quote:
Originally posted by garvoid:
Can anyone please tell me the steps to take to sucessfully invade a planet. I am just useless !
thanks 
first, destroy the star of the system in question. second, rebuild the planets out of the asteroid rubble. third, colonize the new planets.
if you dont like that method, try this one: first, send in some warships to get rid of any fighters, ships, sats in orbit of the planet. give them orders not to attack the planet while doing this (under strategies in the empires menu, you can define strategies. then you can select the fleet in question and give it a strategy.. now the planet should be blocaded. if there are no weapon platforms on the planet, bring in loaded troop transports with orders to caputre planet. if there ARE weapon platforms on the planet you have two choices: one, send some ships in to attack the planet and draw fire off of the troop transports as they make their runs. two, use your warships to attack the planet and destroy the weapon platforms before landing the transports.
ofcourse, this does not include the "bomb them with plague bombs and recolonize later" method, nor does it cover the "hit them with neutron bombs and recolonize" method. it also skips the "use black ops to cause the planet to rebel, then demand the surrender of the new breakaway empire." And then there is the always-reliable "back the empire into a corner and demand the planet as tribute" method.
man, you could write an entire handbook JUST on capturing planets. how could anyone NOT like this game.