I have had the same experience as WarKnight on Blaze of FireDragon. However, it seems to be limited to those who either do not claim guild benefits or those who show up late for Guild Wars. It seems that if either of those two cases happen, it doesn't matter where you are assigned in the Battle Planning, you will be assigned first to the highest level city being defended and if there is more then one of the same level, the the player goes to the city with the lowest number of defenders. Players can JOIN earlier in the day, and that puts their name in the Battle Planning window. But if they don't claim or show up on time, the game does not honor the assignment that the host/VH makes