Unit Production bonus

What is the long term advantage to troop production speed bonuses?

I am at a loss to understand why some players place a high value on troop (or unit) production speed. From what I know about the game there is an ultimate limit to a cities military size based directly on its population. Ultimately once the city is its full size the need for more units should be obsolete. Thus locating a town for a faster training speed seems self-defeating.

I understand the argument that commanders need training but even this has limits: (an extreme of 5 level 205 commanders) (20 skills @10 lvls per skill +5 levels for the one skill that unit type can train to 15) (I don’t know if there is an earlier level cap for commanders) and yes I realize that training these commanders requires thousands (or even millions) of troops to be used as cannon fodder. However can one really find enough training for their commanders to outpace the production rate of their barracks? And even if that is possible can players obtain advanced resources fast enough to make their barracks production rate the bottle neck? In my experience the answer to these questions is “no”.  Other than training exercises are units really getting killed off?

So wouldn’t it be better to focus on the production rate of advanced reasources and gold which seems to directly affect not only the amount of units a town can have but is also the first basic restriction on unit production speed…

Edited by Dew - 12 May 2012 at 09:29

I see. so when players need troops they need them "Now!" The advice of your alliance seems sound maintain flexibility. i had been engaging in the later strategy planing on using gold reserves to pay for building materials. your post also showed me that during times of war (or hopefully more likely tournaments) certian resources we are accustomed to may not be available such as goods availability on the market. i surmise that veteran players have experienced these issues. i guess that is why the vets know best. 

Suppose you have a city with 20,000 troops in it and someone declares war. They assassinate your commanders and then slaughter your entire army with an overwhelming force. New equipment can be easily bought, but if you are only producing 8 soldiers per hour, 200 troops per day, you may as well consider yourself defenseless.

Same with tournaments. If you are holding a square for your alliance and a rival stomps you with 50,000 troops, you are going to want to replenish your forces as quickly as possible

In peacetime of course, you would be better off using your sovereign territory for something else, but you want to be in a position to reallocate those squares quickly.