Very hard to play for small factions or to be a single player, who don't want to join big aliances. I know as a single player, that i can't hold fiefs, i can't make big armies. But i even can't win small battles with my advantage in tickets/equip, cause i can't assemble full roster. As an example i lost battle in 5 minutes, where i have 140 tickets agains 70, and the same equip. My enemy consists in big alliance and they had 20 players in this battle, i found with big problems only 10, cause 80% of players in alliances and they can't fight agains their allies. Or maybe i fought with them before, cause i am in Wataga and diplomacy is not for me ) Also there is not enough exp gains for small battles, so players don't see any reason to participate in it.
So my suggestions:
1) Decrease slots for small battles. Or make option like 'i am little man and don't want to capture all strategus'. After it i can't have more that 300 tickets, but in my battles agains armies <=300 tickets we will have only 10 slots. This option can be change once in a month.
2) Increase exp for small battles.
3) Add strong bots to the battles, cause real players get stuck in diplomacy
All i want is to rob small unprotected caravans