Per Razia back in ~late Jan/Feb, battle mechanics were fairly simple. Attacker has XX amount of attack and XX amount of health. Attacker goes first in round 1 (Defensive units attack first in round 0). This seemed to apply across the board, and made some sense since the attacker is limited to sending 10k troops max, while FN defenders have unlimited # of troops defending. so, somewhat of a fair tradeoff.

The King-of-The-Hill type CS events brought out issues though that 1)attacker went first even though defender is limited to 10k troops and 2)defenders armory almost never worked. This made defending a CS a losing battle, attacker almost always diminished the defender to the point of no recovery.

The last event seemed to highlight the issue (see threadhttp://community.kabam.com/forums/sh...-defend-the-CS)- with people losing 10000 assasins while defending, and the attacker losing minimal troops.

Kabam acknowledged the issue, and without notice, seemed to change the attack order/defense bonus- for the one contested tile only. So, the pendelum swings the other way and attackers are losing massive amounts of troops.

My question, is per my support ticket:
There are many variables that will contribute to first strike in battle; Troop composition, Troop quantity, Armory Items, etc. are just a few of the factors that will determine whom attacks first. Unfortunately, I am unable to divulge any specific information about our battle mechanics as it is part of our player's game experience to learn specific battle tactics and strategies.

What are the variables, if any, that change who attacks first and when? Is it as Kabam states above, random, or are there some set rules that determine this?