Judging by your reaction you’re throwing salt over the late imperial picture - those outlying town centers are left over from being set next to nearby resources and later picked the nearby resources dry or being built to protect nearby resources even further by just being on the outside to defend from raids(this picture is an example from a non-game, but what I’m saying is the thoughts behind it and what tends to happen) town centers are not to be wasted mindlessly. These formations are built with function in mind; the looks are secondary and a nice bonus.
@Morgathor regarding the healing fortress formation variation for Bohemians
Currently the options I can see are:
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29 Hussite Wagons, 20 scorpions, 11 houfnice
(I’ll need to double check, of they don’t form proper formation or if speed is preferred, use 29 wagons, 20 hand canons, 11 houfnice) -
29 champions/Halbs, 20 hands, 11 monks, square formation, stand ground
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21 Hussite Wagons, 13 monks or 13 hand canons
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21 hussite wagons, 7 houfnice or other siege, anything more than 7 and the hussite wagons won’t block melee units from coming inside the formation.
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Convert the exterior units from the enemy if they have a sturdier unit to choose from using the ctrl + click and hotkey a bunch of monks to groups 11-20 using qwertyuiop with your pinky and thumb for quick loading / or a preferred hotkey setup - basically using the food monks you can customize your healing fortress with the enemy compositions.
These compositions were made with blocking melee units from entering the middle in mind as well as to make them as small and compact as possible
Note that formations using the hussite wagon may still be able to be infiltrated by smaller units such as champions and Huskarls/Condottieri