Mind me, anyone may play the game as they like and farm anyone around. I have no issues with that.My suggestion wouldn't change anything of that mechanic, nor anything regarding the combat system. Anyone could still attack unshielded towns.

As of now, each attack will destroy 90% of the losers units. Which means, me losing against multiple hits will extinguish almost every single unit (still: at least in my town), since I can only maintain ~200'000 men before having trouble supplying them with food. taking 4 hits will downsize the army to 20 units. 

As I understand it, the resources hideout was implemented so that every Jarl has a guaranteed stock of resources he can use and thereforse still develop his town, even under constant siege. Because if that was not the case, you could literally prevent a Jarl from developping, by constantly emptying each and every single resource he might get. Other than that, the buliding itself had zero purpose.

Now, with some military, I could just start building my stocks up, after a hit from some other player and get a bit of lumber / stone / iron from an intruder's deposit. My army is just for that: Carry some resources into my town. Can't fight with it, I haven't had time to build all the knowledge, let alone the resources to effectively advance my troops.

Edit: The fact, that some players use a so called "workaround" for that problem tells me, I am not alone with this. I see lots.. and really LOTS of players with alts. They put their towns in close proximity and use one to attack and the other to store their troops. You know how it works: They build one town, just to attack. There is no resources in it, just lots of Barracks. Their "main" town is shielded, 24/7 and stores the troops (Mead hall). In case of an attack, this happens from the unshielded alt and once it's done, the troops go hiding in the shielded main town again.

You might say: Well, do it like that. I'd say: Why? The game was not meant to be played with multiple accounts. And just becaues many do it, this should never force anyone to do it as well. Plarium states that they want to support Jarls who play by the rules. Well, this would be a start 

I have been in a few clans, but they all eventually died because of inactivity. So, while being in a clan could be a temporary solution (Although, no guarantee a town shield can wear out and your troops can be attacked wherever they are), it requires a second party again. Nothing wrong about it, but it still doesn't accomplish the suggestion's goal.

Sure, Plarium wants to make money. And people pay money even with their alts. Fair reason. But what about keeping the game alive by making it attractive to new players? Develop the quality of the game? Have an open ear to loyal, long term players? If you neglect everything but just the money making, it will ned up being a second "Battlestar Galactica".. maybe.

I actually appreciate the mentioning of cutting the size of troops to the size of the infirmary to heal. I might follow that piece of advice 

Also, I do not attack inactive towns, when I know I am about to put the game on timeout (I am a family father with a full time job, so it happens I can't login for days), but just when I am around and able to react to sudden threats. However, as I said. I also do have to be economical with shields, and don't want to waste the gold you mentioned.

The amount of Gold I can earn has increased, yes, we both know that as we're both long term players. But so did the cost increase to improve buildings. So it's been evened out I'd say.

The "live to fight" would rather be addressed by the option of making city defenses not as easy to obtain as it is now. That's really not about hiding troops if you ask me. I see each and every town attack, pop up a town shield immediately, just to send a few seconds after, another attack and pop another shield. It's basically: "I don't have to worry about anything, because these shields are a few gold and always available". If anything those who "live to fight" should raise their voices against, it's the 24/7 availability of town shields. Its' basically also a sort of "hide troops" option - just with some more benefits (like: Hide all resources too). And it's for those who can afford it.

I can't see big fights happening, where some level 35 city players take it out on each other. Because all these towns are shielded 24/7 sometimes until a few years (Yes, imagine that: YEARS) in the future. Is that meant to be? Yes, because that's how paying customers want it 

I simply want my soldiers to use their brain and kindly step aside, when an army of 5'000'000 soldiers com to attack a town of 50'000 defenders. But I guess that's asking too much 

Thake said:

tl/dr

a) Add the option to hide military / army or..

b) implement a switch to tell the forces: defend town / do not defend town

explanation

I play since January 2018. That's 33 months of Vikings, and I am now waiting for my lvl 21 castle to be finished (a couple of weeks left). You can guess by my advancement, I do not use the banking system and now, you might get an understanding, what my life has been over that period, whithout ever being able to compete with enemies and their military forces.

Long story short: The real downside for me is, with every attack, I lose everything except for buildings. I don't mind much the resources, sure it blows to lose 20m of built up stock, but I can kill an intruder and take the resources from the left behind camp.

What's more of a struggle is my army. While I try hard to maintain a shield, sometimes it wears out. I have to be economical with those shields and I can't just slap a 3 day shield on top and use another when it's only 20% gone, because I decided to farm some inactive town,

With an army, I could relatively quickly build up the resources and maintain a steady income, but with each hit, my army is just turned into a pil of dust.

In my mind, it makes no sense for my army to fight anyone. It's poorly developped and it takes me almost a week to build 100'000 tier 1 troops.

So, I'd just tell them to step aside, when some 500'000'000'000 might player comes to farm my 10'000'000 town. Maybe even have my soldiers to help prepare the bags with resources, so the enemy has less of a hassle, carrying everything out of town... know what I mean?

As much as I'd believe every single Viking I've trained is a hidden Braveheart, that's kind of delusional. So, like there is a hideout for resources, I'd welcome something for troops as well. Just so you can maintain a couple of men (100'000 ?) around. You know.. the cowards, that run away and come back after everything was turned to dust.

This is what my whole army looked like this morning, and it will take another month to build the troops I had before, losing to some random guy with literally 50'000 times the might I have.

Maintaining your shield should be your top priority.  You can purchase shields. The most economical way is to use gold and purchase a huge coffer of retreat. This gives you a 3 day shield for 4,100 gold.  When you play, make sure you hit checkpoints in events to get gold from there.