In the tutorial Delfador says this:
tut8="If you move one of your soldiers onto a village, it will become controlled by you. Every village you control will give you two pieces of gold every turn. Every soldier you have will cost you one piece of gold per turn."
I believe it was just confirmed that villages give you 1 gold and 1 upkeep per turn, but that seems a bit harder to explain. Perhaps something like "Each village provides one gold for your treasury and pays 1 gold towards the upkeep on your units."
Every village you control gives you 2 gold per turn in income. However, units doesn't necessarily cost 1 gold per turn in upkeep. Their cost is 1 gold per level, unless they have the trait loyal. Loyal units always cost you 1 gold, regardless of level. Special units, which join you at their own initiative, don't cost you anything. The tutorial is just a bit outdated.
Dave wrote:
- villages give one gold piece each.
- all units have an 'upkeep cost'. That cost is equal to their level.
- if you have equal to or more villages than your upkeep cost, then you pay 0 in upkeep. If you have an upkeep cost higher than the number of villages you have, you have to pay the difference between them in expenses to maintain your troops.
- 'special units' (any unit which has a description) like Delfador, Konrad, etc, have an upkeep cost of 0.