A strange thing happened in my latest game that showed just how sneaky those NPR devils can be. I dropped a couple heavily armed and armoured jump point stations on a jump point to keep the pesky NPR Bugs next door from snooping around my newly settled colony, which they also seemed to have an interest in. Sure enough, half a dozen warships and a couple heavily armoured troop transports come waltzing in to lay claim to my turf. Having none of that, I proceeded to turn them into smoldering wreckage. . . except for one troopship which struck its colours and surrendered after a significant pummeling. The ship was pretty shot up, but still mostly mobile.
Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I thought why not use this fine ship against its creators? I sent it back to my nearest shipyard for repairs and then lumped it in with my other troop transports, which were awaiting the last of my invasion troops at a forward muster point near the Bug system. When I went to load up my captured ship with a load of squishies to throw into the enemy guns, I got an error message, ''Unable to load". What the hek? I checked a bit closer and saw that the troopship was still loaded to the gunwales with 4 units of strange insectoid troops with shooty sticks. Cool! Free troops! But my freshly trained battalions of logistic troops earmarked for the captured transport would be sorely needed for the coming invasion. It couldn't hurt to use my newly captured allies in the follow on wave though, so I landed them on the planet so I could load them later and got my logistics troops ready to load up.
The patience of those little Bug troops in springing their treacherous trap was near heroic and the result was total shock when the first thing they did was unload their 30cm STO railguns and shoot my prize ship out of the sky! They then quickly did the same to 6 of my other 9 fully loaded transports before I could move them out of range. My only remaining troops on the planet, a few units of logistic troops, were armed almost exclusively with tire irons and harsh language which were no match for angry bugs with shooty sticks. The defeat was quick and total. Over 180,000 tons of ground troops destroyed in transit, 70% of my troopships burned to ash in the atmosphere, 4 battalions of logistic troops turned into bug field rations, and to top it all off, the planet (and its stockpile of nearly 2000 anti-ship missiles) was seized by the enemy!
I was able to rush some warships back from the front line and nuke the nasty little backstabbers into cinders. But the damage was done, and my invasion plans pushed back by almost a decade. I didn't even try using the planet again, just too many bitter memories. . . . and radiation.
Things I learned from this:
1. Logistic troops need guns too. . .
2. Captured troopships do not equate to captured troops.
3. Don't underestimate the crafty AI of the NPRs, they are friggin diabolical!
4. Pay closer attention to the tales of ancient Greece.
5. This game creates awesome stories without even trying.