Yes, I know, I know. "But overpopulation has been part of Utopia since age 1! How dare you!". Look. Hear me out for a bit.
Overpopulation via chaining is the bread and butter of Utopia. You know the drill: everybody logs on at a certain time, they all attack some poor sap, he loses half his acres and his army melts away in droves behind it. If his army is home, he can't get it out because the military, already aware that they're packed too tightly inside too few acres, refuses to leave and get more acres (a frankly stupid approach from the roleplay standpoint, if you ask me); if his offense is out, and the chain is good enough, units still leave because, even though they're currently occupying land, they're somehow unable to find a home back in the home land that… uh… whatever. Thieves also go on strike because, as everybody knows, if there's something a thief hates is a crowded space where it's hard to keep track of an individual.
Sarcasm aside, I think we've reached a point where this strategy has reached its endpoint. Not that it isn't effective; it's very effective, so much so that you can win a war simply by logging in at the right time and hitting a predetermined target. There are a few variations on waving (doing Nightmare beforehand, maybe a Blizzard, whatever) but it's essentially the only way people attack in wars. And it's boring, unless you're really into waking up at 3 am for five minutes, and it sucks when you get hit – the work of days or weeks unravels in an hour.
And I think we should have a little bit more strategy involved in attacking. Have you noticed that almost all attacks in war are trad marches? You see ambushes occasionally (especially if it's to… *checks notes* ambush the chainee's attacks), maybe a conquest here and there, sometimes razes for the post-chain. But it's been ages since I last saw an in-war massacre or plunder. The effectiveness of chaining also leads to attackers hitting attackers to kill offense –it's faster than actually killing it with ambushes or night strikes!–, while T/Ms stay more or less unscathed, which is something people have complained about.
Anyway, what should we do? I think the solution is pretty simple: ditch the overpopulation effects. To be clear: there is one effect that you should definitely keep, and that is that peons leave quick. But, under my proposal, you can no longer lock armies in, no military (or thief) leaves while overpopulated, and thieves still work. "So people will get peon killed!", you say. Which is why I propose changing the peon leaving rate to something akin to horse population dropoff when you destroy stables. It's pretty quick, but have you noticed you always keep two horses, even if you have zero stables? Under my proposal, you always get 2 (two) peons left (maybe a little more, if you want, to protect from fireballs and whatnot. Let's say twenty).
Alternatively, zero peons no longer kill your province. People will figure out a way to bounce back from that.
This means that chains still wreak havoc upon a province's economy – with so few peons left, you're forced to rely on handouts for paying wages and the military and building efficiency drop fast. They still have an use – but they're no longer the end all, be all of attacking, and people will be forced to think a little before picking a target. It also makes T/Ms and hybrids, who can kill military units, more valuable by comparison.
More importantly, it'll make us see a lot less chaining, which is pretty much the only way people attack nowadays. Now, you may disagree with me, and that's fine, but personally I'm tired of chains. I find them boring as ****, so much so that I'm seriously considering quitting the game altogether because, well, I'm not having much fun! Eating a wave is no fun, but participating in one isn't very entertaining either, to be honest, so… really, why do we do them?