a sort of alternate history, but the Asia route will be more difficult, which also makes it appealing.