Stone always seems to be the poor relation in the resource race, and gems always seem to lose their poitn towards teh end. Perhaps an extra tower with +30 bonuses, NOT initially given with the castle and costing extra stone AND gems but not much gold would be an answer to this...?

The graphic I'm not so sure on...perhaps just use the existing tower or - if Req has one - a pre-Dby tower graphic, just so we can distinguish. And it's a asking a bit much looking for a new feature so close to a new version. But it would sort out the stone and gems surpluses a little, and it'd be too late in the game to affect the player's first wars, so the defender issue doesn't matter so highly, as the attacker will likely have siege by this time.

Another 'throw-it-out-and-see' idea, I guess

dont know ctd, seems like a push back towards range as a dominance again... im kinda liking how nessary it is now to produce seage units. if range were to become lopsided again more than likely it would become a crutch. just my thought

It's not just ranged that can use it, y'know...
It wouldn't be the first time I had an archer in a tower, then someone rushes the archer, then I take the archer out and hit him even harder back

It could ALSO be an upgrade, BUT - it would have to be a high-gem-cost tower, to prevent early prevalence (early on, there's still other uses and a high market price for gems)