I'm inclined to agree that in smaller encounter/fights, usually between two players, the outcome is determined by them. If they want a die roll or coin toss to determine outcomes, they can do it as well.
Immersion is definitely key. All of the points system values are based on RP posting, and apart from maybe a special event, we're hoping that only being able to (possibly) grab one turf in a two-week period will keep the game from being simply a board game. A player makes a turf grab request during the period, and we determine the outcome and announce it at the beginning of the next period when doing the bi-weekly prompts and story updates.