Posted by: Gabethebaldandbold
« on: July 11, 2020, 05:31:27 PM »it also depends on army composition, and army that can penetrate the enemy armour with autocannons will need less tonnage overall than one that uses anti-vehicle weapons.
That would not be very realistic if the "main lines" units in the army had to be tailored to be either offensive or defensive. That would be as if you had only stosstruppen (or stormtroopers for a star wars reference) and static/fortress garrison. I hope that' s not the case!
From my understanding of the game mechanics, the game allows for several different situations where the concept of 'ground units' is applicable. Some examples:
1. Planetary defense against hostile ground forces. Here you probably want a mix of infantry, vehicles, and artillery set to different field positions, probably in some sort of mutually supporting roles.
2. Planetary garrison forces. These forces exist only to reduce unrest, and generally don't require the heavy weapons or artillery that planetary defence forces would carry.
3. Planetary invasion of hostile colonies. Here you probably want a mix of infantry, armor, and artillery, similar to planetary defensive forces. However you probably want more armor with your invasion forces than your defensive forces since your invasion forces will almost always be in a front line attack field position.
4. Ship boarding combat. Here you are restricted to infantry and will probably want to optimize your own boarding parties with an abundance of anti-personel weapons and forgoe any artillery, anti tank, or supply units.
To summarize, I can see arguments for custom designing ground troops based on their intended role. In fact, I do exactly that in my games.
That would not be very realistic if the "main lines" units in the army had to be tailored to be either offensive or defensive. That would be as if you had only stosstruppen (or stormtroopers for a star wars reference) and static/fortress garrison. I hope that' s not the case!
1 FFD = 1orbital ship bombardment OR 6 Bombardment Pods
Apparently, fortified troops are obfuscated on your sensor readings. So if it says there are 10,000 tons on a planet there are probably more than that.
As for NPRs, I just invaded a (forested mountainous) NPR homeworld that had a 120,000 ton (sensor reading) ground force defending it. I had a pretty significant tech edge (Heavy Power Armor against infantry and tanks with some PA) and I invaded with about 500,000 tons of combat troops (in two waves) with probably 250,000 tons of extra logistics troops.
Honestly, running out of supplies was a huge issue for me because of how long the combat lasted. I would heavily recommend using logistic vehicles instead of infantry just to make the micro easier on you. I tried orbital bombardment with my gauss/missile fleet, but honestly I found it really ineffective and I wouldn't recommend building any FFD at all (I think it would be more effective with a laser fleet but I don't know). Also, the combat lasted so long that it destroyed literally every building on the planet, so I guess maybe I should have destroyed it from orbit.
I used some super-heavy tanks against the NPRs and it seemed very difficult for the NPRs to damage them. A cheesy tactic might be to drop a bunch of heavily armored tanks in your first wave and have them waste all of their supplies on them.
I had exactly the opposite experience with regards to logistics units. I invaded a much smaller world mind you, approximately 15k tons of hostile troops against my 18k tons. But of my 18k tons of ground troops, I had approximately 4k tons of logistics troops. So our overall formation compositions are comparable. I found that I had WAAAAAAY too many logistical units.
My formations were primarily infantry (with heavy power armor) and a single platoon of light CAP vehicles. So possibly heavier vehicles are more GSP intensive than infantry?
Apparently, fortified troops are obfuscated on your sensor readings. So if it says there are 10,000 tons on a planet there are probably more than that.
As for NPRs, I just invaded a (forested mountainous) NPR homeworld that had a 120,000 ton (sensor reading) ground force defending it. I had a pretty significant tech edge (Heavy Power Armor against infantry and tanks with some PA) and I invaded with about 500,000 tons of combat troops (in two waves) with probably 250,000 tons of extra logistics troops.
Honestly, running out of supplies was a huge issue for me because of how long the combat lasted. I would heavily recommend using logistic vehicles instead of infantry just to make the micro easier on you. I tried orbital bombardment with my gauss/missile fleet, but honestly I found it really ineffective and I wouldn't recommend building any FFD at all (I think it would be more effective with a laser fleet but I don't know). Also, the combat lasted so long that it destroyed literally every building on the planet, so I guess maybe I should have destroyed it from orbit.
I used some super-heavy tanks against the NPRs and it seemed very difficult for the NPRs to damage them. A cheesy tactic might be to drop a bunch of heavily armored tanks in your first wave and have them waste all of their supplies on them.
Question for ground combat veterans:
When you land your troops, are they on defensive front by default? Will they not attack unless fired at in this stance? Does the NPR attack your landed units first?
I am wondering if you could land troops on a planet over a longer period of time and just defend until they are all there.