ive been playing since shogun and ive done this in every game possible, basically this dramatically improves the gameplay on the harder campaign settings, after the first 10 turns
as we all know, this game consists of beating down stacks repetitively...so by increasing upkeep we get fewer stacks but the stacks are more important. this DOES NOT MEAN less men...my line infantry is 600 men...i fight battles against 20,000 men!
instead of having 2 or 3 stacks to conquer a big country, and beating down the same stacks over and over again, i can use a real main army fighting the enemy's real main army, and the battles are decisive and important, like in real life
unit management is important...units are fewer and more valuable, you get some more role playing elements, ie, it sucks when your star grenadier regiment gets pummelled.