Troops vs Militia

[Nyx]

Those bombs don't fire every round, the militia does. Also, if you pack all bombs onto the troops the militia will slaughter them.

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[Elmo]

Nyx

Right, they fire every other turn. However a small troop with three level 3 Cluster bombs delivers 270 points of damage every other turn and should kill 9 militia with that firepower. I did not see anywhere near that many militia killed in either of my recent battles. I did fight a battle where my 36 troops (armed as above) killed 67 militia while losing 24. That is better than 2:1 kills. Since my earlier kill ratio was 1:1 it appears the odds in combat make a difference. It is very disappointing that this is not even discussed in the manual.

What do you recommend for troop weapons if not Cluster Bombs? I don't see anything else that will give small troops an average of 135 points per combat turn.

Thanks,
Elmo

quote:

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Originally posted by Nyx:
Those bombs don't fire every round, the militia does. Also, if you pack all bombs onto the troops the militia will slaughter them.

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[This message has been edited by Elmo (edited 08 February 2001).]

[raynor]

I always thought the Ground Cannon III was the best weapon to arm troops with?

I miss MOO2's info display that shows the attacker/defender bonuses. I also miss Alpha Centauri's unit vs. unit calculation of combat success.

Sometimes, it almost seems like you do better in ground combat with 100 small troops armed with <sticks> than you do with 75 medium troops armed with <nukes>. I really wish we could see more of how the combat is calculated.

[Puke]

a gound combat simulator would be nice. the best way i can think of to test this out is to make a game with max homeworlds, set to player controll, and send in a fleet of troop transports and try a different troop type on each homeworld.

[Elmo]

Puke

If you do this, please post your results. I'm sure a lot of us would like to see it. As I mentioned previously, IMO this should really be in the manual.

Elmo

quote:

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Originally posted by Puke:
a gound combat simulator would be nice. the best way i can think of to test this out is to make a game with max homeworlds, set to player controll, and send in a fleet of troop transports and try a different troop type on each homeworld.

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[Baron Munchausen]

Ground combat could be more interesting even without major revisions like direct control of explicit units on a 'combat grid' like space combat. If we could tell our troops to use a specific STRATEGY, like 'frontal assault' or 'dig in and defend' or 'hit and run', and these strategies had a REAL effect on how combat was handled, we'd at least have as much control as we do with strategic ship combat. Buttons to choose these strategies could be added to the troops combat window. If I don't think I can win outright but want my troops to hold-on as long as possible I'd choose 'dig in' for the strategy. If I thought I could take a planet immediately I'd choose 'frontal assault' for a strategy. Then press the "begin" button...

I'm not sure if the unit strategy that you can set for a troop has any effect in combat or not, but there is no 'fleet level' strategy for troops. There ought to be. It'd be consistent with the ship level part of the game and improve game play.

[Blue Lord]

The organic tech tree contains a small thingy for troops that fires just like a Ground Cannon, just better on it's higest lvl than the ground cannon. I use it all the time on my fighters and troops.