Wars should be fun and evenly based and I believe the current matchmaking system could be greatly improved upon by implementing a handicap system similar to pro golf. Also the War Score should not be used to rate the best Alliance as all it really tells you is who has the strongest Heroes and Troops. You need a Handicap system to really tell you who the best players/Alliances are.
What I know from recent additions/departures from our Alliance:
Level 26 member impacted War Score by 1800.
Level 50 member impacted War Score by 2700.
Level 65 member impacted War Score by 3600
Based on six recent Wars with 21 to 23 participating members.
In all instance we have been matched against opponents with one or no Team Defense strength less than 3000 while we have fielded 4 to 5 Low Level members with Team Defense strength less than 3000. I believe the War Score related to a Low Level player (1800) is way too high and should be handicapped in some way or reduced to near 0 for the following reason.
A weak team (we had 5 with defense less than 3000 TP) is normally killed 4 times by opponent with 5 Flags giving the opponent approximately 220 points.
This is 45 points per weak Flag.
Comes out to about 270 points for 6 weak Flags.
With no weak teams or heroes to attack and no bench strength Level 20 to 26 members get 40 to 80 points each with 6 weak Flags.
For argument sake lets just take the middle at 60 points each for six weak Flags.
Net impact of each Low Level player is -210 points (270 points for opponent less 60 points for each weak attacker) per 6 weak Flags from each side.
So, the impact of four Low Level participating members equates to about an 800+ point deficit for 24 weak flags from each side. If both sides score near the same for the upper level platers/flags you get the result of a lopsided loss even though the War Scores are similar.
Strong Player (4500 TP Defense for Level 65) is killed twice by opponent with 3 Flags (roughly 180 points).
Assuming opponent uses 3 Flags to kill similar high-level team twice = 360 points for six of opponents strongest Flags.
Level 65 player attacking gets 380+ points (on average) with his 6 Flags.
Net impact of Level 65 member +20 points (380 for us less 360 for opponent) for 6 strong Flags on both Alliances.
I feel that I am a pretty good player (Level 50) with a 4300 point defense. I am averaging around 320 point per war while me defense is getting killed twice per War by 3 Flags (giving up about 150 points for 3 Flags or about 300 points for 6 Flags)
My net impact per 6 Flags from both Alliances approximately +20 (very similar to Level 65 player).
Two Low Level players 1800 + 1800 (3600 War Score) does not equate to a 3600 point War Score for a High Level Player.
This is the primary flaw I see with the War Score system.
Suggest some form of handicap rating for each individual player similar to pro golf handicap system.
Low Level player is likely to have a +200 Handicap while very good players will have a negative handicap.
The other way to alleviate this would have the software break the Alliances into two War Scores when matchmaking. One that total the War Scores from 0-2000 and one for members with a War Score from 2000+. Then let the software try to find a close matching opponent based on the lower and upper half War Scores. This is just my thought of this very complicated subject by the current matchmaking system does not work very well if you have more than two Low Level Players unless the opposing side has a similar number of Low Level players.