kslanov said:

1. your opinion on why the OS failed

in my opinion, the OS have not fail... sure, the report say "fail" but look at the influence... your OS loose a total of 60 mil influence, ennemy loose almost 180 mil influence... if it was during a kvk, you must have made 3 time more pts in the event that the ennemy...

in the screenshot below, i have be OS and game say that i am victorious... but when you look at the loss of influence, it don't fell like a victory...

siege got wrecked like they dont have the 50% advantage over melee

50% advantage seem huge... certainly when small cities fight each other... but at high level, 50% is not so much... by example, i have a lvl 26 wall, who already add 40% to my defense... if target city was with lvl 31 wall, it already add 55% defense to ALL troop

And the ennemy have not so much troop in town, it mean that he must have do a lot of research for reach his total influence... at high lvl, research can give more health/defense/attack bonus that gear...

EDIT : have just check my own statistic... by example, without booster, my defense is :

- all troop defense : 427.21%

- troop defense during defense : 95%

- Ranged defense : 356.9%

- tier 1-5 defense : between 20 and 27%

Shaman - Baggy, special gear for melee

sure, baggy is not ideal for fight but in my case, baggy is at lvl 59... and sharp ( my speciality is archer ) is only lvl 31... so, for now, i use baggy with archer gear... 6 piece of gear, each with 3 legendary gems for attack/defense/health... only the gems give me 60% bonus for helath/defense/attack

3. what would be the winning OS configuration

OS initietor had OS repute as well

you probably mean POP repute...

well, the OS initiator is only 650 mil in influence and seem to not have send a lot of troop when looking at the loss of influence ( less that 1 mil influence loss on the 60 mil )...

Need to remember that each march in a onslaught use the bonus of his own hero/shaman/booster/etc... POP repute apply only on the troop owned, not to reinforcement or other members of the OS...

result will have be better if the more strong member of the OS organize the onslaught and send a lot of troop...

i think that your main mistake was to give up after the initial OS... your first OS was in itself a victory since ennemy loose 3 time more influence that you... a second similar onslaught will have fully exterminate his T5, giving you victory and a lot more point in the event...

in my own example in the screenshot, they have give up too... but a second OS will have exterminated my 10 mil t5 since my meat wall of t1-t2-t3 was fully decimated in the first OS...

2. your opinion on lost/killed ration (we expected at to kill at least 5m T5)

well, first attack point is calculated ... ennemy was with a huge amount of T5... in fact, more T5 in his town that all the troop in your OS... it is a lot of attack point... his defense and health point are huge too... lot of attack point have lead you to "loose" the onslaught so your loss is directly 80% of your troop... if your health/defense was superior to the ennemy, you will have loose less that 80%...

Personaly, i don't think that your OS is a defeat... it is like the few non professional texan soldat at fort alamo who have kill plenty of the spanish invader... they was exterminated but kill a lot of the spanish professional army... don't look at what the game say but look at the loss in influence... rapport is 3-1 in your favor... a bigger OS or a second one similar wil have fully exterminate your ennemy

kslanov said:

So I guess, since the rest of the guys were about the same lvl with the defenders, it all comes to the amount of troops. And like BARBOSA921 said we just got overwhelmed.

look at 7min 03sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNaYFgml9IQ&t=922s

i think that the concept of overhelm/saturation from normal attack can be apply to OS... the max % for saturation is 153.7%... the max saturation level greatly reduce the amount of troop loss...

At equal strenght, a attacker with 1000 T5 against a defender with 1537 T5... attacker will loose 80% and defender will loose 48% of their troop...

kslanov said:

So I guess, since the rest of the guys were about the same lvl with the defenders, it all comes to the amount of troops. And like BARBOSA921 said we just got overwhelmed.

look at 7min 03sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNaYFgml9IQ&t=922s

i think that the concept of overhelm/saturation from normal attack can be apply to OS... the max % for saturation is 153.7%... the max saturation level greatly reduce the amount of troop loss...

At equal strenght, a attacker with 1000 T5 against a defender with 1537 T5... attacker will loose 80% and defender will loose 48% of their troop...

kslanov said:

Just tested how the boosts work, here are the results:

- you get the bonuses regardless of when did you put them on, before joining the OS or after

- you get the bonuses ONLY while the boost in on, if you make a hit after it expires, you won't get the bonus. Even if you joined the OS while your boosts were on

Np.. these results are from testing in an OS, will have to double check the mechanics for POP and reinforcement.

kslanov said:

Did anyone come across a good explanation / tests on how scouting mechanics work? Seems to me it differes from that of regular troops

scouting is my primary speciality... seem to work like with other troop...

due to the recent login problem, i have end up without shield and with hero in yielding mode ( centurion gear )... i have can see that in case of spy, saturation is something insane...

Guys who have attack me was with ALL his statistic better that mine but he have loose badly... my only advantage was the amount of spy who give me the saturation level

The only thing with scout is that only stat for scout and general one are used... guys can have millions of other troop in the city, they are not used for a spy battle...

First of all, thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response!

Unfortunately, we really did lose the OS, the 60m losses are mine, we each lost about the same. So, point-wise it was about 17b for us and 40b for them.

You made some good points about shamans and the amount of troops. On a second thought - it was a great advantage for them.

Still, there are couple things that are not clear for me:

1. I thought the 50% siege advantage over melee works similar to reducing boosts, so can't be simply overridden by other boosts. However, I can't find any useful info on how they exactly work.

2. Got confused over how the POP repute for onslaughts works. It supposedly adds 20% bonuses to everyone participating in the OS, but again, can't find any confirmation that it works as it suppose to

3. Is there any difference in boosting up (military) before you join the OS or after you join the OS?

Just tested how the boosts work, here are the results:

- you get the bonuses regardless of when did you put them on, before joining the OS or after

- you get the bonuses ONLY while the boost in on, if you make a hit after it expires, you won't get the bonus. Even if you joined the OS while your boosts were on

Times are changing now regarding scouts it's becoming more and more dangerous to just equip lynx and drop shield. I suggest if you do so you do your skills favouring scouts and with vendla as your shaman with gear equipped so that it benefits all your troops not just a certain type even then it's questionable.

A guy who is specialized in scouts with stage 6 vendla not afraid to attack with 1.3m t6 scouts could potentially hurt you even if you have a sufficient number of scouts to defend with overwhelming the attacker like before shamans and runes. My attack now is around 1100% with shamans and runes everyone's attack grew way more than defense and health did with new updates.

Works a bit different when you are defending pop tho. Test it out you will see boosts stay on after you enter.

And why you lost the OS well its simple the guys you did OS with are not very strong. And the guy you tried to OS was stronger than most to begin with then he clearly overwhelmed you your OS was very small. You never stood a chance. And game mechanics aren't that much of a mystery, yes there are things still unknown but most of the stuff and now it works is already known and spread around. 

Just tested how the boosts work, here are the results:

- you get the bonuses regardless of when did you put them on, before joining the OS or after