[Info] Block&time

Information for blockers:
Blocking is used to take advantage of the fact that every camp in a sector vanishes when the last leader in that sector dies. Even the ones still in combat.
Here are some combat tricks and info on how to calculate how long everything takes:

Minimal version:
Walking phase: 3 flags is 10 sec (every gen)
Combat phase: every round is 20 sec for normal gen (half for fast gen)
Demolish building phase: add 2 more rounds to combat phase if a win (this is the victory bar timer part you see)


more elaborate:
Walking phase:
generals will follow pathing as shown when the attack order is about to be given. only deviations are intercepts.

If a general enters it's target camps agrozone (aka attack area or red zone) before or at the same time as any other it won't get intercepted. most leaders don't have a red/agrozone. beware of traps they don't show anymore, but agrozone is just as big as any other.
Intercepts can also be used to reach a camp you intend to block without having to block the camps between you and those camps.

When an agrozone is deactivated , due to camp under attack, the agrozone won't intercept you but is still there. If you send a gen to the deactivated camp and passes trough another agrozone the targets zone will still shield you from an intercept.

However any general in the leader camp's waiting Que, a leader without an agrozone, can still get intercepted. That can happen for instance when an agrozone that covers the leader reactivates (1r gen lost), this will pull your general out of the camp. This won't show in the client but if you reload the island when it happens you can see it walking to the reactivated camp.

Combat phase:
In both sims you can see a button to show wins/losses per round, use it! For the settlersonlinesimulator.com/dso_kampfsimulator/en/ it's the blue/red statistic icon behind the victories: %. For the settlersonlinetools.com/en/combat_simulator/ it's the rounds button bottom left corner.

Reason I use that is because a win means there will be a demolition phase. Making the fight last longer than a loss with the same amount of rounds.
Basic goal: have no losses in the first 2 rounds the fight can win. (assuming demolition time takes 2 rounds)

example:
1 general 170 cav vs 100 scavengers
http://settlersonlinesimulator.com/d...9-72-18_10-0-5
Looks good at first glance, most rounds possible in the combat phase. but there is a good chance at a loss on round 5, this makes it possible you lose the fight 100 seconds in.

1 general 175 cav vs 100 scavengers
http://settlersonlinesimulator.com/d...-0_9-1-1_4-3-0
Before clicking the win/loss per round button it looks worse only 4 rounds in the combat phase. However a win at round 4 means there will also be a demolition phase adding 2 more rounds in this case.
first win at round 4 = 120 second fight first loss in this case round 7 = 140 sec. and got a happy accident that there is only a small chance of being a 120 sec fight, I'd even call it a 140 sec block.


Demolition phase:
Note: General damage counts and cannons do double dmg in this phase.
At the demolition phase one of every troop left alive after the combat phase will smash the building to bits.

Spoiler

The first general in waiting Que before demolition starts & 1 of each of his troops counts in addition to the troops in the previous statement.

example, stfr reinforced watchtower:
2 fast gens, each with 1r 1m 1s 1e 150c 1b 1lb 1xb 1cannon as troops, enter the same tower within 3 flags (10 sec) of each other. First general fights for 10 sec while the other enters the Que. First gen wins without any losses so still has 1 of each troop left to move on to the demolition phase, in addition to that the general in Que and one of it's troops also helps demolish the building. Effect 2 generals & 2 of every troop help kill the Watchtower faster then just a single general can.
I actually never tested this on the watch towers, but easiest example I could think off.
The simulator doesn't know this yet so have to do some manual calculations:
1hit + 1 miss for all: 120(gen hit) + 120 (gen mis) + 30+15(2 recs hit&miss) +40+20(2 militia) +40+20(sol) +40+20(es) +5+10(c) +40+20(b) +60+30(lb) +90+45(xb) +240+120(cannons with double dmg) = 1125 dmg per round and units should never miss 50%.
Reinforced tower has 1500hp so on average 20sec demolition time.
Best case all hit, 1420dmg, also 2 rounds demolition.
Worse case all miss, 830dmg, also 2rounds.


