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
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
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
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.
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