The thing is that you do not know that its pay to win when you join, because it says its free to play.
It is not till later that you realise that though you can play for free, its a waste of time doing so (even if totally free it still would be) because unless you pay something, you cant get very far, and even if you do pay some extra, they will soon come back for more, its like blackmail.
@ Takuan and WDYWTNTF
I would have to disagree with you both.
You can have a lot of fun in the game without spending anything. I think that there is a strong argument for saying that the more you spend, the more the game punishes you but there are clearly many who disagree. As for the clan/kingdom that spends the most winning, sure it happens, but not always.
So, back to the original post, in KvK there are no points for getting your troops killed. There are only points for killing enemy warriors. If this is happening for Jotunn lead troops then Plarium would seem to be breaking its own rules.
The Tower of Odin page says that one of several important rules is "For killing enemy warriors during the battles for the Stronghold, Jarls earn points in Competitions and Soul Shards if the opponents are from the enemy Kingdom."
The tower of Odin page says that if the tower is attacked by Jotunn lead troops then "For destroying these troops, you receive Soul Shards that are necessary for enhancing the Aesir." No mention of points. I think there should be points for killing troops led by Jotunns but they should only count for Destroying Enemies and Lust for Power.
If you are intimate with the Stronghold defense, you know the defender in the SH has a disadvantage. They do not get the OS march booster and their primary hero/shaman march is smaller. If the opposing kingdom can bust them out, the defenders have wasted the magic dust and cannot reload losing more points than they can gain from the defense. They key trick is knock them out and do not let them back in. an OS while loading disrupts the whole process and can bring big points for attacker. We have shut down much bigger clans by not allowing them to load and hitting them mid load.
Note: This does not help if the opposing kingdom lacks the ability to OS in force. ;-)
Speaking from personal experience,yes you can get some entertaiment value from this game without spending any. or much money, but you dont make much progress.
Strictly speaking one didn't,with the additionof the daily gifts, there is now the possibility of making more progress than when I first started playing, however the increased content makes the task of going places all the more difficult.
This story came to mind.
Sisyphus (SIS-i-fus) For a crime against the gods - the specifics of which are variously reported - he was condemned to an eternity at hard labor. And frustrating labor at that. For his assignment was to roll a great boulder to the top of a hill. Only every time Sisyphus, by the greatest of exertion and toil, attained the summit, the darn thing rolled back down again.