I see the title "Fairness" sorry but it annoys me when it is used to describe a war game.
Guys it is a war game and fairness really is a tough word to use when mentioned next to war.
Strategy is finding a system that works and deploying it effectively and efficiently.
Unfortunately the game reflects real life the big dog gets most food. Little dogs fight for the scraps and if not careful they get eaten by the big dog.
The small guy needs to step up to same level or settle for a prize that is more suited to his level.
The big guys fund and spend more time playing and have good strategies deployed most effectively so in "fairness" they win most times. Its unfair to expect Gold when you play as silver or bronze.
Sometimes we even see the greatest strategies being bombarded with complaints of cheating or abuse of the game mechanics and then deemed "unfair". Then we see EA are forced by the community to change things. What i say is let it be "Strategy is finding a system that works and deploying it effectively and efficiently" instead of changing the game to exclude a certain strategy the format should be changed or tweaked to give us a new challenge to beat.
A crazy Clown example - we have 8 sectors on map make each sector have only one type of POI (7 different POI types) in the 8th sector why not introduce a new POI a $$$ POI ?? That is one difference then mix and match EA i am sure have some great minds to come up with some really good ideas without make monster (expensive) changes. This example would need a new strategy as your alliance would be all over the server not only in one sector ;-)
But if you want "true fairness" there is only one real way to achieve this, an equaliser could be ZERO funding but that would also be our greatest defeat. No funding would kill the game, as i believe it must cost $$ to run servers, to adjust code etc etc etc and lets be realistic EA are not a charity they are running a business and its players funding that supports that no money no game.
"Fairness" live and let live play at your own level and enjoy and have fun at that level.
EA could potentially exclude all not funded players........ would that be fair?