Hot to invade a planet, HELP!

[garvoid]

I am at war with a computer player, am blockading one of his planets with some war ships and have a transport also there that is full of troops that I just can't unload on his planet. I hit T to transfer, but to not see the enemy planet listed in the second column. What am I doing wrong

PS am very interested in getting into any e-mail games!!!! Anyone starting a 3000pt game soon?

[Drake]

You can only drop troops on a planet during combat. Attack the planet again and move your transport next to the planet. Then under orders you can click to drop troops.

-Drake

[This message has been edited by Drake (edited 11 February 2001).]

[garvoid]

under what orders??? Transfer troops? If I attack the planet I just kill off the population leaving nothing to capture. I just don't understand.....

[Drake]

During combat there's an orders button on the right hand side next to options - it's where you tell a ship to ram another ship, drop troops, etc...

If you aren't playing tactical combat, you must give your ship combat orders to capture planet. That might not kick into effect until all the weapons platforms on the planet are dead. I usually, if doing strategic, put the transport in a fleet that has capture planet orders. The combat ships kill the WP, at which point the transport comes in and drops troops.

I'm not sure if there's a more effective method. I haven't messed around with strategic combat much because the ships seem to do stupid things when left to their own devices. I probably just need to play with the strategies more. *shrug*

-Drake

[Zanthis]

1) Attack the planet with at least your troop transport.
2) Select tactical combat.
3) Use your combat ships to kill any weapon platforms the planet has. Fire slowly and carefully, stopping as soon as the Last WP is dead.
4) Fly your troop transport up next to the planet.
5) With your troop transport still selected, click on Orders and then pick Drop Troops.

[raynor]

Just to followup a little on what Zanthis said:

You can deselect weapons by clicking on them. If the weapon isn't highlighted, it won't fire. This way you can carefully destroy all the weapon platforms on the planet without destroying its facilities.

It is a good idea to send your ships with weapons to attack the planet. Once you have destroyed all the weapon platforms, satellites and bases, click on your transport ship. Now, go to orders and click on 'Clear all Group Assignments.' Next go to orders and select the option which is something similar to 'Set Group leader' then select the first combat group and whatever formation--arrowhead. What this does is make the computer select your transport ship and only your transport ship once you hit end turn. Now, move your ship to the planet. Press 'E' for end turn. Move your ship, etc until you get to the planet. Now, press Orders->Drop troops.

This will start up the ground combat phase. You'll see the numbers of his militia--hopefully you destroyed any of his troops when you bombarded, and you'll see your troops. The ground combat phase only Lasts either 10 or 15 turns? Sometimes, I've seen the battle go on for the max number of turns and not be resolved until the next turn.

Something very, very important to remember: If you win the battle, the game, of course, moves ALL your troops to the planet. So, if you want to go invade another planet, don't forget to transfer them back to your transport ship. It is extremely annoying to painstakingly destroy all the WEP's on a planet without destroyign any facilities then go to invade with troops and get the message: There are no troops on this ship. (You can just hear a Star Trek-like computer voice adding 'You moron!' to the end of it. About that time, you just want to NUKE the entire planet. Oh, sorry. Anyways, good luck.