Specifics about planet invasions.

from Stardock Forums

In my first few games I was playing on the easier skill settings and had no issues invading planets. I never lost a battle. I now have grown and become decent at the game and bumped up the AI to the point where I feel it matches me.

In my current game I find myself failing at invasions. Im trying to figure out why I am failing. I try to pay attention to what is going on but when the "big" war started out I was winning maybe 50% my attacks vs their planets.

I know there are many different things that affect the battle.

1> Number of troops. I know how many I have. I stuck them into the boats and sent them off. How do I know how many he has? It doesnt seem to be his entire population of the system. Is it a specific percentage of the population?

2> the two +X factors. Attack and Defend ( Im at work and dont remember off hand.. as I just started to pay attention to this screen. Where do these numbers come from?

3> Tech. Ive never seen myself with less than 1.0. Where do these numbers come from?

Now these are the factors in the actual invasion. But there are a few other things that Im struggling to figure out.

4> There is an estimated advantage. Where do these come from? Are they are a factor of those above three factors. They seem to reflect the dice rolling portion of the combat.

5> Do the "warships" in the fleet that attack the planet have any effect? I often see huge advantages when I attack with a large fleet compared to just a couple of transports? Is this a real or just perceived on my part?

6> I just started using combat transports. They rock if want to send them in alone .. but I never do that. Up to using the CTs, Id send in large fleets of Transports and if I attack with 8 full transports, lost 2 billion troops, Id have 6 transports to move onto the next planet. With CTs I always seem to loose it. I attack with 5 billion on the ship, loose less than a billion. No more ship. Seems to me combat transports are worth it.

Of course if any one has any hints about invading it would be greatly appreciated if you share :)

Cheers,
2,491 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
1> Generally speaking, the stated population of a system (ie. the number of taxpaying citizens) is the number of defenders. What made you think otherwise?
2> Not sure about this.
3> Your "Tech" number starts at 1.0 and increases as you learn techs with soldiering bonuses. I think the soldiering racial pick and TQT wonder affect this as well.
4> I believe estimated advantage is an overall rating for your firepower (ie, how likely you are to take out more soldiers than you lose). Your ACTUAL advantage is locked in when you hit spacebar on the invasion screen.
5> I think it's probably percieved, but don't know for sure.
6> While it's true that CT's are always used up when you invade, they have several advantages when compared to 5x their number in Transports...
- I believe they're lower maintenance, but could be wrong about this.
- They have much better defense ratings. This means that basically anything short of a battleship is very unlikely to be able to take them out.
- You can generally build them faster...any planet that can churn out a transport a turn can build a CT in far less than 5 turns.

-EtherMage


~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Try using mini-soldiers instead of traditional warfare.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
All citizens are soldiers. If you are attacking a high population planet (which you probably are if it is mid to late game, unless it is a new minor) You need to use mass drivers and figure on losing a couple of transports. Mass drivers will wipe out a big population and of course the infrastructure too. When the population is equal to or less than what you are throwing at it, you will probably win.

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I've successfully invaded very late-game (50+ B) systems without using more than mini-soldiers. Unless you don't care at all about the system aside from getting it out of the enemy's hands, I highly recommend you stick to tactics that don't damage PQ. Infrastructure damage is fine, but PQ damage is irreversible, and therefore unacceptable to me. You can take out any system if you throw enough transports at it. The altairans had one heavily populated system with FOUR habitable planets, but my fleet of 6 mini-soldier-augmented combat transports did the trick nicely.

-EtherMage


~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Angmar:

1. You need to completely eliminate the full population present on a planet to win. The attacker gains an inherent advantage of approximately +100% (i.e., is doubled) in odds calculation.

You can decrease the amount of enemy population needing to be eliminated by Information Warfare. It is costly, and works only on those planets already suffering low morales due to destabilization and/or culture-bombing. However, the number of people converted do not fight (decrasing your losses) and are added to your starting planetary populace upon successful invasion.

I agree with the other posters about infrastructure vs. PQ reducting strategies. Generally, it is never worthwhile to permanently reduce a planets quality, unless you are merely trying to end the game militarily and don't care about the aftermath.


2. Attack value (a number indicating the % by which your troops are modified, with +1.00 = 100%, i.e., doubled) is based on your Soldiering skill value. This can be increased by Techs and pre-game skill picks.

Defense value is based on your defensive planetary improvements: Planetary Defense (+33%)/Star System Defense (+50%)/Omega Planetary Defense System (+100%). Note that the in-game text description is wrong - these improvements increase your ground defense, and do nothing for ship values parked in orbit.

All bonuses stack, i.e., are cumulative.


3. Tech is a relative value of your total research points of techs discovered ("Beakers") vs. the target AI's. If you begin to outdistance the enemy by 60%+, it will round up and add another doubling of the odds, reading "+2.00".

As EtherMage points out, the Soldiering bonus could also factor in here as well. Nothing's been officially stated by the dev's on any of this, afaik.


4. The estimated advantage are your odds. They range by 20%, i.e., you can get a final result of anywhere from 80% of actual odds to 120%, depending on where you punch the spacebar.

This is described by Brad (in the Encyclopedia section) as the "luck factor." Hence, the Luck bonus (racial pick) may also affect this as well.


5. Warships accompanying TR's confer no advantages (aside from eliminating the top cover with minimal loss and making the invasion possible in the first place).

However, TR's attacking in bulk (fleet) are added together and land their troops all at once, increasing your base odds. TR's losing all or a portion of their troops will be destroyed. Leftover amounts will form the base population of the planet should you take it.


6. See above. If you lose 1200 out of a Combat TR's capacity of 5000, the TR will be destroyed and you will have 2800 troops left over to form the planets starting populace under your control.

Do not underestimate the ability of Combat TR's to defend systems. They are cheaper than BHammers or DN's, and have a better DF than BAxes. They can also embark excess population as a means of crowd control in low morale systems. They also have low maintenance.


7. Given all the above, my advice is to invade enemy planets with a combat force at least equal to the planet's population. This will guarantee you at least a 2-3:1 (all other things being equal). You'll take losses, but you should win.

Since so little has been written by the dev's about the ground combat mechanics, much of the above is based solely on play experience.

Hope this helps. Good luck on your next campaign.

~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
EDIT:

Point 6 of my previous post should read "3800 troops left".

I can't count.

But then again, fortunately, neither can anyone else who graduated in my class.

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks for the tips guys! I feel armed and ready to invade those cheeky blue guys!
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Another interesting trick is to use your mass drivers and core detonation with small numbers of soldiers initially so that you'll significantly reduce the defenders without damaging the planet. Then come in with a large force of troops and invade using traditional warfare. The PQ and improvement modifiers for invasion tactics only apply if you conquer the planet on that invasion.

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Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Another thing I do with transports is combine combat transports with regular in the same fleet. If you come in with a LOT more troops than they have, you will have minimal losses. Then the lost ships will only be 1-2 wussy transports, instead of losing your combat transports. This approach will slow you down a bit, since you can't spread out your invasion fleets by quite as much. But you also don't lose near as much precious population in your invasions. You can always unload more troops on the planet later, and you won't use up the transports in combat.