Troops vs Militia

Elmo · #1 February 6th, 2001, 08:56 PM

Can someone explain the math on how troops kill militia? I just had 19 troops each armed with 3 cluster bomb III's only kill 19 militia before going down. That is only a 1:1 kill ratio. However, each troop should do 270 points of damage every other round of combat. I see a "Population Defender Hit Points" value of 30 in settings.txt. So each troop should kill 9 militia every other round. Something doesn't add up. I did a search but don't see the math of ground combat discussed. We're using strategic combat in a PBEM game if that makes a difference. Thanks.

Elmo

Blue Lord · #2 February 6th, 2001, 09:08 PM

If the militia has 60 militan units and you've got 19 troops, they'll msah you down before you have time to do much damage. In my experience, 10 Large Troopers can take on 150m-200m and below without any problem. If where talking over 1000m. Wrong scale, 150 large troopers can take on 2000m with losses...

Elmo · #3 February 6th, 2001, 09:35 PM

Blue Lord

I don't recall how many militia were there but it was more than 60. However since my troops survived several rounds of combat it seems to me they should have killed way more than 19 militia if the combat is resolved by adding up damage points for each side and applying it. I assume that is not how it is done based on the result I got so I was wondering if anyone knew how it really works. Thanks.

Elmo

Nyx · #4 February 7th, 2001, 10:47 PM

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

------------------
Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at www.twingalaxies.com.

Elmo · #5 February 8th, 2001, 02:42 AM

Bump in the hopes that a beta tester familiar with ground combat will provide some information. Thanks.

Elmo

Elmo · #6 February 8th, 2001, 03:15 AM

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:
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.

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

raynor · #7 February 8th, 2001, 08:46 AM

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 · #8 February 8th, 2001, 05:41 PM

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 · #9 February 8th, 2001, 05:45 PM

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:
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.

Baron Munchausen · #10 February 8th, 2001, 09:04 PM

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.