Its been hashed out a million times, and Hitech has answered the question as well. Do a search.
Yes it has been hashed out before, <cue Dr. Evil voice> (although I doubt it has been ONE MILLION times) and HiTech has weighed in with his thoughts, for which I thank him. But Sunday 11/9/08 was a classic example of why a country based cap system would be more desirable... In Blue the Bishops had a HUGE numbers advantage and in Orange the Rooks had an even larger advantage. So it was a case of "picking your poison", either fight with a prohibitive ENY or fight vastly outnumbered.
This is the way the system is set up and I'm sure from the responses to previous posts on this subject that HiTech, and all at HTC have given this subject a great deal of thought. However, I suggest that the system be given a "second" look, and that thought be devoted to possible improvements.
I have suggested, and continue to believe, that a cap system based on the total strength of a particular country would be a viable alternative to what we have now. Here is what I suggest:
When logging in, if the country you are logging in to has a numerical advantage of 10% or greater (an example and just a shot in the dark for the number...), you would receive a "arena full" for country "X" message and sent to the other LW arena.
By using this type of system ENY would be much less of an issue, and better action and fewer "hoards" would result.
Has a country based cap system been tried in the past? Also what other problems might this create, taking into consideration the law of unintended consequences?