How contradictive this might sound, I am with you on this part, I prefer small groups of players with lethal striking force; however, having 50 players in your alliance isn't going to get you server victory in the end; though I detest it, the WW-race is about getting as many resources to the wonders as fast as you can, and more players allows you to do this faster - as goes for using favour to speed up the building. 50 players just won't cut it, no matter how experienced, if they have to face alliances of 120+.
However, we will be putting up certain goals for our members in order to weed out those that are not able to keep up the pace, or are simply not willing to cooperate with the rest of the alliance. Though our member count has skyrocketed for now, it will decrease over time as players leave the game, get removed for inactivity or negligence.
We aim to keep the high stature we started off with, but we have to look further than just a few weeks ahead