DownsizeFire military or scum, destroy fortresses, or abandon unbuilt land
The master of coin pushed the beads from one side of the abacus to the next in seemingly random patterns, punctuating the process with the occasional low whistle of disbelief. He pushed three beads to the left with an air of finality and grimaced, pushing his ledger across the table towards you. "We can afford to keep a third of what we currently have; the fire in the merchant's quarter will require us to tighten our belts this winter."
The downsize screen allows you to remove portions of your army, including fortifications. You are also able to downsize land by salting the earth to prevent it falling into the hands of the enemy, or by merely retreating to more manageable borders.
To fire units, you must enter the amount of that particular troop type which you want to downsize, and then select their level of training in the pull down boxes. Newly hired troops always start at level 1 ('green' troops) and become progressively more powerful and expensive to maintain as they are trained. Level 5 troops ('elite') are the most powerful and may defeat a 'green' force which outnumbers them, but are also a considerable drain on the kingdom's economy.
The changes made to your income and expenses by downsizing troops will be instantly seen once the orders have been submitted.
To downsize land, simply enter the number of acres you wish to release and hit 'send'. Any changes to your income and expenses due to the downsizing of land will take place over the next few spent turns, as peasants may leave your kingdom and expenses may come down due to better management of the remaining land.
Why would you want to downsize?
There are several reasons why you might need or want to downsize troops, fortress buildings or land, and they generally relate to improving the economy or efficiency of your kingdom.
Troops
Reasons for downsizing troops was covered in more detail on the Training screen page, but I'll repeat them slightly here. It is often more beneficial to spend peace-time turns on a kingdom that has no troops. This drastically reduces the expenses, and therefore creates a larger gap between income and expenses, and therefore a larger gold return per turn spent (or a reduction in gold lost). Making gold is invaluable, because it can be used to re-purchase the troops, provide a buffer for training or be used to offer for more land.
Fort Buildings
Forts are a very useful building type, but they also have a high expenses cost associated with them, and this cost increases on a per-fort bases as you build more of your kingdom. For example 1 fort on a kingdom with 1% forts, will actually have less expenses than the same 1 fort on a kingdom with 20% forts. However, unlike with troops, is not a good idea to just downsize forts during peace time and then rebuild them because forts are not just hired instantly like troops are. Downsizing forts can also be used as a way to free up some land when you need to build a few more of a particular building type, and don't have the available land.
Land
It may seem like there would never be a reason to downsize open land in a kingdom building game, but there are several reasons why doing so might be beneficial. The first reason would be to reduce the amount of total land in order to increase your build-rate and allow you to build the remaining land at a faster pace. The second, would be more of a tactical reason during war time, to deny it to your enemy and therefore prevent them from taking it from you and growing stronger.
Other screens related to `Downsize`
OFFER (aka TITHE)Offer gold in exchange for land
HIREHire new military for your army or scum for black ops