How do you assign attention points. and any other advice about assign them would be great, and also looking for advice on how and when to spend scouting dollars

Click on World Schedule under the schedule header and it will show you the date recruiting starts and when APs will be processed.

APs seemed to be pretty powerful in beta and you could sign players without spending a dime. So I'd only use money when you're in a battle and try to save up. There are probably several strategies already but one thing you could do is try to open up actions on several of your top targets first. This way, if someone falls through or you lose a battle, you'll have backups and won't have to wait to open up actions.