Attacking Planets (or trying not to)

[Dan C.]

I seem to be having a problem with the game, and I don't know if it is a bug or just me.
I had two fleets, one of 70 fighters and one of several lt. Cruisers. I wanted to destroy the ships guarding a planet the turn before my ground forces arrived. So I created a strategy "Ignore Planet". I sent the fighters in the first wave. They made straight for the planet and bombed it (as well as taking out one ship on the way), then I moved the cruisers in, and then everyone seemed to ignore the planet. (but the situation was different)

The strategy was "Maximum range, Drop Troops (if any)", Has weapons, Nearest, Largest, Most Damaged. I turned on Use type and placed planet at the bottom of the list, I checked don't fire on planets (as well as bases/ships w/o weapons), unselected planets from break formation. The fleet was set to this as well as the fighter default strategy. (I put in drop troops, as I wanted to use it for the fleet with the troop transport as well)

With all this the planet was only 19% damaged The fighters actually moved though the defender's formation to go to the planet (i.e. the enemy ships were encountered half-way and a running battle was fought moving to the planet)
What did I do wrong??

[Phoenix-D]

Your ships were likely trying to kill any weapon platforms the planet had. Also, telling them to break formation will cancel any fleet orders you give them, and they'll revert to their class orders.

Phoenix-D

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Your ships were likely trying to kill any weapon platforms the planet had. Also, telling them to break formation will cancel any fleet orders you give them, and they'll revert to their class orders.

Phoenix-D

I know they do this on Capture Planet orders and can acidentally kill the planet but if you have a fleet strategy where ships are specifically told not to attack a planet will they still attack the WP's??

[Phoenix-D]

I think they will. The Planet checkbox likely refers to the planet itself..so without weapon platforms they will ignore the planet, but the weapon platforms draw them in. Just like the way the capture planet order works differently if you have a mixed force of transports and warships than just transports.

Phoenix-D

[Dan C.]

I think they will. The Planet checkbox likely refers to the planet itself..so without weapon platforms they will ignore the planet

I think that might be it. I have a saved Version of the game at that point, and there are 7 WP with missiles. However the fighters leave behind a nearby BC and CA with lots of weapons at the half-way point to go after the planet. (The near parameter should have kicked in)
As well they obviously keep attacking the planet after the WP are gone (and the ships are near-by attacking) as the population drops from 4000 to 3344, the 53 fighters who are left at the end can only do 1060 max points of damage a round (106 pop) so there has to be at least 4 rounds of firing after the WP are gone.
This would explain why when the second fleet arrives they seem to ignore the planet correctly.

[Suicide Junkie]

Also, your ships & units won't switch targets very often. Try setting the damage % per planet way down to 10% or so, and the fighters should start reevaluating their targetting choices earlier.

[Dan C.]

Try setting the damage % per planet way down to 10% or so

I just tried that and it didn't work. However I noticed that the secondary move was actually point-blank (not drop troops which it was originally, and intended to be.) If anyone is interested in taking a look, I have the save (default 1.78 Gold rules) on my web page Here
Just take the fleet labelled "Problem fleet" in the Xira system and attack the adjacent planet at 3,11.

[capnq]

Have you tried making "Drop Troops (if carrying)" the primary strategy, rather than secondary?

[Dan C.]

Have you tried making "Drop Troops (if carrying)" the primary strategy, rather than secondary?

This didn't Help, same effect. I chose Drop Troops Primary, and Max weapons seconday. The fighters fight though the defending fleet and attack the planet.

[PvK]

I think the problem is probably the "break formation" settings. If your "Ignore Planet" strategy has fighters or ships break formation, then they will use the strategy listed in their design.

"Don't Fire On Planets" does work and does include the weapon platforms, if any (i.e., if they are obeying that tactic, they won't fire at planets at all, even if they have WP's). Only the "Drop Troops" tactic cares if there are weapon platforms (if you have ships and they have WP's, your ships will try to kill the WP's before dropping troops).

PvK