Badlag247 said:
Besides doing S+D in Soldiers Inc, I spent a fair amount of time figuring out how it works in a couple of the other games like Stormfall Age of War. This is one of the more interesting aspects to the game, and one that sets this game developer apart from the other TW style game providers.
What I have found is that there are a lot of people who know a lot about the game mechanics of S+D, but there are also a lot of false notions running around.
Before going into the conventional wisdom available, I'd like to suggest that any newbies learn the way S+D works at a low level before trying to push as high as they can go. The better you understand it before you start pushing, the lower your losses will be in the long run.
Myth: You always lose 
Verdict: Partly true
Done incorrectly, you will continue to pour more troops, resources, power, or what ever unit you want to go by, into the S+D and get less out.
It is also possible to lose catastrophically, as testified to by numerous players in the forums.
There are situations where you can come out ahead.
For example: there are gold locations after you beat every 5th level (starting with the 10th I believe) Done correctly, these are very profitable.
Myth: just keep playing / feeding the locations and you'll get it all back
Verdict: Partly true
It is possible to lose troops and not set yourself up for a large pay out.
It is vital you figure out how to do this so that you can figure out how to make sure you don't do this.
Myth: Don't send your best troops to S + D 
Verdict: Partly true
The truth to this one is that you don't want to lose all your best troops. It is possible, if you understand how the S+D works, to use your best troops to improve your return on investment.
Myth: All locations are more or less the same, just different difficulties 
Verdict: False
Besides the attack vs defense difference, there are differences between how the different locations operate. Figuring out the differences, and how they work, is the key to consistently profiting from the S+D.
Hopefully these tips will help commanders do better and have more fun.
I think the way you are trying to clarify S&Ds is actually obfuscating it. It seems mostly because you have tried to describe things with too few details. I'll go through adding what seems to be missing.
1) About Always Losing
What players usually refer to as always losing are the traditional locations (those that pop up every reset). These are, normally, always losing... resource-wise (there are ways around it, but this is very intensive, knowledge-wise, and generally a one off). It's important to make that distinction, as many players track power, not resources.
The other type you're talking about are the Syndicate Contracts. These do not function at all like normal locations, having predefined rewards that have nothing to do with what you use to break them. The best troops to use for these are Tm troops (Blizzards are the best off/res and Hailstorms are the best for defense). The reason for this is, since they do not depend on the resources going in, you might as well use as little as possible. Note that these locations are never one-sided (i.e. heavily aviation defended), and are split evenly across all types.
2) About Getting Troops Back
This is generally false. Except for the trick I mentioned above, you will, on average, lose ~12.5% of the resource value of all troops you send in. This is normally called the "tax." As such, you should not expect to get the missing 12.5% back by repeatedly running S&Ds.
3) About Best Troops
Clarification is needed here. In general, you should NEVER send your strategics into S&Ds. It is a good idea to try converting your aviation to armor (your resource value will decrease, but the power value will increase), but this should only be done when you have a firm understanding of the mechanics and your odds of converting successfully.
4) Locations Being the Same
I would say this is generally true. There are different resource banking curves that appear at different levels, but otherwise they all operate the same. The only thing that is truly different, location to location, is the ZHG troop composition. This is why you should always test a location before committing to breaking it (VERY IMPORTANT at high levels).
