...in an attempt to rescue a pretty cool game from its fatal imbalance. I think the British still have an advantages, maybe even still fatally so, but it's a start.
Cards with military symbols are no longer placed into the reserve. Instead, they are placed into garrisons, representing the stationing of troops at a location on the board to defend against raids and sieges.
A garrison is created by playing a location card and an empire card with a military symbol. Place the two cards together, off to the side of the map, indicating that the troops are garrisoning that location. The garrison remains until it is dispersed by the player, or the location is lost to a siege or raid, at which point all cards are discarded. Military cards in the garrison can be lost to ambush or used to reinforce the defense of a siege in that location. If all military cards are removed from the garrison, discard the location card.
An empire card with a military symbol can be placed onto any of the player's existing garrisons, up to a limit of five military cards per garrison.
A player may disperse a garrison, discarding all cards in it.
If a garrisoned location is placed under siege, the defending player may reinforce the siege using the military cards (not the location card) from that garrison instead of from their hand. Reinforcing still requires an action for each card used to reinforce the siege (except for the Military Leader). If the last military card in a garrison is used to reinforce the siege, discard the location card.
When declaring an ambush, the player must indicate the target of the ambush: either a particular garrison, or the cards in their hand. Regardless of the target, the ambush can be blocked as normal, using Rangers, Coureurs de Bois, Native Americans and French Militia from their hand. If the ambush is successful, only cards from the target (a garrison or the hand) can be lost. If there are no eligible cards with the ambush symbol, nothing is lost.
Garrisons in fortified locations can not be targeted by ambushes.
Raids can now be blocked only by the fortification card or the location card for the targeted location (Rangers, Coureurs de Bois, Native Americans and French Militia can still block Ambushes, but not raids). Raids still cannot be launched into or through fortified locations. In addition, garrisons defend against raids. A raid cannot be launched into or through a location with a garrison, nor into or through any location listed as adjacent on that location card. For instance, if the British have a garrison in New Haven, raids cannot be launched into or through New Haven, Deerfield, New York, Boston or Pemaquid, just as if those locations were fortified.
Native American cards can be used to initiate a Trader action, in the same manner as Trader cards.