For me this isn't so much about crashing (rarely happens to me) but about the balance of winning vs losing. As Empire I player I'm a decent attacker, but I will readily lose more than 1 in 40 of my battles.
This means that an evening of enjoyable play, let's say 30 x +1 win is immediately wiped...
Something surely has to happen. The game is unplayable in its current form. I am the leader of a top-100 alliance and consider myself a decent attacker. However, I'll make 2.5% losses on a good day. With only +1 wins .... 30 wins of +1 and 1 loss of -39 makes for -9 result of an evening of play...