pvp-- heavy troops and blocking

well i finally decided to try PVP and i am confused :confused:
i ran the intro expedition step by step as it was presented. You are asked to use blocking on a camp with 40 bandit recruits ___ i sent 50 heavy archers to block. I ended up losing 29 of them......
I saw on test forum that you can expect to lose blocking troops, but i could have just killed this camp for (i think) 12 attack archers.....
why would i want to lose 29 heavy troops when 12 attack troops would do????? Are the heavy troops any good at all????

and another thing: heavy troops don't have the "rock paper scissors" thing going on? i don't see an advantage given.....

and another thing: here's the sim i've looked at:
https://546e810ba39faf8b8d5e4e7971e6...dfb3BfRUtxZTg/

according to the sim, the more heavy troops i send, the longer the block lasts...example i send 40 heavy troops --> 84 rounds
send 50 heavy troops --> 105 rounds send 60 heavy troops --> 126 rounds

this goes counter to my intuition, with regular adventures usually less troops make longer blocks.......
i need a good tutor, is one available????

uhm...poor planning?

The sim you're using is correct and is also very good/accurate. The more heavy troops you use, the longer the block lasts. That being said, you should only block long enough to get to the leader camp. The only point to blocking longer and outlasting the leader camp battle is if you've used up all your medipacks available for that expedition and you still need to take out the main leader camp after the current battle.

The intro expedition is not so good. Better to try a few small colony expeditions and figure out how it all works that way. Play around with the paths, attack only what's absolutely necessary. Play with the sim a lot to minimize your losses.

Heavy troops do have the rock/paper/scissors thing going on. If you use heavy infantry to block archers, the block is shorter than if you use heavy cav because archers have a bonus vs melee troops. Try it in the sim, you'll see what I'm saying. You'll also find that heavy archers aren't necessary.

Hope this helps. If you like to figure out your best attacks rather than mindlessly following a guide, you might enjoy expeditions.

Blocking units do die and remain dead, contrary to the phantom blocking in regular adventure.

And that's already were the heavy units come in handy.
- For one, they are cheaper than their attack counterparts, so losing 12 attack archers is the same as losing 24 heavy archers cost wise.
- Next in line comes the high HP. It will take (ignoring bonus/malus now) around 11 hits (1 on 1) for 1 heavy unit to die. Pretty much making Guardmen obsolete.
- Which brings us to stacks. Since opponents will match stacks, this kind of feels like an exploit. The attacker will only bring 10 units to counter your 10 heavy units (instead of 20 vs 20 in the Attack category). So not only does it already take around 11 units to kill 1 heavy unit, they are only fighting with 10. Effectively giving you as much time to block as you want. Heck, with enough Marshalls you could block the entire island at the same time. And since heavy unit casulties accumulate rather slow in that regard, you have that much more attack force to drop at the Map boss/sector leaders.

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Heavy troops do have the rock/paper/scissors thing going on.

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Might add to that, the heavy units do not have the dmg bonus, they only get the penalty. So an Attack Archer will deal bonus dmg to the (Heavy) Infantry, however, a Heavy Archer will not deal bonus dmg to the (Heavy) Infantry.


If they hadn't rushed and butchered expeditions that badly (or at least make attractable stuff to be obtained), this could have been fairly entertaining. But you know...they just had to kick a dead dog for some reason.