Meh. I guess after HRE is wiped out it's time to say goodbye to strat then =(
It's kinda sad, every round some clan either gets completely wiped off the Strategus map or faces odds so insurmountable that most of the players quit playing cRPG altogether because Strategus was the only thing keeping them around. Last round it was the Eastern Tsardom and a large portion of ATS and now this round it's Fallen/allies and FCC showing signs of doing the same, sticking around making suggestions because they like the game but at the same time threatening to do this:
As a neutral player moving around on the Strategus map this round, it was really fun initially when I could go wherever I wanted and craft wherever I wanted. Then I kinda got hit by that same wave of apathy toward the game the moment when most of the villages were captured and locked down with 100 gold fees so my movement was severely restricted. Around that time a couple of the other traders and neutrals I'd been coordinating with lost interest in Strategus en masse, just like these clans do when they lose a war and have no hope of recovering.
This is why I made my 6 factions only (that anyone could join) with unique cheap gear in different areas of the map suggestion, to make Strategus less likely to cut large portions of the playerbase completely out of the game. People that just want to work could work and have no restrictions, and the people that just want fight would always be able to join a faction and have someone to fight. If their faction was destroyed, they could all join another faction with no preconditions thus maybe keeping players interested in the game instead of cutting them out bit by bit. I think a system like this would give active players more value and make the game more open to casual players too.
It sounds like we're getting a bigger map next round and maybe that will fix everything, but I just think it might be delaying the inevitable thing that happens every version of Strategus.