Initiating ground combat

[ExChairman (OP)]

Suddenly I am at war... 
I am having one brigade of tanks sitting in my colony and want to attack the empty enemy colony... But how do I order my troops to attack?

Aha, it seems to be automatic...

[Garfunkel]

In case someone looks at this thread later:

you need to have your formation set to frontline attack or frontline defence, then combat is automatic.

[liveware]

If you are invading a hostile colony I believe (but have not confirmed) that you need to set your troops to front line attack in order to trigger a 'conquest' event.

You should also set your ground troops active sensors to 'on' so they can see hostile forces to engage.

[Cobaia]

If you are invading a hostile colony I believe (but have not confirmed) that you need to set your troops to front line attack in order to trigger a 'conquest' event.

You should also set your ground troops active sensors to 'on' so they can see hostile forces to engage.

My troops attacked and conquered colony without Front Line Attack and with Active Sensors off.

[Ulzgoroth]

You should also set your ground troops active sensors to 'on' so they can see hostile forces to engage.

Your invasion force probably doesn't have any active sensors, since only STO units have those...

[Droll]

If there are hostile forces/colonies on a planet all you need to do is pass 8 hours (the smallest GC interval) for combat/conquest to happen.

Although FA stance is not necessary for combat I think you can have scenarios where if both sides have no attacking formations between them that they just standoff. But I'm not sure about that one.