Troops and capturing plannets.
 

what is the best way to do this?
what stratiergies should my ships and fleets be set to, and what desighns should I use?
at the moment I am capturing plannets with a heavy shileded ship, but the satalites then destroy the plannet...

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

Um well you say your ARE capturing planets so you might know what strategies youe need but I'll explain because I had the same problem when I started.

First your transport carrying the troops must have a strategy to drop troops. This is a standard strategy called Capture Planet. This is just for the individual troop ship so the system knows, this is a ship that is built to drop troops it will then use the troops on board to drop on the planet.
That troop ship must be part of a fleet that also has the strategy to capture planets. So the same strategy, Capture Planet, for individual troop ship and fleet. You say satellites destroy the planet once you capture it. Are you using a fleet with warships to destroy the planets defenses?. If the fleet has the order to capture planet, the warships will shoot the planet and defenses until the planet is helpless, then they will stop if you have the troop ship set to capture the planet. The Troop ship has been staying clear of the fighting until now. As the defenses are destroyed the troop ship will then fly over to the defenceless planet and drop the troops. Whether they succeed or not is up to size of planet population, their physical toughness and the size of your troop contingent and toughness. I can say that the troop ship waits for the weapon platforms to die. I am sorry but I can't guarantee that it waits for the satellites to die as well, I just don't know about that bit. Try it and find out.

Edit. As for designs, use PD and guns to kill satellites. You can still use shielded transports if you want to capture the defenses along with the planet. I assume if the ship has shields it will risk the defenses.

[ March 06, 2004, 09:52: Message edited by: Randallw ]

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

Hey great information and it is all logical makes sense. I did it one time and I did not know what I did to make it happen. I was playing with the strategies when I did do it, but totally by accident.

Do you mind if I post this at my website? Not that I get many visitors just excellent information. I intend to make my site a depository for all information regarding Modding, Game Stratgies and all SEIV information. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Let me know if you would rather I did not Quote your message here. Otherwise I will place it in the strategy section. Thanks.

Here is the post: CDG SEIV Website Post - RE: Strategy for Capturing Planets.

[ March 06, 2004, 10:48: Message edited by: Desert Fox ]

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

Hi,

Give your troop carrier some weapons, and PDC. And they go with the rest off the fleet straight to the planet, instead of waiting out of harms way until the defenses are down.

I know it's a risk but you avoid the possibility that you run out of time (turns) after the defenses are down.

Inti,

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

They do? Was this in 1.91? I thought we'd decided it was impossible to get the AI to do that in 1.84.

PvK

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

usually I have 2 fleets - one designed to glass the planet, one full of construction ships & transports. all I have to do is lower the pop to the point where my troops vastly outnumber theirs (i like having a 2:1 ratio usually) then i can capture it. If i loose a significant amount of troops, I use the construction ships to rebuild the troops. This works well against the AI, i have yet to test this out in PBW.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

Heres the strategy -

You want a fleet to do this

Couple of escorts that can bLast any defending ships
A larger ships with point defense cannons to bLast any missile sats or WPs.

Anothe ship with beam weapons to take out sats - dont drop youre troop ship until all planetary satelite platforms are bLasted. If you have a troop ship with shilds that can move quickly you can drop them on small planets with WP - make sure you have at least 100 troops on board to do the job remember the planet gets 1 unit for every 20 pop they have so for a 4000 pop planet they will have 200 basic armed units - so you will need at Last 300 to do the job.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

From the Newbie FAQ

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I can confirm this info is deadly accurate with the following provisos:

I have successfully captured planets where the troop ship was set to capture planet but the fleet was NOT!

I have successfully captured planets with unconnected Groups of fleets/ships with only the troop ship set to capture planets!

BUT... being a suspenders and belt man, I do not make a habit of this. I may have just been lucky but it has worked and the combat replay looked just like a properly ordered capture planet fleet.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

If any ship with Capture Planet type strategy is on your side AND it has troops on it, the warships will stop firing as soon as all weapon platforms are gone from the planet, waiting for the troop ship do drop troops on it. You do not really need one fleet, or the fleet to have a strategy with Drop Troops orders.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

IIRC some of that FAQ info was develobed before 1.84 when I believe the fleet strategy was of critical import. With 1.84 there was a change that a ships individual strategy would override the fleet strategy, so some of that is no longer correct.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

If I were makeing a fleet specificaly for captureing plannets, what should it consist of?
obviosly I will need ships capable of sweeping 100 mines, and a ship to drop troops.
whats the best setup for taking down WP and sats?

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">so what does fleet stratergy do then???

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">so what does fleet stratergy do then??? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If you don't select that your ships must split the fleet formation, then, all the ships into the fleet will use the Fleet Strategy (and they will use it until the leader is killed!).

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

ok so they use fleet stratergy untill they break formation.
I presume they will break as soon as the leader is killed also?

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

Yes. Death of the leader breaks the fleet up in combat. The fleet will be intact (assuming some ships survive) after combat, with a new leader. But during combat, they will no longer be a "fleet" except for purposes of fleet experience bonus.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

Thanks for the info. I haven't been setting the strategy correctly on my troop transports. Sometimes they would take over a planet, and sometimes, they would fire on the planet and wipe it out, especially when there wasn't much population on it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

How would someone get the AI to build more troop transports and troops?

I am certain it is a simple process.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

what kind of ship design is best for takeing out weapon platforms?
I tryed using seeker designs, but althouh my seekers are currenly at 16 and his max range is at 12 or so. my seeker ships keep getting to close to the plannet, even though they are at max range, dont get hurt...

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

I believe that max range is hard coded as range 8... or was it 10? Something like that. Try optimal instead. I think it might actually act as a max range strategy better than max range.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

that sounds prety strange...
ill try it.

didnt seem to make any diference. they sit at range 10...

[ March 09, 2004, 07:17: Message edited by: se5a ]

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

One way to spare your ships is to use only carriers. They have strategy "don't get hurt" and fighters do the job.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Minefields are encountered and dealt with while each individual fleet is moving. Doesn't matter if on warp points, planets, or elsewhere. Combat is after movement - but remember, there are 30 "days" of movement/combat per turn.
BTW, planets ordered to launch mines do this before the first day of movement.

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

What happens if I deploy a minefield around a planet?
When an enemy fleet attacks, will they detonate the mines before engaging in combat, like in a warp point?

Re: Troops and capturing plannets.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes.