Manual battles are way more fair than only auto battle.
I lost a fight against 1 unit + 7 rogues ... well, how could you name that "fair"?
Well, I already did many suggestions (some possibilities) :
1) munal fights anyway, because like it is now? AI vs AI, clic and see, is it that what you want? Really, that's boring like hell !
2) make the AI like on C-map OR just don't allow to USE rogues at all !! (not for defending army, not for attacking army).
3) IF Inno stick with 1 PvP Arena for 1 whole world, give every player, EMA till SAAB the SAME chances to get a nice high position.
I've now played as much as I can and I'm still only around #1200 ... so playing "active" this PvP Arena have to give a nice reward, at least !
Where is the motivation in doing that ? No battle points after a fight ... No Unique Reward to go for ... No FAIR play : earlier this day all opponents where beyond my Era, so I had no choice to let my army killed (with manual battle: I always can "surrender" to not loose all units !) ... Fair ? Not at all !
4) Why not avoid all players boost for attacking and defending army ?
5) Avoid all attack and defense boosts, but make a difference in the Easy, Normal & Hard battles with % boost ... ? (not really my favorite suggestions so far)
...... BUT ....
6) Still I find this following suggestion best of all :
Create a brand new 5 units team of all ages (without the use of rogues), so everyone fight with the same kind of units and, again, avoid any bonus for attack or defense from players ...
Give those 5 different units Unique skills !
As special unique rewards you can win fragments of an Emmisary and when you gathered a complete set you can sellect this Emmisary for you Town Hall to get each day 1 very special Unit ! (or bonus or special ability or ... read further on about it!)
Or bring up more than 1 kind of Emmisary to collect (with fragments), like one that give a speical Bonus for one of your units or one that give the Special ability to Change some of the Tiles on the Battleground, right before the battle starts .... or one that ... etc ... (be creative, think about this idea, please!)
Be creative, think creative, please Inno, think beyond the walls of your imagination !! Give every player (on the PvP Arena army managment, apart from other players army window !) 8 units of each 5 kind of units. These units, even killed, restore after the battle is done, ONLY those "special units" you can get from that Emmisary , if killed, are lost forever . That way those fragments of a possible PvP Arena Emmisary become even more valuable and more players will try to get them !