So as the title says attacking a burning zone with units. Now mainly I mean battlefield. I am a new player and recently had a game where I had the fortune to burn down my opponents battlefield early in the game. Now it seemed I was punished for this since 1. I couldn't target her units in that zone to weaken them so they couldn't romp around as they wanted. 2. until she had sufficient tough units in Kingdom and Quest to where in that game I could not attack unless I leave myself extremely open at that time. So as it turned out I attacked the Kingdom with regular units (and I do understand that their are cards to force defenders and a few that remove units however that is dependent on deck setup and the luck of the draw- I had no such cards atm for several turns as I have the core set and limited to those kinda things and where they may land)and she simply did not defend and the damage just disappears, this is how we read the rule.
I am wondering why this is, its leaves more up to luck than strategy punishing a player for taking advantage of an opportunity and what should be a tactically good one. Even with battlefield burning I do not understand how when attacking it the defender can just do nothing with the damage if they decide not to defend. They take no damage to units and none to another capital area not even an increase in cost for placing units within battlefield. With the other zones I understand since its resources and card draws. But to be unable to try and intercept their army on the field of battle instead of letting them run rampant seems to be one more limiting factor to this game which once again starts to remove more strategy options in favor of luck. I capitalized on a weakness and then paid for it since her army was free to bob and weave as it where however she liked striking only weak points and allowing me no wiggle room what so ever so now the game becomes more of a formula of attack kingdom first since you want them burning cards and you don't want their armies just doing whatever they want or you have to buy packs and expansions to try and build a counter deck that will still be built on luck and very little strategy.
Am I wrong on the rule in this case if so then good if not I will be selling a core set as both of us have no interest at that point.