Army maintenance question

[Meglok]

Keeping a 4-6 troop free company around is something I normally do. And using them as a colonial force is actually interesting thing once I no longer need them at home. The problem is if I care enough about growing colonies rapidly to not take the option to have no uprisings, I probably have several colonies. Plus transporting them around as I move colony locations isnt worth the effort, but I can definitely see a viable niche for this. Thanks for the suggestion.

I prefer to grab the Free Company at around 10 or 11 units and use them forever as my siege force. I just add cannons as needed and preserve my precious manpower. If I am playing a colonizer I might use a small Merc company with no leader grabbed real early to explore, but usually money is not an issue with the big 5 colonizers.