For what its worth........

[BTBoy]

..........the increased power of cannons and their reduced food consumption has helped, however with few strong attacking players, diplomacy points are far too 'easy' to use to keep defenders safe.

No cannons for the top 10 players, 8 of them (I think) had moats. Still the bias is towards defenders and I think less diplomacy would help - possibly by reducing the length of time diplomacy works for 12 or even 8 hours??

How about it staff - you've got a day to make a change.