To reuse Mark Twain's quote, reports of CK's death are slightly premature. Looking at grepostats, in the last 30 days:
- PV has gained just under 200 cities, CK 100;
- PV has gained 2.6m BP (1.6 ABP, 1m DBP), CK has 2.5m BP (1.4m ADP, 1.1m DBP).
And in those 30 days, it is no secret that CK has had to manage the loss of a number of its larger players.
So sure PV has gained a little ground on reclaiming that elusive #1 alliance spot. But considering the absence of many of the more active players (hopefully temporarily), I wouldn't say CK has exactly rolled over. For a bunch of noobs constantly making foolish mistakes, we don't seem to be doing too bad in this world.
And whilst many of the recent CK conquests have been easy ghosts or inactives, in the circumstances I would say that is the logical thing to do. The alternative is to spend much effort on trying to take PV cities and when successful see them simply set up shop again at a nearby ghost.
Now CK has started to stabilise, I'm sure we'll see a more even fight in the days/ weeks to come. And I'm sure even PV wouldn't want it any other way.