u farm to maintain and plunder to grow.

thats my basic math

and the in between is when you burn troops on peeps just to dump honour/cripple them, which temporarily reduces risk thus you can keep a smaller upkeep temporarily. If you have a higher att hero than ur neighbours/threats, then you can further optimise the upkeep balance. Its not how much it costs you, its what it costs you in relation to others.

and trading, lol.. .thats the last trick that really pushes you over the mark

I still can't imagine the 200 million upkeeps tho lmao. Mine rarely have ever gone over 20 mil in a city ever.