Game design flaw, Disparity of forces = amount of worlds you have played, friends you can diplo with = New players and alliances are in effect Penalized to the point of the powerful top alliance deciding who is allowed in every alliance.... (Micro bully management) and it is the fundamental reason that even though you may never loose a battle and you may do very well in all aspects of the game ... If you are not good at kissing azzz of the "old guard" it does not matter you will never do well with this game design.
Be aware, in fact the old guard have "Stazi" like people who's job it is to get personal information about players that they can be "black balled" later or at the very least continuously identified.. Be careful of who you give your personal information to as it will be used against you.
Way too much power is thus in the hands of this group of people who are in my oppinon allowed to destroy the growth potential of the entire platform. This is one of the fundamental differences between this game and others such as "StarCraft" where this problem has been greatly reduced.
Just a few small changes would make such a difference.... Pity the idea of change scares EA so much.
