Ground combat terrain/environment capability training

[nakorkren (OP)]

Under what conditions do you guys research and use the various modifiers for ground combat troops, e.g. jungle warfare capability, Extreme Temperature Capability, etc? Do you typically wait until you run into a situation that calls for it, i.e. an enemy homeworld with jungle mountain, or an extremely valuable mining world with high pressure and temp and enemy troops? Or do you train all your troops with some mix of more commonly useful modifiers?

[xenoscepter]

 --- I typically do Low Gravity on everything, since Asteroids, Comets and Moons are way more common than Planets. For my super-elite, dedicated Assault Troops, I do Extreme Pressure + Extreme Temperature + High Gravity + Low Gravity. I often add Desert alongside Low Gravity on my higher end troops, since Moons, Comets, and Asteroids often have the Barren terrain which makes those synergize well. Other terrain modifiers are done on specialist units which are brought in on an as needed basis.

 --- For terrain other than Desert, I maintain a reserve equal to the number of worlds that have such a terrain, since during peacetime they double as a garrison and when war inevitably breaks out I might not need all or any of them, so those worlds stay better protected. Desert + Low Gravity is used on the high-end troops and a reserve is maintained equal to the number of "important" worlds. Overlap between the two often occurs on habitable worlds with Forest, Jungle etc.

 --- Basically all line troops with the exception of planetary militia are given Low Gravity training, while in larger games an elite force above and beyond the Assault Troops I mentioned before are created with basically every training option. They tend to be self-contained armies, on the small side and I seldom have more than a handful.

[nuclearslurpee]

I rarely do it for any practical purpose, usually roleplay is the main driver. I find it difficult in practice to build specialist forces in anticipation of invading a specific terrain type since ground forces take so long to build up until much later in the game when you have enough facilities + tech levels to build an army in, like, a year. I feel like trying to build up specialist forces long in advance is often wasteful, as you end up building specialists for every kind of terrain and then only using 1-2 of those troop types so a lot of BP has been effectively wasted.

xenoscepter's suggestion of building specialized formations to garrison worlds with specific terrain is a good one, since those forces retain usefulness even if you never deploy them against a hostile world with that terrain type. Another idea when you have developed enough is to have training complexes on different colony worlds which train troops specialized to that world - think like WH40K where Imperial Guard Regiments from different worlds take on unique characteristic from that world. This is probably more "wasteful" but good roleplay flavor.

I rarely build the extreme conditions capabilities (temperature, pressure, etc.). Most significant ground forces in my experience tend to be emplaced on 'normal' planets, i.e., habitable or nearly habitable and thus situated for a large colony worth defending, so you don't need to worry too much about displacing a large army fortified on a small asteroid or barren moon (small garrisons maybe but these are easily dealt with). I rarely deploy even small garrisons to such minor mining bases, because there are enough demands on the ground forces as it is without garrisoning every little rock.

The one capability combination always worth it of course is (Heavy) Power Armor + Genetic Enhancement + Boarding Capability INF for boarding assault parties. Your boarding assault units are rarely going to be BP-limited, transport capacity is the key challenge, thus you want them to be maximally effective per ton.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I usually play with a max gravity tolerance of 0.40 so a low gravity specialty would be quite important on all elite forces for me.

All garrison troops would obviously be tailored for the planet they are built to support, that seem like a given to me.

Other than that I would build troops based on what they are aimed to be used for. If I just have a main army it would get no specialty at all as they should be able to be deployed anywhere for a reasonable cost. If I intend to invade some specific world I probably would build a sizable force for that specific purpose in addition to my general purpose armies. Those forces can then be used to garrison said planet after the invasion.

[Garfunkel]

I use Extreme Temperature and Desert for my main forces because those fit lot of planets - even CC 2.0 worlds will often have extreme temp and often desert fits the environment too.