There better be an epic last stand in the works.
Yeah, you guys are outnumbered and outgunned, but that doesn't mean you go quietly. You could easily equip just the populations of your villages with scythes and axes and some shields, for like 1000 strat gold per 100 troops, and caused a decent amount of casualties. Where's the guerilla warfare? Where's the attrition? I'll admit that leaving villages completely undefended does mean that your aggressors will never get more than 100 population troops, whereas if they captured your spawn prematurely, they would have gotten more. I'm not at all convinced that was even the rationale, since nobody has brought it up yet. Also, you could have still assisted your last stand efforts by taking down as much of their standing army as you could with cheap equipment.
One major reason why so many 'vultures' have swooped in is because they sensed weakness. They want a free lunch, and that's exactly what you're giving them. At the very least, for the sake of NE reputation in future strat iterations, you should've made it clear that you would take as many foes as you could down with you. If there's not an epic last stand in the works, then you've only shot yourself in the foot for the next round of strategus, as the vultures may well descend upon you again, if they think you'll just roll over again.
