Quote Originally Posted by MiniMe
Opposite to vanilla, in EB building order
barracks level and city core building level are not linked.
Therefor you can theoretically build level 5 MIC in a very small and underdeveloped town.

Can I ask about the reasons of doing so?
Best regards
MiniMe
Basically, the MICs represent the spectrum of unit types (varying the degrees of availability of regional and factional types), while settlement size determines the availability of men to create those units.

As such, MICs are connected to the government type and not to the settlement size (represented by the core building).

Notice that a large settlement can be reduced to a very small size if the population is massacred (and this can happen several times), so it would not be a consistent reference in what regards the MIC level.