Newsfeed is part of the pantheons problem
There are a number of reasons the map has so few pantheons at the moment. I could mention that the lack of viability in hitting capitals or stacked cities with ridiculous wall bonuses, as the losses compared to kills is discouraging to say the least. Players instead turn to pantheons, and so many are fed up with being hit, that they stop defending them, and attack instead. I could also mention the troop rewards tend to be offensive more often than defensive.
There are still a few teams defending them, not many, but a few. But for how long they are prepared to do so, is the most pertinent question. All suggestions and questions have been brushed aside with platitudes and excuses that you do not want to damage the balance of the game. Well, I got new for you. It's pretty badly damaged.
So to the crux of my post, one of the contributing factors is the news feed ticker in the bottom-right corner of the screen, the thing that lets everyone know when teams complete achievements and upgrade or exchange pantheons. It's fine to show achievements. There's no problem with that. But whenever a pantheon upgrade or downgrade appears on that news feed, it's like a target has just been put on your pantheon. And as bad as things are, as difficult as it is to hold a pantheon, this makes it much worse. It needs to go.
I'm not saying that this will completely fix the issue, but it would be a start, and would not affect the game balance that you continue to insist is not damaged.
