Re: almost OT
What you would have to do, is make certain powerful versions possible only under very high Dominion, 9-10 maybe.
When these appear, and there are several types, they can Call Allies, each with different resulting units produced. The "choice" to the player comes in the form of deciding which to send off to war today to defend and expand the nation, and which to keep at home, generating more troops.
Not a perfect fix by any means, but it allows you to tailor your army a little more the way you want it. Of course, any system that uses Call Allies is going to necessarily be somewhat less responsive than a training/purchase system. You're getting what you get every turn, and that's it. Though, you'd get the other freespawns as well.
The chance to get the good ones could only take place in castles, and probably castles with temples. So in the early game, it wouldn't be this overwhelming advantage, it would take some effort to get to a situation where you were really producing powerful troops on a meaningful scale.
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