Spoilers - of course
So, in my learning campaign, my race has discovered an alien race squatting on a marginally habitable planet. This entire experience has been both educational and very frustrating. By way of background my race is pacifistic and minimized the military until it became necessary. The timeline below will reveal my lack of experience with current Aurora and how I continually underestimated the situation:
Sept 24, 2091: A Geo-Survey ship is destroyed over a planet with an oxy-nitrogen atmosphere by fire from STO's.
Jan 23, 2092: A battlegroup composed of a 20,000 ton mothership carrying five 1,000 ton missile armed interceptors and two 9,000 ton escort frigates approaches the planet. Due to a misunderstanding over their orders, they approach too close, and the mothership is destroyed by ground fire before it can launch its interceptors. The two frigates retreat. Sensors confirm there are STO's present, along with a ground force of approximate divisional size (40-50,000 tons).
May 14, 2092: A new fleet arrives at the planet, stopping at 15 million kilometers this time, to stay out of range of the STO's. This fleet consists of another mothership, four FFE's, and the Earth's last four interceptors. The interceptors launch on the STO's and destroy all known STO's. The interceptors close on the planet with frigates escorting them. As the interceptors approach the planet they are taken under fire by previously undetected STO's and destroyed. The FFE's, which had hung back, open fire with their AMM launchers, but their missiles are ineffective against the STO's armor and they are forced to retreat. Some of the STO's are firing very destructive but short ranged beams. As the frigates retreat they are fired on until they pass the 600,000 kilometer mark.
<what follows is a massive building campaign which includes the introduction of several new ship types>
July 19, 2095: The Commonwealth's Assault Fleet approaches the alien planet. The fleet is composed of three 20,000 ton battlecruisers equipped with shields and moderate armor, and beam weapons and box launchers for ASM's. In addition, there are two motherships carrying six interceptors and twenty fighters, and two FFE's. The battlecruisers approach the planet and are taken under fire at 565,000 kilometers, which is outside their own range to respond. Their shields can handle the fire easily, though, so they continue forward. The BC's close to 150,000 kilometers and open fire but the STO's are hard to hit and they aren't doing enough damage to penetrate if they do hit, so they continue to close. When the BC's close to 75,000 kilometers (or so), the heavy STO's open up, destroying the lead BC and depleting half of another's shields. The BC's beam weapons are faster firing, but they aren't hitting enough or doing enough damage to eliminate the STO's before the remaining BC's are destroyed. The two remaining BC's turn away and are quickly out of range of the heavy beam weapons. The Fleet's interceptors and fighters opened fire while out of the STO's range, inundating them with missiles, eventually destroying them all.
Before being destroyed, the STO's killed an exploration ship, a 20,000 mothership, a 20,000 ton battlecruiser, and nine 1,000 ton interceptors.
Aug 7, 2095: Two full Commonwealth armored divisions land, along with elements of a third. Each division is nearly 50,000 tons, and is composed of 1,896 heavy infantry, 59 Rapier II tanks, 25 Reaper II anti-infantry tanks, and assorted artillery and AA vehicles, anti-tank infantry, and HQ's. The Rapier tanks are medium vehicles with two hvy anti-vehicle weapons (pen/dam 48/48) and medium armor (arm/HP 40/40). The heavy infantry is equipped with power armor (arm/HP 15/10) and a heavy crew served AP (shots/pen/dam 6/12/8). Racial weapon strength is 12, armor is 10. In all approximately 140,000 tons of ground troops are committed. This is 3-4 times the tonnage of the detected enemy units. The result is a massacre. The Commonwealth force is destroyed in two days of heavy fighting after inflicting negligible damage on the enemy.
The Commonwealth was decisively defeated on the ground. The only unit that had any chance of penetrating the enemy's armor was the Rapier II tanks, and there weren't enough of them. The infantry was completely useless except as a bullet sponge.
So, what I've learned or need to figure out.
1. I completely underestimated the threat every step of the way. Don't do that!
2. My final plan for dealing with the STO's without irradiating the planet involved sending large well shielded and armored ships to pick apart the STO's, however, my BC's got too close and fell prey to what I assume are plasma carronade STO's. I had some monitors, which were more heavily shielded and armored, and equipped with more beam weapons, but they had just been launched and weren't ready when the fleet left. I think the BC's or monitors could have stood off of the planet beyond the range of the heavy STO's and picked them apart, but it would have taken a long time. It complicates the situation that the only way to find STO's appears to be to get close enough for them to open fire on you.
3. I'm at a lost at how to deal with the remaining ground forces short of nuking them from orbit (it's the only way to be safe!). I don't think my entire existing ground force would be enough to deal with them. I could build some heavy armor divisions with heavy tanks equipped with the heaviest weapons I can make, but, hmmmm...now that I say that it might be interesting. Heavy or superheavy tanks supported by troopers with heavy power armor. Hmmm...
