Could it be that smaller might sometimes be better?
The first time I played Tenedos I used an elite housing block of 10 estates. The second time around I was forced, by space limitations to use two blocks of six estates each.
The two smaller blocks worked much better than the single larger one. After a battle having the services of two arms vendors and two horse trainers instead of one each greatly speeded up re-equipping the army. This enabled me to attack early and often.
At Tenedos, playing at Olynpian difficulty, both Ethiopia and Lyrnessus are formidable opponets, and I had to wear then down by repeated raiding. I did this by what I call "Rope-a-Dope Raiding". I would hit them with half my force led by Archilles. When they returned, I would immediately snatch Archilles up, put him in charge of the other half of the force, and send off another raid. By the time the second set of raiders returned, I had the first batch re-equipped and ready to go again. Then when my opponets were down to one or two shields, I would rearm the whole force and send them out as a conquering party. I could never have done this as quickly as I did using a single larger block.
Certainly, having two blocks instead of one costs more, uses more workers, and occupies more space, but in this case at least, they were far more effective.
[This message has been edited by Grumpus The Elder (edited 11-21-2000).]