[PyroStock]

For the first battle, being the defender was flip-a-coin lucky (50%) since I unfortunately had no decoys until the imps were out. Hadrian's Tartarian with an immediate attack also fought the crone earlier who had one 15life decoy, but the decoy was in the same square as the 13life crone. That square for the "attack largest" Tartarian was a giant bullseye among 5hp units.

For the mechanical man's second battle, I doubt being the attacker would have changed anything. The mechanical man gave me the edge that the divine emperor lacked against the soul devourer earlier.

For the third battle, the mechanical man killed the void lord so he didn't win because of the 50turn rule. Against that 5fear SC who was eating imps for life/vigor I would rather be an attacking mechanical man vulnerable to the 50turn rule than a defending lich, divine emperor or crone vulnerable to phoenix pyre and cowardice several times well before 50turns.

The last battle I lost and being the defender only made the AI cast a useless terror spell before his death.