General Concepts

As a kingdom expands, it can be attacked from more “directions.”
Generals become a technology (or a trainable unit).
Kingdoms may distribute their generals unevenly to defend, with a minimum of 1 per exposed direction.
Each general must command a minimum percentage of the army.
Multiple generals may be sent on attacks.
Quick Retreat becomes a mechanic where only 1 general defends a chosen direction.
Gameplay impact: more attack options, more varied defenses, and deeper strategy.

1) Growth & Directions
As a kingdom increases in size, it becomes more exposed, and its armies become more spread out. To represent this, kingdoms gain additional “directions” from which enemies may attack.

For simplicity, the four directions are: North, South, West, East.
Castles 1–9 → North
Castles 10–19 → North, South
Castles 20–29 → North, South, West
Castles 30–39 → North, South, West, East
Attackers choose their direction when launching an attack.

2) Generals
Generals become a central mechanic influencing both attack and defense. Kingdoms begin with 1 General, and may gain more through (I will leave to developer/community to decide which is best)
A) Technology – Spend TP to unlock additional Generals (up to a cap, e.g., 10).
B) Training – Spend resources and time to train new Generals, with exponentially increasing costs.

3) Defensive Generals
A kingdom must assign at least one General to each exposed direction.
If an action (like attacking or building a castle) would leave a direction undefended, an error or warning is triggered.

Generals can be distributed unevenly, adding an element of strategy and luck. A direction with more Generals will defend more effectively.
Example:
A kingdom with 21 castles and 7 Generals might assign:
4 North
2 South
1 West
Attacks from the North would be much harder to break than attacks from the West.

4) Battalions / Army Distribution
Your total army is automatically divided among your available Generals. Each General must command at least a minimum percentage — for example, 10% of the army, calculated via used GH space.

Each attacking General must take at least their minimum share (e.g., 10%).

Kingdoms must also leave a minimum percentage of the army at home to defend.

5) Attacking Generals
Since each General must command a minimum percentage, kingdoms may choose to send multiple Generals on an attack.
Example: A kingdom with 21 castles and 7 Generals (each controlling 10%):

They must leave at least 3 Generals home to defend (30% total).
With 7 Generals, that leaves 70% of the army “available" (30% unassigned)
Sending 4 Generals allows the kingdom to use the full 70% for attack.
If they only want to send 50%, they need to assign at least 2 Generals (20%) plus the unassigned 30% (minimum 30% held back on defense and the 2 generals not being sent).

6) Quick Retreat (Defense Only)
Under Quick Retreat:

Only 1 General defends the chosen direction.
All remaining Generals and army units are protected behind inner walls.
Benefit: Significant army preservation.
Trade-off: Extremely weak defense — almost guaranteed loss of the defense, but minimal troop losses.

7) Gameplay Impact (Potential)

“Castle-passing” becomes less dominant, since Generals require a minimum army allocation.
Attacks may become easier or harder depending on direction, coordination, and luck — you may not need overwhelming force if you strike a weakly defended direction.
Defense becomes more strategic: Do you stack Generals on one side? Spread them evenly? Use Quick Retreat?
Retaliations may be defendable if the attacker picks a direction where you’re fully fortified.
Early game when you only have 1 General, you are defending with 100% army (QR possible with the 2nd General)
Since armies are divided for both attacks and defense, a kingdom might even get away with doing multiple attacks (ie. hitting multiple poorly defended directions or QR Kingdoms).

I understand that this might be a totally different game... Maybe this will gain some traction

Cyber