As for ranks, so far .. what assume impact (am guessing as pretty new) ..
* captain, major general, general all move/shoot at same time - regardless if in digging town/fort owner town or associated alliance ...... this means that those ranked captain in outside alliances and non fort owner or digger towns shoot and move same which is good for worlds with many small alliances. Leadership then becomes deciding factor. Is it attempt to break away from traditional big alliance vs big alliance concept?
* rankers may (up to ranker) use sgt rank bit more frequently it is assumed to avoid bump bump - so far havent seen it change much in ranking.
* this one i may be out to lunch with but thought as am advent in colo (but just a small fry)... we kinda counted on generals who were tanks that took the first shots at advents and hoped for ghosties from the next round of damagers which this change may (or may not impact effectiveness, again leadership is deciding factor for first 3 rankings).
For advent, "Starting with hit 2 within one round of a fort battle, you have a chance of 25% to keep from being hit at all for the rest of the round"
Am kinda interested to see how it goes