Invading alien worlds

[Energyz (OP)]

I just tried my first invasion of an alien world, and my forces were crushed like insects. My forces were 3 times more numerous than theirs, and I managed to kill maybe 1 of their unit for 300 of mine.

the reason :
they can't hit anything

Someone told me it was because the ennemy was hugely fortified, is that the reason?

Anyone conducted a successfull invasion, and if so, how did you do it?
I want to avoid bombing the planet to ashes or killing all its population, but it seems i don't have the choice

[Droll]

What are the environmental factors on that world? Do you troops have capabilities for extreme environmental conditions like pressure or whatnot?

What is the dominant terrain of the planet your invading?

[Energyz (OP)]

That's an earth like planet, and my troops were trained for Rift Valley fighting as it is a Forested Rift Valley

[Nori]

I'm wondering this as well. I attacked a spoiler with superior forces and my arty fired 720 with only about 25 hitting. If I was to guess, fortification is playing a huge role in this, but I'm not sure.

[Droll]

That's an earth like planet, and my troops were trained for Rift Valley fighting as it is a Forested Rift Valley

Were any of the environmental factors like temperature and gravity outside of standard human tolerance.

Also your training doubles hit chance which is good but also remember that rift valley stacks with forest to provide fortification bonuses. I dont remember how it stacks and what the exact bonus is but whatever fortification value they have at the time is multiplied by the terrain bonus. A fully fortified infantry with 6 fortification might in fact have 12 effective fortification because of terrain. So each shot taken at that element will have 1/12 base chance to hit.

I suggest you look at the change logs for 1.00 to see what the exact fortification bonus your enemy could be fighting at. Forest is 1.25 so 1.25 x Rift valley bonus will give it to you I think.

[Energyz (OP)]

Were any of the environmental factors like temperature and gravity outside of standard human tolerance.

You're right, it was too cold, I didn't notice.

So they had a level 12 fortification , and i had some temperature malus, and that explained the less than 1% hit chance?

[Droll]

Were any of the environmental factors like temperature and gravity outside of standard human tolerance.

You're right, it was too cold, I didn't notice.

So they had a level 12 fortification , and i had some temperature malus, and that explained the less than 1% hit chance?

I cannot confirm their actual fortification level since I don't remember what rift valley bonus is I will say that the combination of forrest on top of rift valley makes the planet one of the hardest to invade - I also do not know exactly how bad the temperature malus is and whether or not it scales with intensity. Remember that terrain capabilities are infantry only save for desert so your vehicles are going to be half as accurate as your trained infantry.

[Froggiest1982]

I just tried my first invasion of an alien world, and my forces were crushed like insects. My forces were 3 times more numerous than theirs, and I managed to kill maybe 1 of their unit for 300 of mine.

the reason :
they can't hit anything

Someone told me it was because the ennemy was hugely fortified, is that the reason?

Anyone conducted a successfull invasion, and if so, how did you do it?
I want to avoid bombing the planet to ashes or killing all its population, but it seems i don't have the choice

Where is the Air Support? You need at least some bombardment pods to help you invasion. They are not affected by any negative environmental modifiers (such as high gravity or extreme temperatures).

[vorpal+5]

Can you use a massive amount of air support with only one "sacrificial lamb" unit so to inflict significant damages or at least debuff against the enemy, before the next "real" assault?

[Droll]

Can you use a massive amount of air support with only one "sacrificial lamb" unit so to inflict significant damages or at least debuff against the enemy, before the next "real" assault?

Doesn't work as well as you think - each FFD supports only 6 fighters so you'd need a unit made of FFDs, which will die too quickly with nothing to tank for them.

[DFNewb]

You can use fighters without FFD but they don't hit as much and have complete random targetting.

[Ektor]

You're right, it was too cold, I didn't notice.

So they had a level 12 fortification , and i had some temperature malus, and that explained the less than 1% hit chance?

Yep, that would be it. Your best chance is using heavy volume of fire weapons like CAP, but at level 12 fortification, you need to heavily outnumber them in order to win.

[Bughunter]

Nuke them from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. Or maybe terraform them from orbit unless they got STO weapons stopping that. Raise that temperature a bit while waiting for your huge army to build. Or if you can keep ground forces on planet in a defensive posture, land population and terraforming installations?

[MarcAFK]

Counter-terraforming is always a good option for Xenocide. But it won't actually remove their pesky ground forces

[skoormit]

Counter-terraforming is always a good option for Xenocide. But it won't actually remove their pesky ground forces

Not directly, no.
But by killing the population, you hurt the Xeno's economy and eliminate the reason for them to pay to maintain those fortified GUs.
Assuming you are winning the overall war and their economy continues to decline, eventually they either disband the forces or come out of their fortified position to attack you, right?.

So I suppose you have to decide which route you prefer:
A) Attacking the fortified position with overwhelming numbers, sustaining significant losses, and being done.
B) Stationing (and fortifying) your own defensive forces on the planet until the Xeno units either disband or throw themselves at your dug-in troops.

Route A is faster. Route B is cheaper in terms of units lost, but depending how long it takes and whether you have to build more units to use elsewhere while these units are sitting here, might actually be more expensive in economic terms.