What's the income to a castle own from a garrisoned province? How
does that compare to 1 use of Common Magic? Assuming a garrison of 20
soldiers:
civ level income vs. common magic
--------- -------- ----------------
wilderness 6 6%
civ-1 36 36%
civ-2 46 46%
civ-3 56 56%
civ-4 66 66%
civ-5 76 76%
civ-6 86 86%
Right on the face of it this is pretty ludicrous. A civ-6 province
won't provide as much tax income to its noble as a noble performing
common magic in that province can gather in 1 week. Surely that seems
wrong.
But compare two factions. One faction (#1) puts all its effort into
building a castle and garrisoning provinces. The other (#2) has ten
nobles practicing common magic out in the countryside.
Faction #2 has an income of 1000 gold per turn. To match this income,
faction #1 has to garrison 167 wilderness provinces. Alternatively,
it can build approximately 60 inns/temples/towers and collect money
from 28 civ-1 provinces.
Given that building a castle, 60 inns and garrisoning 30 provinces
will take faction #2 probably 2 game years, I think it becomes clear
that faction #1 is going to have a sizable advantage. Especially when
faction #2 comes after faction #1 with the army it is building with a
1000 gold per turn income.
(I know that faction #1 can get additional income from its nobles
[such as having them sit in the inns] but remember that faction #1 can
do that as well.)
-----
Now this may be something of a straw man, because there's an
implication in the rules that you can collect the remainder of the tax
base from the garrison if you get to it before the end of the month.
If that's true, then taxing will be more profitable than Common Magic,
even if you have to have nobles running around collecting the taxes.
(Of course, if it is true then I have other worries; it seems like a
200 gold/turn income from garrisoning civ-1 provinces will quickly get
out of hand...)
-- Scott T.