More then one bhg's in Que didn't shorten the demolition,
but I didn't check if 1 tavern gen, 1 grim, 1 bhg, 1 hardcamp, etc shortened the demolition time further

easy way:
- settlersonlinesimulator.com/dso_kampfsimulator/en/
- do a simulation & make sure it's a win
- scroll down to "Building destruction times" and check how long for that fight

Building hit points:
Trap either 125 hp or 250 hp
Bandit camp 250 hp
White castle 250 hp
Wildlife cave/leader 250hp
Tavern 250hp
(Royal) Residence 250hp
Watchtower 1000 hp
Reinforced T. 1500 hp
Stone tower 2000 hp
Witch tower 2000 hp
Bone church 2000 hp
Dark castle 2000 hp


example:
How to kill 100 scavengers and it's camp after that:
lets try 200 recruits, I see max losses 50 recruits but 1-2 round duration in the combat phase.

lets try 49rec 152soldiers, better max losses 49recs 1round max fight. checking demolition:
normal camp = 250hp
damage dealers 1 general 1 soldier (recruit can be killed)
damage: 120dmg + 20 or 40
after round 1 of demolition the building is left on 110-90 hitpoints (miss-hit)
Takes another round to kill this building, total rounds this attempt: 1 combat + 2 demolition= 3 rounds.

lets try 51r 145m 1s 1cav 1bow 1lb, I see 1 round combat 50r max lost.
damage dealers that move on to demolition phase: 1rec 1militia 1sol 1cav 1bow 1lb
yeah this is where I stop doing the math, just checked the easy way. reads 1-2 rounds demolition. due to hit and misses. (can use that spoiler trick if you have a spare gen to get it down to 1 round if you need it)

trying: 51r 145m 1s 1e 1cav 1b 1lb,
simulator is showing 1 round demolition time now. This saves you 10 seconds on a normal camp. using this information you can get some better time on stronger buildings. (I forgot you have crossbow men before elites here, those do even more damage)

Things to look out for when blocking a camp, if you block a camp with a cannon that stays alive during combat phase, or an militia/soldier/elite +xb you have a chance of shortening it's demolition rounds to 1 on a 250hp camp. Easy to overlook even for me.


Server ruling counts:
Some times client and server differ in information.
Client can show intercepts or doesn't, I noticed what the server thinks happens takes president. The times you saw nothing going wrong but 2 minutes later server tells you a different story.
I often reload my island and visit adventure again to get latest server info, after generals where send out, or if something strange happens, if it still looks wrong then I choose if I have to retreat or not.

Disclaimer: this counts for the current combat rules, bb might change things at any time. Since I posted that little spoiler trick I bet it won't work for much longer.

Blocking tricks I use:
- round blocks: keeping the camp busy or while a (fast) general kills the last leader in the sector
- 1r blocks: I try to avoid them but when useful, keeps the camp busy for 6 flag distance max (1 round loss = 20 sec slow gen). Uses to skip an agrozone, or get the next general into it's target agrozone at the same time as this camp)
- look at how generals exit garrisons instead of staring at the agrozone to see if it gets intercepted.
- reload adventure when it shows an unexpected intercept
3 intercepts:
- letting them get intercepted on purpose, counting flags from intercept point to camp it gets intercepted by.
- have a camp that I kill intercept a blocking general to change it pathing (will continue to target ones camp is dead)
- have a camp that I kill intercept a vet/major general to change it pathing (either let it fight the camp and move on, or have another gen knock it out while the vet/major is in the waiting Que)

Blocking tricks I know nothing about or can't get to work:
- blocking a camp with 2x 1r gens to skip an agrozone bigger then 5 flags.
I gave up on this, couldn't predict if it would intercept at the generals turn over. if you have some info on how it works plz tell.

since people will be trying to put this in practice:
example: 40boars 100fox

attempt 1 to block it as long as possible: 100s 82c (top of sims report, 56% win chance) first win&loss at round 5, 5round loss = no demolition phase then, so 5 slow general rounds as shortest fight you can loose all troops after 100 sec of fighting.
(we all did this at some point)

attempt 2 aim for 100% win chance: 50c 120s (first with 100% in sim) no losses, first win at round 4, only it almost always wins at round 4.
(next step in the way I learned to set up blocks)

attempt 3: (my way) I see foxes, not using cav on those let em hit a bowmen b4 the bow strikes)
105elites 95bowmen first win at round 4 (105times out of 2200simulations) = 80second + a demolition phase. in this case the demolition is 2 rounds. 120second
first loss at round 6 (10 times out of 2200simulations) = 120sec also

using the info in my first post you can get a guaranteed 20 sec longer block then the attempt 1 and chances for even longer one then attempt 2.
+pick up a few tricks

none elite setup for 40boars 100 fox: 112soldiers 88bow, win at round 4 (44/2200) and loss at 6 (10/2200) seems even better chances at a longer fight then using elites in this case

