[Chazar]

Please, this is not about the quality of province defense nor ghost riders, this thread is about castles downgrading the usefulness of commanders: Why cant a commander in a castled province not functions as in an unfortified province?
With a castle: research OR defend
Without castle: research AND defend

IMHO, I would expect to gain more choice by building a castle, not loosing choice!

Of course, it is usually preferrable to have commanders locked up and secured, so it is easy to see why the game simplifies things and always assumes commanders to be hidden behind thick walls, but nevertheless it is sometimes odd to me and I am wondering how everyone else feels and whether other people would also like an option for this like Saber Cherry already proposed...

Of course, one may make up some somehwat contrived explanations like "those castles have real long corridors and its is pretty easy for an aged researcher to get lost in the labyrinth, especially with the red alert trumpets sounding everywhere...".

BTW, I also think Endropez is right: nothing but patrolling exposes commanders. I think I recall that it is written explicitely somewhere in the manual.

@Boron: I am talking about turn 21 in a Shepherd of Creation game, where a Vanheim PD of 13 combined with a single dwarven smith set on LegionsOfSteel and BladeWind successfully safeguards my flank from occasional attacks from Baphomet's armies coming from one of my neighbors already deep in distress for the last 6 turns, but this is not relevant to this topic either other than providing some plausible background for the problem to arise.