Yeah seems pretty dead in that area of the game doesn't it?  I didn't even see a target when I looked today.  I never really played with the suicide squad that much.  First mistake I ever made as a new player was putting it all down on a LH target and watching a whale gulp it up.  I I think it was "trotskinski or trotskentski."  something similar to that.  It was the yahoo era so hard to recall it clearly.

Yes, in my early days I also sent my units to a "safe harbour" which turned out to be very unsafe for them. 😣

Does anone use def units along with off units on raids?

I've seen it done. Did it myself in the very early days, for raiding capacity, but these days it's a bit hard to understand why would anyone do it.

Some people have interesting strategies. For example, these units were sent earlier today to raid a player in my BH (I repeat: raid him, not defend against him!):

i

So yes, some people do send def - and even scouts - on raids. 😁

However, unless you are absolutely certain that you want to do it and you have a very good reason why to do that, I would suggest against it.