Garrison

[kwak]

What's the best (most efficient, I suppose) way to garrison a settlement? i.e. for towns keep militia only for free upkeep, or for castles keep a lot of archers, etc. Sometimes, especially in the early stages of playing, I can't afford to keep a sufficient number of troops in a settlement while having a capable army at the same time to take lands. Any tips?

[Vor]

What's the best (most efficient, I suppose) way to garrison a settlement? i.e. for towns keep militia only for free upkeep, or for castles keep a lot of archers, etc. Sometimes, especially in the early stages of playing, I can't afford to keep a sufficient number of troops in a settlement while having a capable army at the same time to take lands. Any tips?

Towns and castles that are well within your empire can be guarded with the minimal amount of troops required to keep the population happy. But your boarder provinces should be defended with as many troops as possible. The AI is more tempted by a weakly defended city than they are by a heavily fortified one.

[NobleNick]

...Sometimes, especially in the early stages of playing, I can't afford to keep a sufficient number of troops in a settlement while having a capable army at the same time to take lands. Any tips?

Yes, you should take advantage of the very limited number of free militia slots in each town. Castles and cities deep within your territory should have very few garrison. Castles in the early game can almost always get by with just one unit. In addition:

1.) Pay attention to (give high priority to) economic build --> roads, markets, ports and shipwrights, first and second farm upgrades, merchants.

2.) More settlements gives you more usable money (spreads out your military tax burden). Use your initial troops to garner as many rebel cities as you can. Don't let your soldiers loaf: Be very aggressive in capturing rebel settlements in the very early game.

[Captain Spanky]

NobleNick: Great tips there, +rep

And about castle garrisons, I often find that if your religion is dominant, and your castle is not on a border and well within your kingdom, one peasant unit is sufficient to keep the people happy.

Its up to about bordering settlement garrisons, however. I personally keep quite low garrisons, but instead train a large and varied field army per front. I simply assist any settlement besieged in the open field, rather than from the settlement itself.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

the late militia units are great city defenders in my experience. pikemen and halberdiers can protect your gates. sword fighting militia units are usefull on the walls. cavalry militia is usefull as a unit to sacrifice to try and take out enemy artillery. this is of course in my experience.

[snuggans]

for towns: right click on the level of wall that the settlement has and take note of the amount of free upkeep slots. build as many spear militia/X/Y as there are upkeep slots. adjust according to the public order. eventually.. disband non-free upkeep units as the public order stabilizes.

for castles: build the lowest upkeep unit you have (usually peasants). also build all levels of the jousting building in order to gain a free upkeep slot. ( HEY, your knights become stronger too!)
(caution: using peasants as garrison in a castle near the front lines is risky business. in my games i have a grand stack around this area, in the rare case they are not busy invading enemy territory. the idea is to push the enemy AWAY from your lands, this way you dont need to worry about an actual strong garrison)

as for your economic problems...
all i have to say is..
1. ports and markets are your friends.
2. establish a military - city/castle ratio. you're not going to want to have 5 full stacks with only a pisspoor amount of cities. think of it this way: the more you invade and conquer, the more armies you can build.
3. taxes can be a double edged sword. no, im not talking about "MORE INCOME <-> LESSER ORDER".
rather, the higher you set your taxes to, the slower the settlement is going to develop. think about things in the long run. however, feel free to crank up a few taxes here and there if you are in very tight spot.
basically.. you're not going to want to find yourself with .. say.. hastatis and principes against spartans/argyraspids/foot companions... etc.