This has been born from a discussion in IRC which got me thinking. I haven't posted this as a feature request or similar because it's just an idea and I'd just like to see what people think about whether it's workable or not.- Dwilight has 179 nobles.
East Continent has 188.
The Colonies has 88.
Beluaterra has 
(I don't play there but I'm guessing it's around 150).
If we go by the supposed optimal number of nobles per region for economic productivity then we end up with 3 nobles needed per region. 3 nobles per region also works as a good threshold for decent levels of activity and churn within realms as well as having enough nobles to fight decent wars with your neighbours.
So using 3 nobles per region we can work out how many realm-controlled regions that player base can realistically support on each continent:
- Dwilight: 60 regions
East Continent: 63 regions
Beluaterra: regions
Colonies: 29 regions
Compare that to the number of regions that actually belong to realms on each continent and you'll see why the game has got a problem - and I'm not just talking about things like silent realms, I'm also talking about things like it being very difficult to even muster up enough mobile CS to successfully attack a city.
So here's a suggestion: why not have a Too Few Nobles mechanic?
That is to say, if a region goes too long without the required number of nobles (possibly as a function of how many estates it can support) then the nobles won't be able to maintain control of the peasants so the region will revolt and go rogue.Now, this mechanic would be disastrous for a lot of realms. But it would be a very effective way of enforcing a decent noble density per realm. And it would probably work much better, and more realistically, than the monster attacks mechanism that's currently on Dwilight in an attempt to control realm density.
And realms who were hit by this realm would have a choice. They'd either be forced to retreat to a core which they can keep control of, and potentially find themselves isolated from any neighbouring realms by a swathe of rogue regions, or they'd have to bite the bullet and migrate to an area with higher noble density so they can carry on being able to enjoy conflict with neighbours and the whole BATTLE aspect of Battlemaster.
Unlike other attempts at improving realm density (glaciers, sinking islands, etc.) this would have the advantage that active realms wouldn't be insta-killed by it. It would also give realms a real incentive to relocate wholesale from one location to another where there are already existing realms which don't have enough nobles to hang on to all the regions they have.
On somewhere like East Continent, as an example, it probably would result, over time, in either the northern or southern half of the island having to be abandoned. But it would be easy enough for a realm at one end of the island to relocate to the other end where they'd be able to take over duchies that had gone rogue from other realms. So existing realms wouldn't necessarily have to die.
And in the long term you'd end up with all the characters on an island being forced to live cheek-by-jowel next to one another which is just what you need to ensure enough conflict and war to keep the game fun and interesting.
Best of all, it's also a mechanic that's dynamic. Your realm wants to expand? No problem - just make sure you have enough nobles to do so and you'll be fine. Not enough nobles to hang on to what you've got? Fine, best fall back to a core area then - or move into a neighbouring realm and take one of their duchies.
So that's the idea. Please feel free to tear into it and tell me why it won't work or would be a bad idea because it's genuinely just an idea which I'd like to get other opinions on.
But ultimately, Battlemaster is a game that, even in terms of basic gameplay, relies on a decent noble density. If the density is too low then it becomes about realm management instead of realm-on-realm conflict. We all know this is a problem so here's my random idea on a way to deal with it.
