I just started this game and I am very confused about the shields on the islands. Do they get used after the drillers the drillers on an outpost get killed because when some one attacked me and I had more drillers that him my shield still went town to 7 from 10. Note there where no specialists in any of this. I'm just really confused and it's hard to plan attacks out when you don't know how all of it works. Thanks

Hello,
Shields work at the first stage of combat. For example, if you have 10 drillers and 10 shield, and an enemy attacks with 15 drillers, first the 10 shield will be drained, and then 10 drillers will kill 5 of them, with 5 drillers and 0 shields remaining.