I've played the game for 3 years so my review is for the current version of the game... If you don't pay thousands of dollars each month, you won't be competitive in the main events and neither will your alliance. It used to be different. It used to be if you spent a little each month (like $20-40), you could be semi-competitive. Those days are gone. Now, the monster big castles with their $20000 stats dominate all of the big events and suck the fun out of the game.