Towns are a single economic object. That's right - not individual settlers, but a company of settlers. You won't be building individual townsfolk to chop your wood, grow your grain and take out your trash in this game. In fact you won't build any individual units. Instead, towns allow you to create companies.
Companies consist of four frontline troops of like type, two optional support units, and a captain.
There are also special purpose units such as engineers who can build forts and mines, and do a pretty good job of fighting as well. There are three Kohan 'factions', plus a number of other races on the world of Kaldun, and by taking over their towns you can also get access to their units. Once you buy a company, and it has built up to full strength, it will be represented by a group of up to seven fairly traditional looking RTS sprites on the map. They will fight and take damage individually - but you will only ever control them as a single whole company. The broader scale of the model used in Kohan is also reflected in the treatment of resources.