Another random brainstorm idea... people familiar with World War 2 Online will see where I'm coming from on this. It's also complicated but hey, chadz did say he was running out of ideas. I have lots!
Picture if you will...
Players can only carry 30 troops with them. We'll call this a "skirmish group".
Skirmish groups work just like now: they can go anywhere and do anything the player feels like doing, but only with 30 troops.
There are also "armies". Armies can have any number of troops in them.
Armies are created by the clan leader and then assigned a controller (another clan member or himself).
Each army has multiple components:
Headquarters (this is what the clan leader initially creates -- it consists of a minimum of 50 troops but can have as many as you want)
1-4 Brigades (created separately and assigned to the HQ. Minimum 50 troops each. No maximum.)
* The headquarters must be in a clan owned or neutral fief (village, town or castle) in order for the army to function normally.
* If the headquarters is not in a clan owned or neutral fief, then its brigades cannot attack and will fight at 1/2 strength if attacked (you get half of your troops and half of your equipment list -- the other half is retained if you win and destroyed if you lose).
* Brigades can roam around and operate similar to a skirmish group, but they are limited to a range of 20km from their headquarters.
This represents logistics/supply.
This should do several things:
1) Clans will tend to expand outwards from a central hub as their big brigades can only attack 20km away from an owned resource. You have to progress smoothly across the map.
2) You can sort of create a "front line" and a "back line". If your castle is 21km away from the nearest enemy fief then you know they can't attack it.
3) "Raids" will be attacks on backline places with skirmish groups. Raids work just like attacks except if you win, you greatly impair the efficiency of that fief for 6 days rather than capture it. So 5 players can bring their troops together to raid some village that their main armies can't reach and if they win, it burns (and they may get looted equipment and so forth).
4) More action on the map. Rather than 1 player being 1 army, he can potentially be controlling many separate armies.
So Digglez assigns me Army 1 which consists of an HQ and 2 brigades.
We own Ambean, surrounded by hostile fiefs.
I send brigade 1 towards Tahlbert (19km away) to attack it.
I keep the other brigade at home, with the HQ brigade.
I move myself towards Mechin (> 20km away) with my 30 troops and some clanmates to raid it.
While this is happening, I see an FCC brigade coming from Jelbegi Village. Backstabbers! I send my second brigade towards it with orders to attack.
Some raiders attack Ambean. This engages the village garrison. If I want, I can move stuff from my HQ brigade into the village as well.
So now I have battles pending:
* Our raid on Mechin
* Enemy raid on our village of Ambean
* Our 1st Army, 1st Brigade attack on Tahlbert
* Out 1st Army, 2nd Brigade attack on the incoming FCC brigade.
The underlying idea here is that small clans don't necessarily need allies everywhere, they just need allies at places within 20km of their home village. If you anger LLJK it won't matter too much -- they can't just build up 3000 troops and walk across the whole map to trounce you for the hell of it. They'll have to beat everyone in between you and them so that their armies have a place to attack you from.
Other Option A:
We might have capitals and "supply roads". For 1000g you can create a supply road between your capital and any fief within 20km and then expand out from there in similar manner. Every HQ must have a supply link that can be traced back to the capital. So even if there is a neutral village next to you, LLJK can't just go there and take it, then attack you. At best, they could create a splinter clan to do it in their name, but then that splinter clan will be completely on its own, unable to receive support from LLJK armies, which would have no supply up there.
Other Option B:
Like option A except instead of building roads within 20km, roads are built into the map. Rather than use 20km limits, you are simply limited to attacking with armies along connected roads. If there is no road between Ambean and Tahlberg, I can't use my armies to attack it. (WW2O and Planetside both worked like this -- also it's somewhat like Risk.)