The reason that it is 2 rounds demolition time, in all 3 attempts (if it's a win) the cav in first attempt, and bows in 2nd will all die in round one to the first strike of the foxes. Leaving only your general and an (elite) soldier to demolish the building. 120dmg + 40dmg (both hit) can't do 250 damage in 1 round so has need for a 2nd round)

oh incase my attempt to provide information is to complicated try sanii's tutorial on how to block:
link

Found that on the us forums, might take a while to read trough.

I've tried the stacked 1R (advertised on test forum by asiastrings and driller71) for VLT. If the server thinks that you get 3 generals walking in the blocked camp on the same flag then the vet can walk 12-13 flags. This worked 1/20 attempts on northisle.
Unfortunately, you cant use it as the camp in front of magnificent has 15 flags because the entry to the king is on the NE side (unlike the MH).

The instructions present on the test forum for VLT stacked 1R are misleading.

More importantly and not specified yet (to my knowledge) at that point you have looters and that changes the behaviour of the game. One player becomes communication nexus (syncs with the other(s)) even if they don't visit and all launches/retreats etc have a delay of 14s(ish) _and_ at the next sync you may have surprises. Guides with 'launch general B when A reaches the depicted point' become useless.
Even more, the server changed behaviour wrt zones about 6 months ago. Zones visited/active recently(don't know how much) maintain an idle active state past the logout. So you can't make your looters log off to avoid the overhead and timing problems.

Later edit: auto-logout 3h(ish)

With a failed launch and retreat of 4-6 generals taking an overhead of 30s, I gave up on tuning or attempts to block like this.

If I am missing something please feel free to enlighten us all.

multiple 1r gens I came to the same conclusion. (gave up trying to make sense)

as for filling lootspots. ... I do notice the rules of sending out change a little but I still use the launch b when a is at.... just need to make sure block a lasts allot longer then you need it to. assuming things don't go perfect when sending them out

.. I get the same during events or at gmt 18:00 - 22:00 peek hours when server is busy.
server has a few different rules with handling data ie. how they send generals out.
some cases they store up orders and pass on the attack order to the generals every few seconds. (ever 3 or 5 sec a wave of generals, however many got an order before that walk at the same time. if I don't add 1 more flag for lag you can get intercepted cuz the 0.00001 sec human delay is gone)

other cases extreme lag: generals get send out in the wrong order, general d leaves before general a. this is why I watch generals exit, retreat every time even if you think it will be fine.

normal cases generals exit garrisons in order 0.1-3 flags(0.1-10sec) after the previous one. time varies due to lag or connection.
(don't need the extra flag I personally put between generals for the first situation)


but in all cases try to under stand the duration of the fights first ones you do that you can watch and learn the rest and get your own preferred way. personally I can't follow a guide, that's like going in blind on the details on the blocks.

Thanks for this - very good and detailed info :)

This:
blocking a camp with 2x 1r gens to skip an agrozone bigger then 5 flags.

A technique I call "multiblocking". Very good way to get stuck on adventures for many hours. It does work.
Send a whole bunch of generals in rapid succession to queue them up equivalent to X 1-round-blocks.
You can also "safen up" tight blocks with this technique by priming the camp with one (or more) 1r general before sending in the actual blocker.

I have used this technique successfully on HLT to avoid feeding 250 B/LB on a suicide mission just in preparation for a block in s4.

If the technique goes wrong, however, it's usually worse than not blocking at all:
You'll lose your troops and be stuck with a 4-hour waiting time.

Weigh carefully, use at own risk - then again, this goes for all blocks anyways.

Thanks a lot , all these informations are very useful :)

Hi.....I've only just started playing a few weeks and it took me a while to find this info as I wanted to try different scenarios to those posted by Tage, Killste etc (and by the way, thanks to all of you for writing those guides !), and this information is fantastic, thanks very much. :-)