Improvements I'm looking forward to or Why I'm patiently waiting for EB II

[Alrik]

For someone who's never played M2:TW, what do permanent forts mean? Are they like mini-settlements? Do they impact your economy or ability to recruit if you take them?

They are like normal forts on the battlemap, but on the campaign map they are owned by the faction that held them last, even if left unguarded (and as permanent insinuates they don't dissapear if you leave them empty for a turn)

Also in M2TW you have a number of slots in settlements that offer to pay the upkeep for garrisoned troops, the different campaigns handle this differently. The main campaign requires that it is a unit with "militia" in the name that the settlement can build (But the main campaign have no permanent forts) and Britannia, which is the only one of the other three campaigns that I've played offer these freeslots to any unit that the settlement can currently build. (There are factions in the main campaign that have very limited militias compared to others, so "militia only" is very favourable for the Italian factions.)

I think it's something like:
Village - 2 slots
Town - 2 slots
Large Town - 3 slots
Minor City - 4 slots
Large City -5 slots
Huge City -6 Slots

Permanent Forts 2 Slots (But as they can't build anything they offer those slots to ANY two units.) If a Family Member is present he can also reqruit Mercenaries in the fort without leaving it, but that's the same as a normal fort, i think.

There's also Castles (Two types of settlements in M2TW), but I don't see the use of them in EB, not as castles anyway, though I do suppose they offer the EB crew an option of citytypes. Castles doesn't have any free garrison slots. (But you can convert a castle into a city and vice versa until they reach the higher tiers, well you can always convert a castle to a city, but not the other way around, I think it is large city = no going back.)

Edit:
Oh, I haven't checked, since it's quite some time since played Britannia (a tiny map with incredibly easy settings even on VH/VH), but I recall the forts being placed on roads and that possibly the ownership of them along with the diplomatic relations with that owner had an impact on the trade of said roads. This i spelucative, but at the time I didn't know of the impact rebels blocking roads had so it didn't occur to me then, it's a purely retrospective thought.