Assault Troop Transport

[minipol]

Originally posted by Taera:
you might want to try using short-range weapons on your ATT. (dont forget the shields and armor... a lot of). Massive-mounted planetary napalm might do the trick (hehe - 1800 damage per 40kT per 2 turns)
......
guess what, if armed the ship will proceed to capture the target planet immidiately. Be careful though as in max tech three APB-armed M.W.P's can cream the transport before it comes into range.

And if im not mistaken, if you capture the WP's intact, you get them to work for YOU.

This doens't work. I have run a series of test with transports without a weapon, then transports with a weapon and the best i've got so far was that the transports attacked the planet.
I used the Assault Transport (had a ripper on it),
switched the fleet orders from drop troops, point blank to point blank and then drop troops. The assault transport still had drop troops as it's own orders but they just continued to go with the rest of the fleet and destroy the planet and not drop troops. I've let them break formation but they just attack the planet and not drop troops.
I've tried ever combination i know.
Is there anybody that has succeeded in doing this because i think Slicks right and that it's not possible.

[geoschmo]

You are right Minipol. Weapons on a troop transport (other than PDC) are no help in a planetary invasion. If your ship and fleet strategy is set to drop troops they will not fire (other than PDC) and if the ship and fleet strategy is set to anything other than drop troops, they will not drop troops.

Geoschmo

[minipol]

Hopefully this is changed for SE V. It would be cool to have mixed fleets and have the TT go in to drop troops under fire.

[Slick]

Originally posted by Aloofi:

quote:

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Originally posted by oleg:
What would happen if ALL you ships are "troop transport" class ? They don't have all have troops on board, just be labeled "troop transports"

They would go into a corner. I think.

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I don't know about that. I haven't tested this so it is pure conjecture, but I was actually gonna do this in a game one time but my fleet was waxxed before I could try. Since there would be no other ships besides TT's, I think they would all rush the planet and try to capture it. If your run-of-the-mill attack ship was labelled as a TT, you might have to tweak the "Capture Planet" strategy to get them to fire appropriately.

I was also thinking that you could transition ships in and out of the "TT" class by a retrofit, which would not even have to change any components or cost anything.

Like I said, I haven't tested this, but I think it could work.

Slick.

[minipol]

I retried:
8 Assault Transport with 1 beam weapon
8 planet busters.

Fleet orders:
- Point blank
- Drop Troops

Result:
Sometimes (1 in 5/6 times) the AT seems to drop troops while their are still Planet busters around. Most of the time though, the planet is destroyed. When they do drop troops is probably when the defences are gone. I couldn't check since it did test strategically.
But i really can't seem to make them drop troops immediately.

Labelling attack ship as troop transports didn't seem to do anything.

[oleg]

OK, I think I made it work:

ALL ships in a fleet must be Troop transports, ALL must have troops on board and weapons. This way they all fly toward planet firing weapons ! The first troop transport that reaches planet will drop troops. Even if there are still weapon platforms on the planet !

However, if ground combat fails, this ship will become "attack ship" - no troops on board ! Other troop transports will try to fly away untill the unlucky ship is destroyed. Then all of them turn back on the planet like sharks!

[minipol]

Oleg,

i knew they would drop troops if the fleet consisted of all troop transports but what i was trying to achieve was having a mixed fleet of troop transports and attack ships and having the TS drop troops while the attack ships pound the planetary defenses. I haven't succeeded in doing this.