I've edited my message with 1 turn pause for pillaging idea. What do you think?
I love the idea. Making cities more "durable" is something I dream of everytime I see a wolf rider. It seems a shame when something so diff. to build and integral to success gets vaporized so easily. The win/win of pillaging(while I just love to do it!) always seemed a little harsh to me; to easy to just freeze someone in time. Aristo/ag is my (the?) alternative but with a chance to defend my cottages(etc.) I might make a play at the extra money cities/towns provide.
Maybe connect "durable housing" to engineers or the engineering trait. Call it "sturdy" or something. Perhaps earth mana could provide a bonus to the early housing that often drew upon clay,mud, straw etc. for its' construction. With access to engineering or ancient forest or stone, pillaged plots could be re-built and grow faster.
Stone housing might be good, it would develop a little slower but it could add some culture, could act as a fort, would be harder to pillage and be easier to re-build. Stone housing could could recieve bonuses from different Noble houses, (better protection from theft and fire for their merchandise) plus asthetic considerations. Maybe a civ trait could provide some some populations with a "poison pill" allowing some passive def. against pillagers(booby-traps,poison etc.). A trait (defender)or Tech might provide the ability for a % of pop. outside the city ramparts to withdraw to the relative safety of major cities or to "the hills" until the perceived threat had passed. Of course, with the swell in pop. would come neg. bonus' Given enough time these neg. modifiers from the "refugees population " would be quite devastating, like any good siege should be, but it might provide a little variation in game play. Depending on the severity of the seige; the refugee pop. could then be removed to their homes to "re-build" for a plus one upgrade i.e. cottages to hamlets. or the refugees could be blended into the cities that protected them for a pop. increase to offset effect of siege.
Sorry if I de-railed your post Goodgimp. I agree defender is weak. I was thinking about the defender trait and possible ways to make it more interesting. I got a little irie and sidetracked. Thanks for the new spells, I really appreciate your generosity of time and ingenuity.
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