What is the point of building defenses on a colony?

[Madmire]

Since I've reached tier 3 islands in the expedition system, I've yet to have an attacker just give up after assaulting my colony. Understandably so, as I can't imagine myself failing to take a colony I attack.

Since I receive ZERO benefit from any unsuccessful defense of one of my colonies, I've begun seriously asking myself why I bother spending the time trying to set up an effective defense. Indeed, since you seem to only get valor points from killing mercenaries, seemingly any player mounted defense is actually a benefit rather than a detriment to an attacking army.

At this point I've decided I will no longer waste a single second setting up a defense, at least till BB provides some benefit from my doing so.

[SweaterPuppies]

Tis true. Placing defenses is pretty pointless as it stands.

You cannot place the defenses where ever you want and normally there are gigantic holes in the marching paths. I see very little point to placing defenses as they can be easily avoided. That worries me about these "defend x amount" of colonies achievements as unless you get someone who has no clue what they are doing, you have already lost the battle. So by the time you get to tier 3, that never happens and you are praying for whomever attacks you to not be paying attention and accidentally kill all of their marshals and use all of their medipacks. I guess that I digressed from your point though. At least we both came to the same conclusion.

Why build defenses other than to cost your opponent a few extra bars of steel or iron?

[Perwyn]

since you seem to only get valor points from killing mercenaries, seemingly any player mounted defense is actually a benefit rather than a detriment to an attacking army.

I've attacked several player islands with no added defenses and have gotten valor points in my loot.

At this point I've decided I will no longer waste a single second setting up a defense

Thanks!!

Seriously tho, I hear what you're saying. A good part of the time it makes no sense to even build a camp because of where it's placed so it's better not to do it. It actually is free loot and XP for somebody. But once in a while I'll get a map where I can effectively load up the path to the leader. My island might still get taken, but it's gonna cost to do it. Occasionally it's a deterrent.

I think it also depends on the size of the map. Smalls are horrible and to me, aren't worth messing with.

[Koshko]

By Tier 2-3, the troop allotment to take a map is too high to really bother with defenses. It can work as a visual deterrent. I want easy, quick experience points, so I will just cancel if a map looks like it would take time and heavy troop loss. I have more than enough resources, although I still get saddened over the lack of granite maps now. It's sometimes very effective to hold a map at the lower levels and sizes though.

Also I don't care how much XP others make off of me when they take my stuff. Placing defenses costs nothing, and you don't lose anything more from losing a defended colony.

[Ceruhe]

Taking a L3 colony with less than 1800 units has been a pain, that's about the only reason to build defenses to aggrevate other players. It's not like on huge maps and without planning your blocks, that you are forced to steamroll every camp in the way anyhow, another 40 troops here and there aren't going to be a deciding factor anymore.

Personally, not only having dropped expeditions now completely due to getting shafted on the algorithm for 6 months+, I only stick to the T1 small ones as well, those are the only ones (save some exceptions on T2) where player skill is actually thing, meaning you could end up fully utelizing all of your marshalls for blocks and what have you without needing to waste another 40 troops here and there to clear a path after BB artificially cut your leg for no reason....well, other than call it "PvP" along with a "woah hold up there dude who actually spends time to excel at this, we will limit you before you have even properly started as to not appear to be good" mentality. Nothing quite as interesting in PvP as getting pegged down to normalize everybody's skill....and then call it balanced.

But yea, nothing has been done with Expeditions since it's horrendous impletation, too bad unused Defense Points don't convert into Valor Points, otherwise you'd raking it in hard....and got nothing to spend it on either

[Koshko]

The game is clearly set up to almost completely quit giving you granite, titanium, and gold ore colonies below Tier 3 once you get to the higher experience levels. I think it's done to keep the "masters" from hogging all of the easy colonies. I can get why, but it still shafts people like me. I really don't expect anything to ever be done with Expeditions again, given that the consensus is that it's a failure. It's a shame, because I like doing it.

[Perwyn]

Yeah, I've noticed that as well. Used to be able to drop back from tier 3 and still get a decent colony, but seems like that's been "fixed" so sure, you can drop back, just as long as you're OK with coal and hardwood colonies almost exclusively.

It's really too bad the general consensus is one of failure, cause I also enjoy doing expeditions quite a bit. They're a fun & fast alternative to adventures, and don't tend to get boring like adventures do cause the maps change a little and you have to pay attention to what you're doing a little more with expeditions. Oh, and did I mention they're faster? Smaller maps, shorter walks, faster generals....

Now that the excitement of the new Ali Baba adventures has worn off, I've gone back to doing expeditions and hardly ever run adventures anymore. I get in the mood once in a while and binge on adventures, then don't run any for weeks at a time. Improvement on expeditions would be welcome, but like Koshko, I don't think anything is going to be put into them going forward. Kinda like the science system but that's another thread.

[Pochucker]

Lol I reached this conclusion about a week after PVP started -saved alot of aggravation.