I'd like to understand more about how battle losses are calculated. If a group of say 40K level 3 warriors +5K level 5 warriors is attacked, even by a massive army, I would expect the attacker to lose some troops at some relatively similar level.  OK, maybe they have boosts that give them an extra 20% offense, and takes 20% defense and health from me.  Common sense says maybe they'd lose 20K level 3 and 2.5K level 5.  But in fact they often just lose a couple of thousand, perhaps only hundreds of troops.  

- What are the most important determinants for battle success?

  - Army size

  - Troop level

  - warfare learning

  - Hero level (does energy matter?)

  - Hero equipment

  - Hero skills

 Obviously people that shell out $$ can buy their superiority.  But if the damage were more symmetrical, and in my mind reasonable, it would encourage smaller players to stay in the game longer, perhaps long enough to invest $$ into the game.