... Or some "bloke" who just plays the game right, has built 10x as much and has earned 100x as much from Persian positions... ;)
Only champions are to be bought. One can regret it, but drachmas can be earned as well, so the possibility exists not to use money. However, they're really efficient when used wisely, so they're stll to be considered if you ca get the drachmas (whatever way you get them).
Of course, people don't create a company nor invest in heavy servers and infrastructure out of pure philanthropy, it would juts be suicidal. Have you just though about tit ? Now some people are more in a hurry than others, use money instead of patience and wisdom, and their haste benefits Plarium.
However, maybe you should think about this : people wanting to rule the game out of pure money may not be your most dangerous opponents... Learning how to master the game without paying much needs more skills. Pure credit card players are probably compensating their many errors and may be actually easy to beat. Give it a thought... ;)
Some people seem to be piling up errors. Of course, they should be learining over time and play better... Except if they actually don't try to really play it right. I was recently confronted with a really weird event, making me think an account either got hacked, or passed to someone who's really unexperienced. Unless it was one of those credit card players ?
I would have never imagined a level 71 would be able to behave in such a weird manner.
- 1st error : attacking me (especially knowing my coalition, but he didn't have to face them). He took one of my colonies and sent me siege at the same time, which is also very strange for somone I've venr met before
- 2nd error : he left his offense in the colony ! He lost all when I took it back.
- 3rd error : he defended against the raid I sent to his city in retaliation. Always a bad idea when tenths of millions offense are sent rampaging. He lost all his defense, of course, plus all his offense and spying units that were out, which is his 4th error. :p
- 5th error : when his siege reached me, it was composed of defense units, that are of course worth nothing in offense. So they met my own defense, enhanced by my fortifications, and of course, he lost all of them.
It's a known fact most of sieges sent to an active payer's city are fake (e.g. : 1 swordman), as they're vowed to fail. In this case I'd have bet it wasn't fake, and the previous events even made me sure he was stupid enough to send defense, and I was waiting for him... It sounds amazing, bu it was the case.
In a matter of an hour or so, he ended up completely naked. He never answered my messages either, so I'm wondering if he wasn't actually being using someone else's account.
I can't believe someone would reach level 71 and would still being adding up all the possible tactical errors that only complete beginners would do (with much less units and much less negative consequences, of course). It was totally unreal, but it did happened.
I'm not sure he was a credit card player, as there were no champions involved. Only his city had the most expensive schema applied, which may still be a hint, but not uncommon for a high level player to complete and enhance strong level 5 fortifications. The hypothesis someone very unexperienced took over somebody else's account seems more probable. The strange fact a complete stranger attacked my city in addition to my colony without any reason (it would have been logical if he was the victim, not the aggressor) may mean it's someone who hates me : they're quite rare, and certainly not aliens out of nowhere...
Anyway, he has to be the worst player I've ever seen, so if your paying opponents are acting in such a catastrophic manner, you really have no reason to worry ! :D