I don't think it will be "tedious" because the purpose is it makes your units either resource gathering light armoured guys, or armoured warriors. It would add a harder defend element to the game forcing the player to have wall or a military presents in his base to make sure player doesn't get raided , Example: I don't like the way the bot has his male citizens gathering resources and as soon as you approach his border they magically appear there armour out of no where and all of a sudden hordes of guys have killed your army. If A.I had to equip all of his soldiers before he defended then i would probably do a bit of damage to his base and economy, maybe run away if i had light cavalry. I like the conventional way also but too many games have it and it is kind of dull if you think about it. I think 0ad team should make up there own population/housing system, one that's millions times better . I know there capable of it. Good idea. And so is azayrahmad's idea of citizens generating over time from your built houses, would be less harsh on noobies who don't really resource race at the start of game and prefer to chill build as i call it.