[Squirrelloid]

1 normal working with 1 overlord misses the point of the game, which is supposed to be Overlords forming coalitions of normals. As I understand it, the game should look something like the Cold War. Overlords are superpowers who use satellite states to fight proxy wars against other superpowers.

The only acceptable and playable alternatives on attacks I can see are the following:
(1) Overlord attacks are effectively uncapped, possibly with effort (forge item for a reasonable cost, etc..)
(2) Overlords and Normals are equally capped in attacks against the other.
(3) Overlords can only attack other Overlords and Indies. Normals can only attack other Normals and Indies. This probably makes the game very uninteresting.

Anything else creates a game-losing asymmetry in the attack capability of one side against the other. Of course, 2 permits asymmetry to be created by coalition, which is still a problem.

Perhaps Overlords cannot attack normals and normals cannot attack overlords unless the normal in question is formally allied (vassal) with an overlord.

Or maybe normals can only attack an overlord if they are formally allied with another overlord, and overlords can only attack normals who attack them (no limits), defined as: having had a province they held the previous turn (both attacking the same indie doesn't count) attacked by a normal (not discovering a spy) and the granted ability to attack persists until peace has been formally concluded and announced in channel.