quote:
What the heck are militia?
You mean the population of a planet actually defend it like troops would? And how formidable are they? How many troops are sufficient to take over a medium-population planet. (Medium troops, filled with Ground Cannon III)
I thought I'd be able to simply pop my troops down there and take over the planet.
Glad I found out about these now, I'm about to launch my planet-conquering fleet.
You may want to add some defense to those troops, otherwise they'll be cut down faster than you can say "oops"
One tiny shield generator III provides 60 hitpoints!
But aside from that, militia are insignificant for planets of less than 500Mil or so. They will prevent a half-baked capture attempt, so you'll need a dedicated transport design, even if its only a destroyer hull.
Be sure to bring at least 50 troops to any planet capture, large planets will require hundreds of troopers, or planetary bombardment.
Planetary militias will be fully restored to their original size whenever your landing forces are completely defeated.
If your troops hold out for 10 rounds, you can drop additional reinforcements from a second (or third or fourth) ship.
If your first transport's troopers are wiped out, don't bother sending the second one in, since it will suffer the same fate against the same conditions.
If the first troopers are still there, the second wave faces fewer militia and enjoys a larger attack force. Keep dropping reinforcements until you win.
With a decent ground combat racial characteristic, a single Large Transport, filled with 375 Troops should be more than sufficient for most worlds, and a second transport can be used for homeworld assault.