So what your saying is, attackers attack score is vs opponents attack score now,or the sum of his/her att & def?
That explains why I would lose to someone when my att was triple my oppenents def in beta...
Even lost with a Power Attack.
The "confusion" as you call it, is because the battle screen is the SAME as we're all used to (att vs def), plus the added new equipment values. Which btw are in the 10's, so hard to imagine they'd have a huge affect on the battle result when att/def values are in the billions.
I think beta testers get a bad rap, they put this out with NO explanation whatsoever, or details of the mechanics of the battle scenario, & expect feedback. All I can give feedback on is anomalies in the game,& screenshots of absurdly lopsided losses. The beta team has NEVER answered my questions during tests, so most of the time don't know if it's working as designed or not. Lol