I won't claim that this is the solution for everything but it could be one element of it.
One cause of the steamroll effect is that the attacker can have a massive army (or several) and since he would be winning battles, his losses are not great.
I suggest an abstracted "upkeep" mechanic.
One cause of the steamroll effect is that the attacker can have a massive army (or several) and since he would be winning battles, his losses are not great.
I suggest an abstracted "upkeep" mechanic.
- A faction can only have one "army" but multiple "warbands".
- Warbands have a serious size limit. Good for a skirmish but no major field battle.
- An army has no or a generous size limit but costs upkeep in the form of a debuff on all gold/food production in your faction.
This would be on top of the troop payments. - The size of the army scales the size of the debuff. Using something like an e-function, army size would balance itself because a faction could bankrupt itself fielding a giant army.
