who's the sucker who attacks second?

[Graeme Dice]

Zooko said:
P.S. And does it make a difference if in addition to attacking from province A to province B, I also teleport in a mage from province D to province B?

The mage will show up in the magic phase, and have to deal with any independents that are there.

[Zooko]

So the answer is that it is random? That's fair, at least. Is there any way to make it less fair -- to influence the result?