Question about planetary invasions

[Shadow (OP)]

When invading enemy planets, how vital are drop modules in the absence of enemy PDCs? Could hostile troops do anything harmful in the four hours it'd take my standard troop transports to unload my battalions?

[Chainfire]

In my limited experience, drop mods are only required if your going to insert a team while under either ship or PDC fire, other then that I have had no issues just taking my time unloading a planetary assault.

[Shadow (OP)]

Thanks for you input!

I guess the downside is that, in the presence of hostile PDCs, blowing them up from space with missiles would end up irradiating the planet to some extent.

[Chainfire]

This is true, if you used missiles.   Other alternatives include the Meson beams and ground attacks on the PDC centers (note: Marines work best for PDC attacks)

[Father Tim]

When invading enemy planets, how vital are drop modules in the absence of enemy PDCs? Could hostile troops do anything harmful in the four hours it'd take my standard troop transports to unload my battalions?

Not vital at all, unless you feel otherwise.  Hostile troops?  No.  Hostile ships & PDCs, yes.

Although you may feel that hostile troops "ignoring" your troops for the four hours it takes you to unload is unrealistic, or an exploit.  Fair enough.  Others may feel they've carefully chosen planetary landing zones to be unreachable by enemy troops in the time available.