Anyone that has played Revelations knows how annoying the den defense activity can be. As well, the time you need to devote to training your recruits becomes monotonous. In AC3, you have recruits, but you don't seem to need to spend time training them, nor do you need to do den defenses.
Recruiting and upgrading your Assassins is like a mini game in Brotherhood but it became such an annoyance in Revelations. It adds a few missions to the gmae but most of the time it feels like a task or a job you must accomplish in order NOT to have your dens attacked.
I'm glad they downsized the importance this aspect takes in the game this time!!! :-X
I so agree; I felt myself doing missions so that my den Captains became masters so they would not be attacked. The only other alternative was to keep the notoriety low so the dens would not be attacked, severely limiting my ability to wreak havoc. :-()
I actually did not mind defeating the den and taking it from the Templars, but it became tedious to keep doing it.