BGForums

There was a thread in the Development section dealing with this question, but it was locked.

When you start a game, is there any way in the game settings to reduce the number of garrisons in the AI-controlled countries? It often seems like every town has several garrison units--something I find to be a bit unrealistic.

There is no way to influence garrisons unless you are the player of that country. Yes they are annoying, especially when you take over a country like China or India. I will usually spend the next hour removing all the garrisons, then close the game and take a day or two rest my wrist. :(

As has been stated numerous times by A/The Dev of this game, the computer AI is built to give you, the player a hard time. It will spam units and garrisons in order to frustrate you, it is just the way it is designed, to be defensive.

I noticed that some mods--at least the version of Ruges Mod that comes with the game--have fewer garrisons.

It's just a bit frustrating that in the regular game even minor towns often have two or three garrisons. Oh well.