Invasion Tactics

There are a lots of ways to proceed. Me? If it is going to take more than a couple two or three combat trasnports, I go for a terror star as the most cost-effective approach. Hmmm . . . sounds more like an accountant than a fleet admiral, doesn't it? LOL.

Good luck Spike.

The way i invade planets with large populations depends on whether or not i need the planet or just want to kill of the AI (terrorstar).

I normally check the AI's stats on the diplomacy screen to see what soldiering bonus the AI has and compare that to my own. Then i try to figure out how many combat transports i need and blast a way.

I normally use cheese-tactics when invading: Alpha-strike and send the AI to war before i attack, to make sure his planets aren't to well defended.

In addition to the terror star or combat transport alternatives, you can keep the planet intact when you cultute bomb with multiple party palace starbases. So . . . use them all at different times for maximum fun.

I try to culture flip a strong major but maybe alpha strike a weak minor that is no longer useful. To end a game rapidly, you just can't beat a terror star alpha strike.

I usually try to come in with enough troops to be able to use normal combat, and hence save some cash.

However, if I am desperate (or short on troops in the vicinity), I will go in with less, and choose the invasion tactic to help me... I compare my numbers * my soldiering bonus with their numbers * their soldiering bonus, and factor in different invasion tactics. I usually try to choose ones that don't damage the PQ (since I want the planet later, and this is the one thing I can't rebuild), but sometimes you just have to use Mass Drivers.

~SDC~

Remember that the damages from invasion tactics only happen if you capture the system. You could use Mass Drivers to beat down the population and then finish it up with Traditional Warfare if there's too much.

And some times you just have to bite the bullet and blow everything up. I played one game where the Altarians had 5 systems in a sector (and the map was set to Scattered stars!), every planet had ~40k population, and all their defenses gave them an advantage factor equal to mine when I invaded with Traditional Warfare. It took a whole system's worth of soldiers to capture one of their systems, and it was guaranteed to flip back to them in three or four turns. First time I ever used Terror Stars, and boy, it felt good.

~SDC~

They really should block that exploit. "The big meteorites smashed down, but did no damage because we killed the followup troops!"

But they you would introduce the "I know I can never capture the system because of the insanely high defense, but it only takes one Combat Transport to ruin their planet forever" exploit.

~SDC~

Peter's right, it's the lesser of two evils.

Else we will have 1mil troop mass driver transports wreaking havoc.

Hmm...OIC!

Of course in context it probably *would* take only one Combat Transport to ruin their planet forever...for that matter, one big rock would do it. It doesn't quite make sense that the alien dreadnoughts pose no threat at all to planets...but for playability reasons--especially since the AI wouldn't know how to use the technique--I guess we are better off the way we are. Perhaps we can envision starships that can't go deep into a gravity well and have to slug it out near the Oort Cloud, then the transports can go deeper into the system, where we can posit short-range defenses that could deflect/destroy mass drivers unless there was sufficient force to overcome those defenses. Yada yada.

what gamew is this? :notsure: