My quick take that no-one cares about. I wish more war / honor kingdoms would go for land. You can actually get MORE wars which are way more interesting by growing.

IMO the biggest issue with the warring tier is that there is absolutely NO incentive to EVER war someone who you don't have a clear advantage over. It's a testament to the quality of the leaders in that tier that there are ever wars at all that don't involve someone being tricked into giving the other the button. It's human nature, why would some ever war from a disadvantaged position when there is literally nothing their opponent can do to them other than occupying their time? Growth is different, since you are primarily after land it REALLY hurts when you give up a free wave.

It seems like some of the complaints about the top tier razing down (which is ridiculous, we all start at the same acreage, as someone said this is a war game, if you don't like it grow and challenge those kingdoms OR maybe just don't steal gc from them) and how "clichy" it is at the top. Well, that's a function of their only being a few growth kingdoms. Lets be honest, the more kingdoms going for land the better. Yes going for land is more complicated and requires a bit more coordination out of your kingdom. But you can also be successful without going to quite the length's that some of the established top kingdoms do AND since the community is starved for more competition you will probably find a group of very supportive monarchs who will help work with you and give lots of tips and advice. AND their is no reason you can't get just as many, if not more wars than you do when going for honor or WWs (note: we have 5 wars and could probably have had at least 1 more and are currently #3 land).