Planet Invasion

[Kamilo (OP)]

I'm looking at an enemy planet to invade. Problem is that it has around 250k tons worth of Ground Forces. Killing them with my laser turret ships is less than optimal because of the <5% chance to hit anything on the ground. My missiles get destroyed before hitting the ground. Building up massive Ground Forces to transport them there isn't really an option because I'm running low on resources and need the system with the enemy planet in it to stock up.

Do I have any viable options to beat the enemy?

[HighTemplar]

Blockade and blow up anything that they put into space while you build up a death fleet to glass the place or recruit some legions of doom to put boots on the ground

[DeMatt]

Is the 250k tons what you can see, or what you think is there based on what you can see?  Keep in mind that fortification reduces the signature of ground units, so if you can see 250k tons, and it's fully fortified, it's probably more like 1M tons of ground units.

If you can't afford the ~3M tons of invasion force you'd need to defeat that, then your only option is to bombard.  If you can't afford to bombard the planet into uselessness, then you'll have to back off and find resources elsewhere.

[Black]

If your missiles get shot down, you need to take down their STO installations first with your beam ships. It may take some time but point defence STO is short ranged so you should outrange them with your anti-ship beams. After that, glass the planet with missiles, or take out the STO placements and then blockade the planet and destroy any shipyards or new STOs.

If the resource deposits are on the planet, then you are out of luck because invasion is only option. If the minerals are on other bodies, you will have to use your own transports to transport installations and colonists, because civilians will most likely not enter the system because of the danger.

[Kamilo (OP)]

If your missiles get shot down, you need to take down their STO installations first with your beam ships. It may take some time but point defence STO is short ranged so you should outrange them with your anti-ship beams. After that, glass the planet with missiles, or take out the STO placements and then blockade the planet and destroy any shipyards or new STOs.

If the resource deposits are on the planet, then you are out of luck because invasion is only option. If the minerals are on other bodies, you will have to use your own transports to transport installations and colonists, because civilians will most likely not enter the system because of the danger.

The STOs are destroyed.

Is the 250k tons what you can see, or what you think is there based on what you can see?  Keep in mind that fortification reduces the signature of ground units, so if you can see 250k tons, and it's fully fortified, it's probably more like 1M tons of ground units.

If you can't afford the ~3M tons of invasion force you'd need to defeat that, then your only option is to bombard.  If you can't afford to bombard the planet into uselessness, then you'll have to back off and find resources elsewhere.

The 250k tons is what I see thanks to my sensors.

Blockade and blow up anything that they put into space while you build up a death fleet to glass the place or recruit some legions of doom to put boots on the ground

Glassing the planet is probably the only viable and logistically possible solution, so it seems. Guess I have to keep producing my size 4 missiles and "ship" them over there.  Any idea how much is needed? The warhead strength of my missiles is 12

[Garfunkel]

Difficult to say because the enemy colony will surrender at some point - but exactly when is impossible to predict. You could try batches of 100 missiles at a time, see how many batches it takes for them to surrender.

[Droll]

Difficult to say because the enemy colony will surrender at some point - but exactly when is impossible to predict. You could try batches of 100 missiles at a time, see how many batches it takes for them to surrender.

To elaborate you the surrender limit is based not only on population size but the militancy of the population as well. So it can be very hard to know exactly how much you need.

[Elminster]

If your missiles get shot down, you need to take down their STO installations first with your beam ships.

The STOs are destroyed.

I'm not an expert with this game, but without STOs, what is intercepting the missiles?
AFAIK only STO set to point defense can intercept missiles.

[Kamilo (OP)]

I didn't fire any missiles at the planet again, but I managed to land some divisions of super-heavy vehicles on it. That way I was able to conquer the planet and taking control over the system.