defense heavy troop buildings give you more plunder per hit however im pretty sure balanced buildings give you like 1 extra hit or something which is why they are used by most people and hansels. makes them good for plunder attack heavy buildings are basically garbo for plunder. thats my understanding at least
U require only 1 balanced attack to get an extra attack hit but full regen takes 1hr 5mins vs 1hr. Defensive att gives plunder bonus. Hvy att loses plunder. That said 1 L1 HF and 1 L1 Abyss give bonus att actions when a 1st time build. Same goes for spy on both HF and Abyss for extra spy actions. Do not upgrade the above to retain the bonuses. Furthermore eg its more plunder on HtE/ZTA trains. After the 1 COE and 2 att and 2 L1 spy r up the rest r spy for the best plunder. Downside is u can be caught in a glitch if u war.
You can interchange buildings too, build 99% defense heavy builds and one balanced build for the extra couple hits. (Maybe irrelevant but lvl1 elven build in Hoarfrost gives 10-12 extra hits on full unload good for crystals and morning unloads if you have good equip.)