[lokken]

I think part of this discussion is borne from the frustration that on regular occasions, the galaxies that give truly heroic performances don't win, because they lose to galaxies that quite simply, get attacked far less for the reason that they don't participate as heavily in war.

It's sad in some ways, but I think that these great galaxies have to take heart from their contribution and their performance. Just because you finish lower in the ranking doesn't mean you're not better, or less respected. Much the opposite in fact. Unfortunately, fighting wars means you lose out.

I'd contend that you can 'fence' without Ascendancy in your galaxy by the way. By having a spread of alliances in the galaxy you can pretty much make yourself a prime candidate for flagshipping, as alliances will take any kind of win they can if they can't take the alliance tag one. Which means that these galaxies get a larger defence pool by default, meaning they're actually near impenetrable later on.