How fights are decided - attack points vs defense points

When the war update came I attacked somebody, lost my whole army, and had no idea why. So I studied how the game decides a fight, and it is actually simple once you see it. Let me explain it for other beginners in the clearest way I can, because understanding this ONE thing changes everything. Every fight is just two numbers against each other. Your side has attack points. The other side has defense points. That is it. You add up the attack value of every soldier you send, that is your attack points. The defender adds up the defense value of every soldier defending, that is their defense points. Then the game compares the two. There are three possible results. One, your attack is HIGHER than their defense. You win. The defenders are wiped out, and your surviving soldiers stay and occupy the town. But you do not win for free, you lose some of your own soldiers worth their defense number. So if they had 300 defense, you lose soldiers worth about 300, and the rest survive. Two, your attack is LOWER than their defense. You lose. Your whole attacking army is destroyed, all of it, gone. The defender only loses soldiers worth your attack points. This is what happened to me, I sent less attack than their defense and I lost everything. Three, exactly EQUAL. Both armies destroy each other completely. Nobody holds the town. So the whole game of attacking is to send MORE attack points than the enemy has defense points, with some margin to be safe. Not equal, more. Let me give a small example with easy numbers. Say the town you want has 200 defense. If you send 500 attack, you win, and you lose soldiers worth 200, keeping the rest to occupy. If you send only 150 attack, you lose all 150, and they keep their town. Simple. One detail that is good to know, when you lose soldiers the game takes your most valuable ones first. So if you overkill massively with your best elite soldiers, you can waste them. Send enough to win comfortably, but you do not need a hundred times more. Where do you see the numbers? When you pick a target, the game shows you the defender defense points before you commit. And your own soldiers show their attack and defense values. So you can actually do the math before you send, which is what I do now instead of guessing. Also note WHAT you are fighting depends on the town. If it is a free town you fight the owner home soldiers. If somebody else already occupies it, you fight THAT occupier army instead. And if it is your own conquered town, sending more troops just reinforces, no fight. But in every real battle it is the same rule, your attack against their defense. Since war is brand new, a lot of us are losing armies simply because we did not know this. Do not be like me on day one. Before you attack anything, look at their defense points, make sure your attack points are clearly higher, and then send. Attack beats defense, that is the whole secret of every fight in this game. Once it clicked for me I stopped losing armies for nothing.