Is It Fair To Other Players To Be A Big Spender In GGE?

The simple answer is yes. There's a way to benefit from it and be fair to other players at the same time. What is not fair is buying up a bunch of ungodly strong troops to attack other players for whatever reason you deem fit all by yourself and not in a war situation in conjunction with your alliance and it's leaders.

I have spent a good amount on the game but my benefits are for building, defense, and Kahn chests. Nothing else. Glory flags are also acceptable. All of this isn't unfair to other players in the least. 

There are simple rules to employ that gives Big Spenders back a good name.

Some alliances will kick you out even if you are what I call fair spenders where they don't buy attack troops for any reason except the above and Event attacks. I personally feel that no alliance has the right to spy on what you're doing in your castle and count ruby amounts that you spend in there. Your personal castle space is your game alone and no one should count it against you. They also have no right to tell you how to spend your money! Don't let them be bullies! I speculate that part of the reason that they do this is because they want utter control over the map which includes you. They care nothing for anyone's rights but their own. Part of the reason could also be that the top wants to stay on top. Those are just my speculations, though. 

If it's for other

Battle Reports

These are possibly the most important aspect of the game ranking number two just under food production.

When you open one there is a tab at the bottom that will show you specific details about that battle. On that section you can click the button on the bottom again to forward it to your whole alliance or specific players. This is important to do, at least to the leadership of your alliance.

On the detailed section there are two important symbols. One is a skull. This is your troops details. It tells you how many of what kind survived and which got destroyed. It tells you what kind of troops they all fought against in the opposite tabs. The second symbol is a scaling ladder. This dominates the tools used on both sides. You get a precise comparison of what you used and what you beat from the opposite colomn. These details are very important to planning good battle strategy in future battles.

On here you can also see who was the attacker and who was the defender, in other words who got attacked. You can see this in the main overview that you see when you first open the report and also on the overview page of the detailed report. Click on the icon of the attacker and you can go directly to his or her castle from there. You can also see the name of the player who did it so you know exactly who attacked you. If you choose to go to the castle of the attacker, you can see all of the player details, including which alliance that they are from.

This is why sending battle reports to your leaders of your alliance is so important.

When a player gets attacked by another player it usually causes alliance wars. This falls into diplomacy and diplomacy is the responsibility of the leadership and cannot be avoided. If your leaders are in the dark on important battle details in the report when a player doesn't send one, then they have no tools for diplomacy and diplomacy can't really happen on the level it needs to to reach an agreement to end the war or handle negotiations.

In my alliance if you fail to send important player attack battle reports it's cause to kick you out of my alliance. As I've said in other posts, I run a no hit players alliance and my members are happy in it. You can enjoy the game with all of it's benefits in a fair way to all involved.

Flags

Experience flags cannot be made but won.

1% Glory flags can be made at the siege workshop for coins.

Other various types of flags can be bought with rubies or won in Events. Some can be bought with Event coins at the Master Blacksmith, in the Event tents with nomad tablets or Samarui tokens. Some are won with season points in King Eric's challenge.

Events

I will refrain from talking about the Events that I'm no familiar with until I have more experience and knowledge of them.

Nomads: 

An NPC camp where you get resources, coins, experience points, and Khan Tablets that you can spend for great rewards in the Nomad Tent.

Samarui:

An NPC camp where you gain resources, experience points, coins, and event tokens that you can spend in the Samarui Tent for great rewards.

Foreign Invaders:

These castles are copies of active players' castles on the map that you can attack for Glory. You can gain a little bit of coins, resources, and experience points, but they are mostly for Glory attacks.

Bloodcrow Invasion:

Like the Foreigners, the Bloodcrows are copies of active players on the map and are mostly good for Glory attacks. You only get a small amount of the other loot and experience points.

Berimond:

I look forward to this event for the tremendous amount of experience points I get here. Also has some cool prizes.

Does Not Attacking Active Players Mean That You Can't Retaliate?

No. If someone attacks you, it's an act of war.

I had removed the last sentence under protest of the argument that I received against it so I put it back.

Sabotage

Sabotages aren't hard to do even if you are playing by the no hit players rules. Hit a ruin outpost with no alliance. Use a feather if they are too far out for your agents to travel.

When you reach a certain level you can build a research tower. With enough research unlocked, you can research the speed and number of your agents. Increasing those will help out a lot.

You can also build more than one tavern and level them up.

Commanders

Can I level up a commander? Not as far as I can tell.

All rare and epic commanders have limits on them. Ruby and those you buy in Event stores do not and are therefore of better quality and stats than any non-ruby or non-event commander.

Commanders become more powerful by getting their full set of equipment. It raises their power and efficiency more than you can any other way.

The easiest commander set for me so far has been the Sand Sorceress. 

Attacking For Glory

First let me say that there's far too many player attacks in the game. I know that it's a PVP but it doesn't have to be played that way to get full benefits of the game. I'll try to throw in helpful advice on how to do this as much as possible. 

You don't have to hit active players for honor or glory. Instead you can do the same things with a ruin not in an alliance. Seek those first. They are a lot less hassle than an active player and don't start alliance wars.

Event attacks for Glory:

The Foreign Castles and Bloodcrow Castles are copies of active players on the map. These are the only two Events that you can attack for Glory.