How to recon ground forces

[Uran (OP)]

Our ground geosurvey company was damaged at Alpha Centauri IV. Few survivors were evacuated back to Terra. From this encounter we realized there are aliens in this world.
Survivors were debriefed, and now we know that the aliens can hit with 12.5 AP and 10 Dmg. Privates named these aliens Rakhas Warriors.

Now the Terran Command want to know how many ground forces the aliens have on the planet?

What is their base type, armor strength and hit points?


We sent one armory brigade to conduct a recon battle, but we got nothing except losses. We do not even know if we were able to destroy a single alien unit.


How can we recon this alien world and theier forces to be able to prepare for incvasion better then just sending new and new formations there?

[Uran (OP)]

Oops! I did not know that I have to designate these aliens as Hostile in the Intelligence windows.
So my troops did not fire at them at all. Although they were fired upon.
And I did not get any new intelligence.

Now my forces are firing, and we start getting intelligence.

PS. Do we have some kind of sensors for ships which can scan the ground forces from orbit? Is the recon battle a single way to gather intelligence?

[Steve Walmsley]

Resolution-1 sensors can detect ground forces. Their signature will be the size of the ground forces divided by their fortification level.

[nuclearslurpee]

PS. Do we have some kind of sensors for ships which can scan the ground forces from orbit? Is the recon battle a single way to gather intelligence?

The only way to get any information about individual ground units from ships is to use a ground support fighter. Unfortunately this is not practical because they will get blown up almost instantly.

Otherwise the only approach is to land your troops and start shooting. I would like to see some way to gain intel from orbit but I think that would be a no-brainer and not create any interesting decisions, so I'm not sure how it would fit into the game.

[Uran (OP)]

Otherwise the only approach is to land your troops and start shooting. I would like to see some way to gain intel from orbit but I think that would be a no-brainer and not create any interesting decisions, so I'm not sure how it would fit into the game.

Actually I agree that intel from orbit down to armaments and armor levels is unrealistic but I like that we can figure out at least a size of forces from the orbit. May be would good also if orbital scanning would give the composition of ground forces like infantry or vehicles.
But of course the on ground intel should give more than orbital scanning.

PS: For me, There are many other puzzles for brains in ground combat Like what warfare specialization do I need to up a to-hit modifier on the tiaga biome

[nuclearslurpee]

PS: For me, There are many other puzzles for brains in ground combat Like what warfare specialization do I need to up a to-hit modifier on the tiaga biome

I don't think there is any. Checking the DB indicates that Taiga is based on the Barren terrain type (i.e., not Mountain nor Rift Valley) and is not considered a desert nor a jungle, so no terrain capability bonus applies.

I think I will make a note-to-self to do a mechanics post that puts all the terrain types into a table, we have many of them now and I don't think there is documentation anywhere outside the DB itself about which capability bonuses apply to which terrain types.

[smoelf]

I don't think there is any. Checking the DB indicates that Taiga is based on the Barren terrain type (i.e., not Mountain nor Rift Valley) and is not considered a desert nor a jungle, so no terrain capability bonus applies.

I think I will make a note-to-self to do a mechanics post that puts all the terrain types into a table, we have many of them now and I don't think there is documentation anywhere outside the DB itself about which capability bonuses apply to which terrain types.

That would be super useful. You can usually deduce it from the various update posts from the change logs, but having it all collected somwhere would be a big help.