The 2v1 country fights that merv mentioned is really frustrating if you're on the receiving end, and eny can't account for that.
I believe the best thing for AH would be to go to a 2 country format, and I think that would help balance out a lot of issues. Although I understand that would create some new issues with rebuilding maps and other stuff.
Regarding mid-war battles, I think it would be a mistake to bring it back as a separate arena since that would reduce numbers in the already small main arena. What would be interesting is to have mid-war fights every 4 maps or so and to have them on the smaller maps. I would love to see that.