I have had a lot of trouble like the one you describe.
My current solution is:
using a index.jsp as a declared welcome file forwarding to a struts ForwardAction having a "real" start jsp file as parameter.
index.jsp -> startAction -> myRealStart.jsp
In myRealStart.jsp I figure out current session state and choose what to do and then include some other jsp-file.
My conclusion is that I can not use an ordinary struts action as starting point for my webapp. And I can not use more than one struts action for the initial request like request -> struts action -> struts action -> some.jsp
Regards
/Lars Hagrot
