planet capturing

[Dubrok]

Hi,

i tried to capture a planet in a pbw game and it didn't work out the way i wanted it to:

i had 2 fleets, 1 with attack ships on "optimal firing range" and another fleet with a troop-transport set on "capture planet".
they both were at the location of the planet when i declared war on the empire the planet belonged to.
The battle replay showed that i had lost half my ships(~10) to the enemy planets platforms(3 or 4) and 1!! enemy ship in the first battle. my transport stayed in the lower right corner, not making any attempt to drop the troops(?!!)
in the second battle my attack ships stayed out of firing range of the platforms and only the transport approached the planet and got killed of course.

what went wrong??? i don't know why the transport didn't "sneak in" with the first wave and just dropped the troops under the cover of my attackships...

thanx for the tips and btw, are 400 troops enough for a 1,6mio planet?

Dubrok

[Fyron]

Normally, troop transports do not approach the planet until either:
1) All weapon platforms are gone.
2) There are no more attack ships with weapons.

Were there no surviving attack ships in the fleet with the transport when it rushed towards the planet?

400 troops should be enough troops for any sized planet in stock SE4 (especially against the AI), assuming that they have shields, except possibly a filled ringworld or sphereworld. But how often do you see those? You should probably not lose any troops if they have shields, and probably not very many if they don't have shields.

[Grandpa Kim]

This sounds very odd, Dubrok.

What should happen, and happens for me without fail, is the troop transport will head for a corner as long as there are weapon platforms on the planet. Meanwhile your attack ships will attack the planet and eliminate the platforms with hardly any damage to facilities or pop. or other items in cargo.

When the platforms are gone, the transport will close on the planet and drop its troops. With the platforms gone it is in no danger from the planet but is still vulnerable to fire from sats, fighters and ships, though your attack ships should still be attacking those. If no enemies are left your ships will either head to the corners or park in place which usually gives your transport room to get to the planet.

I have no explanation for your ships retreating with active enemy defenses in place. ... Ah! An idea! Was it possisble all the remaining ships had all their weapons destroyed?

And yes, 400 troops is plenty for 1.6 million pop, unless he too has 400 troops!

[Arkcon]

With the latest patch, the ships seem to do what's correct, you don't even have to give the fleet the "Capture planets" order ...
1). attack ships close to planet, transports run to corners

2). attack ships fire until all weapon platforms on the planet are dead. Then they mill around, or attack other targets. At that point, transports close and drop troops. Dropped troops must now tangle with troops on planets, they are not destroyed by attack ships.

Now, I did lose a full transport to the TDM-Modpack Norack recently. The ships cleared the planet's weapon platforms, but didn't destroy all of the missile carrying space stations in time, which specifically targeted the incoming transport.

Ah well, those are the late-game breaks.

[Dubrok]

thanks, i will keep that in mind :-)

so i need to destroy the weapons platforms first.
hmm, so those 400 troops were much...good to know. is there any "formula" for how many troops you need for the different sizes of planets?

thanx, Dubrok

[Slynky]

Originally posted by Dubrok:
thanks, i will keep that in mind :-)

so i need to destroy the weapons platforms first.
hmm, so those 400 troops were much...good to know. is there any "formula" for how many troops you need for the different sizes of planets?

thanx, Dubrok

It's really just a gamble on if the world has troops defending it. I've been taking various sizes of worlds in the Anklebiters game with 24 troops because there were no troops defending.