No, I'm not Kate, and this forum is the first I have taken part in like 20 years, if I remember correctly. Everything is math under the hood, but no one ever does it (not even me), one just gets a feeling of what will work when. One doesn't calculate exactly how many seconds a certain amount of units will take to capture some structure, but there's a formula behind it, and one just has some intuitive idea after some time. I was just trying to do that same thing with something a bit similar to what CheckTester said, with some realistic reconsiderations. And then arguing that virtual combat with base garrisons would be more realistic, simple, and help with intuitiveness.

@Thalatta Kate, is that you? Anyway, I'm not doing that much math. I stand by my opinion that the game should be simple to learn and harder to master. New players already don't want to spend a lot of time learning this game. In fact, I believe that feature creep (especially since AoE III was released) has pushed people away from RTS. Couple this with the short attention span of younger generation, and you get only a fraction of former player base. No wonder that AoE 2 and AoE 1 (via Return of Rome) are still very popular. It's simpler, it works and is just wining timeless formula. There are some specific people who like to obsess over feature creep, sheets, statistics, and they are a minority. But, I digress.

Мы строим качественный дома каркасные быстро, надёжно и по доступной цене. Однако надежность и уровень исполнения всегда держатся высоко. Грамотно утепленные стены удерживают тепло в холодное время и свежесть в жару. Звукоизоляционные свойства в таких домах легко усиливаются дополнительными материалами. После этого формируется несущая основа из деревянных либо металлических деталей.

In some rare case I also try to recover from my last remaining units to build up a CC and population  again  - so would not like to give up if I still have units available.  But that is a personal feeling...

The discussion is starting to get REALLY interesting now!