Hello Archon. I don't know what you mean by saying META changes and what META has to do with the game🙂 If you mean Plarium Play changes, I didn't notice any changes. Light units are no no for the Persian Positions as they are weak. We can use them to attack an emporium, as they are good for PVP, and to attack a pantheon, plus we can train them quickly. Of course, they give massive Coalition Conflict points to the opponent.  I have been playing the game for 11 years and 10 months. So I would say that normally, a player has to have a balance between offence and defence.  Personally,  when I started the game, I was fully offensive, but now I switched to a more defensive  and Persian positions mode. 🙂 To have fully upgraded guardians is a must. To send lights and heavy units to the positions is a no no. As for your losses to Persian Positions, you need a very experienced mentor to guide you through this. In my opinion, a player can play solo only if the player has a lot of defensive units, a lot of mamertines, a fully armed city with a max city defensive bonus, and all the agreements to the max, plus a lot of acolyte units, so no one would dare to attack you, as the lone wolves are always a target of the top wolves.