War is an essential part of Battlemaster, it's what makes the game fun. No one should sit on their computer and think "gee I hope there is nothing exciting happening in my realm today!" I relish the chance to take part in the conflicts of the realms I belong to. War makes the game fun, it adds that risk factor that gives you an adrenaline rush when you read battle reports (or at least as much of an adrenaline rush as you can get from a text based RPG...).
I agree with the first post that If GDoF had aided Madina sooner than Madina might have lasted a wee bit longer but Aurvandil has the strongest military on the continent and was able to raise that in a matter of a month or two. Madina stood no chance, even with the aide of GDoF they were only prolonging the inevitable..
But my original point remains the same, war makes the game fun, war is essential to the game. Players should not be afraid to lose what they have, otherwise they don't deserve it. So what if they "worked so very hard" to obtain a position or what have you. Half the fun is working to gain something and the other half is fighting to defend it. In mid-evil times if a noble was raised to a lordship and then it was threatened he would call his banner-men and fight to defend what he had earned. Why should Battlelmaster be any different.