Heh, 25 guards (plus a stun bard guard or an entangle druid guard) and an enchanted statue actually do something. Dying to them is a painful 2 million essence loss. :< If I don't die during a guard raid, I tack it more as luck than as superior survival ability.

Jel's siege-weapons-steal-commodities idea is good in concept, but Conquest already rakes in power for the Conquest Pool - the disincentive is a poor commodity output. Adding a mechanic that allows a Conquest government to both take power and commodities will be ridiculous.

So far, the 20-minute Conquest raid sounds the best solution.