chanevr you fail to remember that there where over 30,000 players at the start of W45. You also seem to forget that the primary goal of the game is to conquer everyone in order to win. It is unfortunate that players like yourself, whom are tragically good at building a very small core of defensive villages don't have the ability to go on the offensive. More offensive villages equals faster growth. Why you might ask? Well, put simply, more noble trains, and more nukes means you can clear more competition and take more villages. Subsequently, the more villages you take, the faster you grow progressively throughout the server. In addition, well disciplined, aggressive tribes are more likely to invite players who do participate in actively destroying the competition, while simultaneously routing out the lethargic players that somehow made their way into the tribe out. Please be kind to yourself on your next server and remember this tidbit if you want to finish the world with the victors. Offense wins. Says so in the scriptures my friend.
As for the barb discussion, it is what it is. The amount of barb nobling greatly declined over the course of the server. As a result the land looks relatively barren compared to many other servers. Those servers should take heed and learn from this as a device for achieving a quicker victory. Players such as seber1 who took several million barb points and who climbed into the top 15 within Omens ranks were dealt with by Omen hostilely removing him from the tribe against his will and removing him from the server by way of noble train in one month time the second to last month of the server. He was warned for many months not to noble barbs, yet he continued. Now that he is erased from the server, I'd like to think he learned a valuable lesson; it doesn't matter how big you grow as a barb hunter, all those hundreds of villages ended up being quite worthless to him when they were gone from his possession. I'd have liked to revoke the barb nobling rule during the last couple weeks with a limit of not conquering past the player in rank ahead of you when there was nothing left to conquer except for the re-starters. This would have helped me to cope with the nauseating boredom and the tedious monotony of constantly re-nobling re-starters.
-V
If you would like more information on the history of W45, please check the Viscount Drakes Account of W45. It is not a complete bore to read I like to think.