User blog comment:Disturbedfan1100/Map Game 1.5 (or 2.5, whatever!)/@comment-24458893-20140304174137/@comment-6812733-20140304212432

Every province provides a certain amount of manpower but with NPC's that amount is halved. Players cannot be allied with the NPC's they control. These are the two reasons why the players own "NPC's" wouldn't matter at all to the player himself since the player cannot use them for his/her own advantage.