[Roanon]

Does it work with drop troops / point blank maybe? I guess the optimum range strategy is chosen for this ship if it is not directly adjacent to the planet, and makes sure the ship stays out of range, forcing it to choose optimum again next move - ad infinitum. If dropping troops doesn't even work with drop/drop strategy, then there is something stupid hardcoded (I never tried to mix troop transports with weapons other than PDs, and this worked), and only Aaron could answer it - and, hopefully, do it better in SEV.

If there are weapon platforms on a planet, troop transports will not drop as long as there are warships present, letting these attack the WPs first (and maybe glass the planet). This utterly stupid behaviour is hard-coded, it is just not possible to land troops screened by warships and capture the planet unglassed despite a few functioning WPs. Only if the transport is not stacked with warships, it will try to drop the troops running the gauntlet against the WPs.