Just because you don't aid your 'hood doesn't mean that's the only way to play, or even the smart way to play, though I'm not making any judgement here on that. Others should be free to play their game the way they want to play it, yes? So I aid my 'hoods mostly, and they mostly aid me, and we get BPs from each other, and I garner enough points for the PvP towers from attacking the third to a half of the 'hood that doesn't see the wisdom in aiding me. Also - good grief! Attacking everyone in the 'hood every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year - That's a lot of time invested, and to me, it's too much like work instead of play. That has certainly been my experience, and while you've likely plundered far more than I have, Ruby - I'm no slouch in that department either. BP-drops are more likely to occur as a result of Mo/Po than they are from plundering. If there's nothing to aid, there's nothing to deliver a BP, so they'd only get the 20 coin from aiding a city with nothing to Mo/Po. I'll trust them that they know what they're doing.

Many players whose cities I've looked at might have 2, 3 or even more of one particular Age's barracks, but none of another in that same Age although it is farther up the Tech Tree. I'm no expert in the art of PvP, but it does appear that some barracks are next to worthless and should be built only as a stopgap until you get to the ones that you'll truly use for either offense or defense.

I've played other games in which it was next to impossible to successfully defend yourself, even if you and your attacker were roughly equal in strength (or at least ranking). Almost every game of this type has some sort of player versus player element, with some doing a (much) better job than others balancing things (and yes I mean FoE.I get that you can end up in a neighborhood full of players who are much more advanced than you are, but there are steps you can take to minimize the damage they can do to you if they attack- like setting up production times so you can be there to collect them).

Forge of empires plunder