I just lost half my army defending a level 9 lake:
battle3.civony.com/default.html?logfile/da/49/45/dc/da4945dc58f3bd3c1270d8dcaa5ad000.xml
I wasn't actively defending; I took it and checked in a few hours later, like I do, and saw that this ****sucker took it 20 minutes later, along with all of my honor.
My gut reaction is to go after this ****er, but the fact is, I already lost 4k archers, it probably isn't worth it until my farms are all at level 9.
His home, BTW, is real close to the valley and poorly defended:
battle3.civony.com/default.html?logfile/ae/bf/c5/f1/aebfc5f1a66a9a1e76162d60363e1b90.xml
Note the beacon tower 5. :-)
It'd probably be easier to take over his town. But i think I just need to cool off and put some archers in the oven.
Bottom line is, at what point s it worth defending a valley?
EDIT: There's a lesson in this: recall your troops from valleys. I just lost 5k honor because I neglected my guys there for an hour.