There is an upgrade you need first; however the keyboard short cut for it (X) worked even without the upgrade prior to the last update. I have not checked yet to see if it still works.

This leads to a question- why do you need a tech to raze a city?  Doesn't make sense to me.

Actually The Tech Fortification is supposed to be required but I can raze towns w/o it.  So this issue to me is not so much a game mechincs bug as a documentation bug.

The thing that seems beyond moronic to me is why at launch the weapons all got better when one researched weapons but after I think it was the 1.07 patch that after the MACE on the Kingdom side that the warhammer was a worse weapon, yup currently that tech tree regresses, and every patch I have an expectation that it will get fixed and every patch I am saddened and my faith in SD is further eroded.  I really do not want to have to mod my games, I should not have to be required to do that to expect a progressive tech tree.  It is like SD, through their actions, are demonstrating that they made a mistake to have a tech tree at launch that is progressive, I agree it was out of whack then but why then make it be regressive?

I take it other kingdom faction players that care about this have modded their own games?  I do not understand.  <about ready to toss in the towel>

I still don't understand why anyone would destroy a settlement that provides resources for you? Even if it's a new settlement that has nothing, it's functional utility as a teleportation hub, caravan node, and item-shop post are great even if you use it for nothing else.

Why destroy something that can only help you?

In this particular game there's no benefit for raizing. I'm all for Attila the Hun, but I'm all for having an advantage that moves me to victory faster even more, and acquiring AI settlements with workshops, libraries, etc .. these things can only help you by adding to your knowledge & resource base. A lot of times my best producing cities are the large AI citiies I capture, since I put a priority on combat unit construction over buildings.

I had a very large AI city that was built in a "narrow" corridor in a large woods clump. It was obviously an "inept" AI city placement & was hugely spread out lengthwise (like a very narrow rectangle). I was able to move a large cavalry stack (since the game sees a whole city as 1mp) 20 squares along the road the city connected: 8 from the cavalry stack, another 12 from the city. It was awseome! Just about as good as the teleport spell.

I usually get around +96 food endgame easily with caravans, so food-needy cities are never a problem from my perspective.

100% agree. Tech should make it easier to quest, but shouldn't be hard-coded roadblock and pre-requisite to doing so.

Quests/Notable locations should be GUARDED by powerful defenders, higher level of location more defenders. Tech should make it easier to get around/reduce strength of guardians.