ship and planet capture
 

Lets say you have a fleet that consists of the following:
- Several Ship Capture ships w/ no weapons
- Several Ship Capture ships w/ APBs
- Several Ship Capture ships w/ Planetary bombs
- One Troop ship loaded with troops

What is the optimal strategy to use if you want to capture a planet, but still maintain the ability to capture ships? Are the following assumptions correct?
1) set fleet to default "Capture Planets" strategy: your ships will refuse to capture ships.
2) as (1) above, but modify "Capture Planets" strategy so the Secondary Movement Strategy is "Capture Enemy Ships": Your ships will refuse to attack the planet
3) as (1) above, but set ships (and Ships (no weapons)) to break formation: troop ship will head directly to the planet, instead of waiting until all WPs are destroyed

Thanks.

-Spoon

Re: ship and planet capture
 

4) Split the fleet into two:
Napalm + Troop transport: orders to capture planet.
Others: orders to capture ships.

Shift-click the two fleets and send them in simultaneously.

Re: ship and planet capture
 

Does shift-clicking ensure the following:
1) both fleets will be in combat together if the warp-point they go through is guarded.
2) both fleets will arrive at the same time even if one of them has less movement points.

-Spoon

Re: ship and planet capture
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think you have to make sure your fleet movement rates are equal to get this to work. Otherwise, one part will arrive late.

Re: ship and planet capture
 

I would suggest doing a LOT of testing of this before you try it in a game. I tried it a while back and could never get it to work right. Even when the fleets had the same movement they arrived one after the other. If what I found still holds true at best the first fleet would survive but wipe out the enemey so the second fleet didn't get to do it's thing. At worst neither fleet separatly would be strong enough to beat the enemy and both would be destroyed by an inferior force.

Geoschmo

Re: ship and planet capture
 

Back to your original question though...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I believe this is incorrect. If the ship has boarding parties and it's ship strategy is "capture ships" it should do so regardless of fleet strategy.

The thing I know for sure is the fleet strategy has to be "Capture Planet" or the troop ships will not drop troops. I do not think this is true for boarding ships, only troop ships.

Geoschmo

Re: ship and planet capture
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I believe this is incorrect. If the ship has boarding parties and it's ship strategy is "capture ships" it should do so regardless of fleet strategy.[/QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think if Ship Capture ships are in a fleet set to "Capture Planets" with the Secondary Movement Strategy Set to "Optimal Firing Range", the Ship Capture ships with no weapons will say to themselves: "I have no troops, so I can't follow the Primary Strategy. And I have no weapons so I can't follow the Secondary Strategy. It's probably best if I run to the corner and get shot at."
The Ship Capture ships with weapons will follow the "lets go shoot our weapons at stuff" plan, but will forget about the marines they have on board.
Main problem, I think, is that the game doesn't consider Boarding Parties to be a weapon. I think.
-Spoon

Re: ship and planet capture
 

Couldn't you give the fleet "capture planet" orders and then have the boarding ships break strategy? Would they then capture ships on just their design orders?

Re: ship and planet capture
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That would make the Ship Capture ships without weapons run to the corner, since I can't set Ships (no weapons) to Break Strategy without affecting the troop ship (which also has no weapons). This is assuming that I'm correct in assuming that the game assumes that Boarding Parties are not a weapon...

Re: ship and planet capture
 

The first thing I'd do is get those Ship Capture ships without APBs to a shipyard for a refit. I wouldn't design a Ship Capture ship without at least one weapon to chip away at the enemy's shields.

For that matter, I wouldn't design a troop transport without any weapons, either.

[ September 13, 2002, 00:35: Message edited by: capnq ]

Re: ship and planet capture
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Unless, of course, you enemy didn't have shields...

Re: ship and planet capture
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think you are correct about the boarding parties not being considered weapons, but I have tested it and it doesn't do what you think it will. The troop transport attacks the planets and the boarding ships attack the ships. It works just fine as one fleet. Just set the fleet strat to capture planet and set the boarding ships strats to capture ships. You don't even have to worry about secondary strategies.

Where you might have a problemn though is if the planet has defenses and you don't have any ships with weapons that can hit them your troop transport is going to rush in unsupported and might get pasted.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, but it's not even neccesary to do that. Your boarding ships will do their ship strategy even if they are not set to break formation. At least in my tests they did.

Geoschmo

Re: ship and planet capture
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks for running a test... Did you set Ships (no weapons) to break formations? I think that's what I meant by case (3) in the original post:

"3) as (1) above, but set ships (and Ships (no weapons)) to break formation: troop ship will head directly to the planet, instead of waiting until all WPs are destroyed"

This is probably the option I'll use - I'd rather accidentally glass the planet than lose ships, in this case...

Re: ship and planet capture
 

"Thanks for running a test... Did you set Ships (no weapons) to break formations?"

Ships with no weapons ALWAYS break and run for the corner; they will never stay in formation regardless of that check box. I don't know how BP fit into this.