Horseback question

I am looking at guides on how to approach this adventure. I have watched guides on blocking and feel ready to take upon this challenge. Finally.

This guide suggest a loss of 389R which sounds good, but I am not sure if I understand it completely:
http://osettlers.com/en/map/horseback-v-2-robinzon

I have used a combat simulator to check the yellow attacks in the guide, and with the suggested troops it will inflict losses beyond the 389R. Since the yellow attacks involve soldiers and cavaliers that should not be lost according to the guide, I am not sure how to interpret these yellow attacks.

Should I just skip the yellow attacks or do I actually need to do them in order to get to the leaders and clear the sectors?

This is my first real adventure, so sorry for any silly questions.

Stavros

http://forum.thesettlersonline.net/t...venture-Guides

have a look at Evil_J guides very well set out easy to follow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by king-zombie

http://forum.thesettlersonline.net/t...venture-Guides

have a look at Evil_J guides very well set out easy to follow.

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Thanks for replying so quickly.

I did already look at those guides, and I agree they are very good, but they don't really fit my current army. The Veteran General guide requires crossbowmen which I don't have access to at my current level (32), and the regular general guide inflicts more losses than the guide I linked to. I also have an MMA General available, but guides involving him require either Elite Soliders, Crossbowmen or Cannons which I cannot make at my current level.

That's why I am trying to understand that particular guide.

Stavros

This kind of blocking works because the blocking battles last a longer time than the attack on the leader camp. If the leader is destroyed before the other camps, the camps will be removed and no losses will be incurred on those troops. Make sure you use a tavern general to block with (takes twice as long to fight).

http://www.settlersonlinewiki.eu/adv...with-soldiers/

this one may help

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StavrosKomopulos

I am looking at guides on how to approach this adventure. I have watched guides on blocking and feel ready to take upon this challenge. Finally.

This guide suggest a loss of 389R which sounds good, but I am not sure if I understand it completely:
http://osettlers.com/en/map/horseback-v-2-robinzon

I have used a combat simulator to check the yellow attacks in the guide, and with the suggested troops it will inflict losses beyond the 389R. Since the yellow attacks involve soldiers and cavaliers that should not be lost according to the guide, I am not sure how to interpret these yellow attacks.

Should I just skip the yellow attacks or do I actually need to do them in order to get to the leaders and clear the sectors?

This is my first real adventure, so sorry for any silly questions.

Stavros

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The key to this type of blocking, (where you're sending soldiers & cavalry), is that the blocking attack does NOT finish. You block the intermediate camp so that your attack on the sector leader completes before the blocking attack. That way, 100% of the blocking troops are returned, unharmed.

There's another type of block, where you send 1 recruit, which simply blocks an intermediate camp long enough for another general to safely travel through it's zone of influence and attack a camp on the other side of that zone. You're left with a defeated general, and a 4 hour recovery. But if you have enough tavern generals, you can use this approach effectively.

Looking at that, the yellow ones are blocks, and white attacks are the ones that are to kill a camp.

I have never used that site for guides, I generally go off the ones found on the forums here.
For example, the following link is a big list: http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/t...arious-Authors
List by Killste, has good guides that work, and each guide usually has many different variations for each attack, depending on what general you are sending (because not everyone has multiple Major Generals, MMA's, etc etc.). The nice thing is, if you use a guide like these, when you get a new and better general, you will likely already know the layout of the adventure and placement of generals, just have to sub in your better general for the kill attacks, and get fewer (and at times) and/or losses of different troop types.

Lets look at the Horseback Adv Guide from Killste.
http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/t...l=1#post194033

The very first blocking attack, it says if you plan to send a Battle Hardened General (BHG), you need to send Cannons (Req Lv 48+ to make them).
Then it has options for MMA, Vet and Major Generals. If you don't have these, and you don't have Cannons for your BHG, you need to scroll down from it, and it shows options for killing camp 19, and then shows a 1 Recruit block. It will kill off your general, meaning it will take awhile before the general is healed and can be sent out again (unless you use a Med Pack, which I don't recommend for these early adventures). Also has an option under that, for no blocks (for if you don't have a lot of generals and need them to continue the adventure, if you don't have 4 hours to wait for a normal general to heal up).

Now lets scroll down a little, to the next block. It has many options
From B to Camp 7) 40 Riding Bowmen, 30 Riding Amazonian Guards
Lets go ahead and choose BLOCKING NORMAL general: [5S 107B (-)] {140 seconds of fighting}
I chose this one, because it has a blocking time of 140sec, where the other blocks can be under 140sec (a couple have a small chance to have 160sec, but better to stick with safer choices when you are just starting out). There is an option, same as I chose above, but replacing the 5 Soldiers with 5 Elite Soldiers, which you are generally not likely to have if you are just starting out with blocking.

Now, the kill attack for the leader camp, has an option for a Any General (Typically you want to use Normal Generals for blocks, to ensure the fights last as long as possible, but not really the best choice as a kill general, if a block is being used) and a BH General. The troops sent are the exact same, and thus, the losses will be the exact same. BHG's fight twice as fast as Normal Generals, making it a better choice to ensure your victory before the block is killed.
ANY general: [115R 85S (80R - 102R - 115R 1S)] {80 seconds of fighting}
BATTLE HARDENED general: [115R 85S (80R - 102R - 115R 1S)] {40 seconds of fighting}


Everyone likes using different guides, for one reason or another.
The problem I saw right away, with the guide you linked, is something I pointed out above.. Lack of troop and General options. The guide you referenced, doesn't even say what generals to use..

(P.S. It took be awhile to type this up, and others replied since then. They had sound advice as well)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StavrosKomopulos

Thanks for replying so quickly.

I did already look at those guides, and I agree they are very good, but they don't really fit my current army. The Veteran General guide requires crossbowmen which I don't have access to at my current level (32), and the regular general guide inflicts more losses than the guide I linked to. I also have an MMA General available, but guides involving him require either Elite Soliders, Crossbowmen or Cannons which I cannot make at my current level.

That's why I am trying to understand that particular guide.

Stavros

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Okay. Here is my text notes on adjustments needed (using the Evil_J guide) for various configurations, including MMA and the use of Soldiers and LB in place of Elite and Xbow. I wrote these notes for myself, so if anything does not make sense, let me know. I know these work, as myself and others have used them in all of the various configs.

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Horseback - Veteran General with Crossbows-Longbows
Use Evil_J Veteran (LB) Map for positioning.
MMA options have been added to the notes section.

Max XP: 7230
Min XP per loss: ~17.5
Max Losses: 421
Average Losses: 411

Troops needed:
Veteran/XB MMA/XB MMA/LB
217R 211R 221R
206B 209B 206B
234S 209S 209S
1C 1C 1C
170XB 138XB 0XB
0LB 0LB 136LB

Max Troops lost:
215R 208R 218R
206B 209B 206B

Abbreviations:
R = Recruits
B = Bowman
S = Soldier
C = Cavalry
XB = Crossbowman

Generals:

General 1 [250] : 204S (30S) [Ready for C1.]
46R (171R)

General 2 [200] : 91S (-0S) [Ready for L1.]
20B (186B)
28R (143R)

General 3 [200]* : 170XB (0XB)
1C (0C)
29R (114R)

General 4 [200]* : 114R (0R)
86B (100B)

General 5 [200] : 100B (0B)


Notes:

1. * = All blocks MUST be performed with wino (Tavern) generals.
2. All 1st Wave attacks performed in conjunction with blocks must utilize fast (non-Tavern) generals.
3. Veteran with LB troops assignments (Same as guide except where listed):
L3 - 116B and 134LB.
L4 - 25R, 1S, 80B and 144LB.
L6 - 38R, 43S and 169LB.

4. MMA troops assignments:

C1 - 170S and 50R.
L1 - 75S, 20B and 30R.
L2 - 170S and 45R.
C2 - (Block-Unchanged) 1R.
L3 - 113B and 107XB.
- 111B, 101LB and 8R (If using LB in lieu of XB).
C3 - (Block-Unchanged) 61S and 2R.
L4 - 76B, 1S, 118XB and 25R.
- 75B, 1S, 118LB and 26R (If using LB in lieu of XB).
C4 - (Block-Unchanged) 30S, 1C and 1R.
L5 - 179S and 38R.
L6 - 45S, 138XB and 37R.
- 46S, 136LB and 38R (If using LB in lieu of XB).

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Thank you all for helping out! Really appreciate it.

And thanks to Kinson001 and Raubhautz for taking their time to write such extensive replies. Since I can get the adventure again for 95 map fragments, I will try it again soon with your recommendations.

blahdela & Hobknocker: Spot on! Thanks. I didn't know it worked liked that.

I have 5 generals so I will try the 1R-block, but I am not sure if it will give the Veteran enough time to get through the north zone. But it is a cheap experiment as I do have 5 generals available. So will definitely give it a try.

I just completed the adventure. I messed up a little bit in the north part by missing the exact placement of the camp, thereby beating the camp I was only suppose to temporarily intercept and enduring some cavalry/solider losses. But I guess that was a lesson learned on the precision required on camp placement when doing timing attacks :) Otherwise the recruit losses were spot on, so the guide works. For a player my level the rewards were pretty decent - especially with the XP. I can actually jump straight to level 34 by beating it again.

Thanks again!

Stavros

Horesback is a very good place to learn blocking and pretty good experience at lower levels, and any mistakes you make are small compared to the long-term benefits. I played it almost exclusively until about level 42 or so.

doing about 70 more horseback and you will get to lvl 42, and you can switch to Roaring Bull/Black knights. Join what most people doing now.

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I have 5 generals so I will try the 1R-block, but I am not sure if it will give the Veteran enough time to get through the north zone. But it is a cheap experiment as I do have 5 generals available. So will definitely give it a try.

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1R blocks are usually indicated in guides...as 1R that is. You cannot just replace any block with 1R, as time matters alot. On the guide you did post, I see no such setup.

But to give you a bit more understanding...
- 1 round (as per combat log you can watch) lasts 20 seconds for Tavern Genrals and 10 seconds for all the others
- 1 flag takes 3.3s to traverse

There is _alot_ more to be considered when doing blocks, but if you are simply following a guide, basic understanding will be sufficient, if you ever get around to creating blocks and stuff yourself, make _sure_ to dig into the material, because there is alot more going on then.

Thank you all. I can now run Horseback with ~370R losses, and I have the production of bread, bronze swords and brew to do it once almost every third day. Well, only almost, but I can trade for the rest. Since I have both MMA and Veteran I can do The Lost Skull and Island of Pirates with only recruit losses, but not sure about the trade-off.

But even with 1 lucky explorer and 8 savage scouts I still only get ~60 granite per day. And with the Horseback reward, I end at ~150 granite per day when doing the adventure. How do you get enough granite to upgrade you chains?

Should I just ignore everything else and keep running Horseback until I get to higher levels?

Stavros