Sorry but I disagree...i´m not a weaker player in this because of my choice, it is called "late start". And more points doesn´t make somebody a good player. And i do not agree with Stronger player has better researches, greater fortress, more defence mechanisms, possibility of better units or he can just outnumber a weaker player. Stronger player doesn´t have to physically attack a weaker player in order to stop his attacks, he can easily protect his own empire and let enemy smash himself on his citywalls...stronger player just have more options in this....my only choices are capitulate or suffer...i cant face his army....because he would crush it...it is 55000 units against 20 000...he got heavy units only, i have a mix....rebuilt my army would take me like 3 weeks, maybe more....but he is able to return in less than 12 hours...
like i said, the only thing that makes me toothless in this conflict is a loss of honor and morale....i´m not begging for a silverbullet...i just want to have a possibility to take advantage of my skills, a chance to proove who is better player...chance to show him that he picked a wrong guy
You know players with bigger points does not always have to have better military researches, the players that do grow the fastest mostly focused on mining and upgrades for faster researching, you can do choose to only focus on military techs this means you can be twice as strong as a player who has twice as more points then you, there for you can not eliminate the penalty for the so called weaker players, because IO create the free option for you to choose on what you want to do in the game and so to not give people more advantage if they choose a certain path to walk.
But like I said earlier a counter attack should not be punished since you are not the aggressor in the first place.