Undead militia?

[SpaceBadger]

Is there some sort of tech for organic or temporal folks that will let their planetary militia come back from the dead in between assault troop landings?

I'm playing solitaire, turn-based, almost unmodded, just testing a few new ship components I made up and some that I copied from Ladder Mod, but nothing related to troops or militia. I'm using tactical for all of the combat, so I can see in detail what is happening.

Usually when I am trying to capture an enemy homeworld, it goes something like this: they have 4000M population, so about 200 militia. I go in with about 300 troops, divided among 2 or 3 or more ships, depending on what assault ship designs I might be experimenting with. Say the first ship lands 100 troops, they kill about 150 militia before they are overrun. The next ship lands another 100 troops, but only 50 militia are there, the ones still alive after the first landing, so they wipe them out easily and I have a new planet with 4000M pop. Yay!

Tonight, I was once again attempting to capture an enemy homeworld. I knew from a previous visit that they had some WPs, so I gave them a light workover with CSM2s before I started landing troops. Must have got them all, because no shots were fired as my landers moved in close. First ship landed 125 troops, facing 196 militia (must have killed some pop in the missile bombardment). OK, so I expected that first load of troops to get killed, and they did, but first they killed about 140 militia, leaving 56 to be taken by my next landing party. Except that when my next group landed, there were again 196 militia! So again they killed all of my guys, but only 50+ militia were still alive. I tried again - and my 100 troops were again met by 196 militia! I decided the only way I was going to take the place was to reduce pop so that the number of militia I was facing would be low enough for one load of troops to kill them all. So I had my fleet gather around and pound that planet until only 1000M pop were left, then landed my Last shipload of troops who were victorious over the reduced militia.

Not the way I would like to have done it - I had to kill 3000M methane breathers who I would have much preferred to have working for me, plus the extended bombardment took out all but 4 of the facilities on that planet. OK, I still got 1000M methane breathers out of the deal, plus a nice large ice planet that I wouldn't have been able to colonize myself, being a rock-oxy kind of guy, but it wasn't what I had expected to get out of the deal.

So how did they do this? Has anyone seen it before? What the heck is going on here? These guys were organic, but I think I saw something similar happen against some temporal guys in a different test game a few days ago - not sure, because I only had two ships in that assault, but I'm pretty sure that after the first wave a bunch of dead militia were "reborn" somehow to kill my second wave.

Puzzled SpaceBadger

[ October 03, 2003, 03:24: Message edited by: SpaceBadger ]

[Fyron]

If all of your invading troops are destroyed, the milita regenerate completely (no matter the type of race). But, if a single troop survives the 10 rounds (in stock SE4), then the militia will not be regenerated. Often, you can take over big worlds using shield troops, which have just one weapon and the rest devoted to shields. They can take a lot of damage, and you can drop a second (or fifth ) troop transport on the planet.

just testing a few new ship components

Did you bring enough to share with the class?

[ October 03, 2003, 03:25: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[SpaceBadger]

Huh, I never realized that. I guess those other times I must have had at least a few survivors from the first wave.

OK, thanks for the info, Fyron.

SpaceBadger

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Often, you can take over big worlds using shield troops, which have just one weapon and the rest devoted to shields.

Wot!? Did shields on troops get fixed and I miss the bug fix report? I thought they didn't work?

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Arkcon:
Wot!? Did shields on troops get fixed and I miss the bug fix report? I thought they didn't work?

I don't think they work like shields on a ship do. The shields on units/troops only add to your hitpoint total that you can take before dying. I may be wrong on this though.

[Fyron]

Rags is right. Shields on units (all of them) work. They are just treated as part of the total hit points of the unit; there is no partial damage for a unit (that includes a shield layer).

[Arkcon]

Right, a forum search lets me know 'bout when shields on troops was fixed: Thanks SJ: {link}

I really am very grateful to Shrapnel for having upgraded the server. I was having trouble in the past getting searches like this to give me results.

[ October 03, 2003, 16:19: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[Omnicron1]

OK a little off topic but....in a pbw game im fighting a war with a mine using player, I have a distinct adavantage with fighters and could easily crush him if i could get through this warp point but I've never used Mine technology in a simultaneous game how do I do it and what will it's effects be....?

[Fyron]

Mines will do damage to your ships as soon as they enter the sector. You need Mine Sweepers (from Mines tech) to sweep the mines to be protected from them. Sweepers are rated as to how many mines they can sweep, from 1 thru 5. You want to have the ability to sweep at least 100 mines in your attack fleets (different ships and comps will stack ), as there is a limit of 100 mines per sector.

[Ed Kolis]

100 per sector *per empire*, that is...
Watch out for Allied Minefields!