planet capturing

[Dubrok]

Hi,

i tried to capture a planet in a pbw game and it didn't work out the way i wanted it to:

i had 2 fleets, 1 with attack ships on "optimal firing range" and another fleet with a troop-transport set on "capture planet".
they both were at the location of the planet when i declared war on the empire the planet belonged to.
The battle replay showed that i had lost half my ships(~10) to the enemy planets platforms(3 or 4) and 1!! enemy ship in the first battle. my transport stayed in the lower right corner, not making any attempt to drop the troops(?!!)
in the second battle my attack ships stayed out of firing range of the platforms and only the transport approached the planet and got killed of course.

what went wrong??? i don't know why the transport didn't "sneak in" with the first wave and just dropped the troops under the cover of my attackships...

thanx for the tips and btw, are 400 troops enough for a 1,6mio planet?

Dubrok