Planetary Invasion Methods

[ZargonX]

Curious as to what people are finding to be their chosen method of planetary invasion (standard, information warfare, gas, etc...). Personally, I've found Information Warfare to be extremely effective, as many AI worlds will have approval down in the 60-70% range, which can result in an awful lot of free troops. Conversely, I've noticed the AI is very fond of Tidal Invasion (or whatever it's called), which does a good chunk of damage to the invaded planets. Anyone found any methods they feel strike a good balance between conquest and not destroying the planet?

[Didymus]

I only ever use standard, information, and robot soldiers (at the end of the space marines branch of plantary invasion). But then, I only bother invading planets I want to keep. (Building lots of transports quickly is hard since my high production and high population planets are never the same.) Robot soldiers don't damage the planet class at all, and only 5-10% of improvements.

For a class 4 planet you intend to pass off onto an ally (or even disband), why not use core detonation/mass drivers? AFAIK, damage to the planet only remains with the race which did the damage. Essentially, instead of changing the BASE planet class, it becomes a modifier to planet quality for *your race* only on that planet. I.e., if I invade Iconia IV using mass drivers and conquer it, maybe its class drops from 13 to 10. But if I then gift Iconia IV to an ally, it jumps back up to class 13. OTOH, if the Drengin bombed my planet into the stone age to capture it and I later liberate it, all the damage done by the Drengin invasion miraculously regenerates.

[ZargonX]

But if I then gift Iconia IV to an ally, it jumps back up to class 13. OTOH, if the Drengin bombed my planet into the stone age to capture it and I later liberate it, all the damage done by the Drengin invasion miraculously regenerates.

I didn't realize that the damage functioned that way. I guess perhaps because I'm a builder at heart and keep all the planets I conquer, no matter how lousy

[bonscott]

I use Mass Drivers a lot since they are cheap and effective. Usually it's not too bad with loss of planet class and I don't care a whole lot what buildings get destroyed since I rarely like that the AI builds anyway.

If I can afford it I'll do the mini-soldiers though.

[Kinjiru]

If I am being lazy I just always use Information Warfare, until I get access to Mini-Soldiers.

However, if I have been paying attention to what Soldering-related techs my enemy has been acquiring, the decision can be fine-tuned.

Traditional Invasion:
1) You are on even footing
- You can play the numbers game and just more troops to the battle than the planet has population.

2) You have a big Soldiering advantage
- You can play the numbers game and bring 1/4 to 1/3 fewer troops to the battle than the planet has population.

3) Your opponent has a big Soldiering advantage
- You can play the numbers game and and bring 1/3 to 1/4 more troops to the battle than the planet has population.


Information Warfare:
Same as above but you can reduce the numbers of troops you bring depending on planet quality and morale. The bigger the planet and the lower the morale, the more defectors you get. That said, you are really only going to get maybe 1500 in the best of circumstances, so this method works best early on, when you are not yet using the Advanced Troop Mod on your transports.


Mini-Soldiers:
Basically, you can take the Traditional Invasion numbers, and cut your own forces in half. Well, a little less than half, but close enough. This option provides quite a lot of bang for the buck.


For me, I would rather spend the credits and keep my population higher. The alternative of course, is to just load up on the transports, potentially draining your worlds of their pop (and therefore reducing your tax income). If you have a world or two with nice farming bonuses, then this isn't really an issue.


I didn't realize the bits others raised about having damage magically disappear, so I may have to revise my thoughts a bit. Mini-soldiers can get a bit expensive in a large-scale invasion effort, after all.
If you have a big Soldering advantage, then you can get away with your basic Traditional Invasion and just bring more trr

[tetley]

I've used them all except for core detonate. They all have their uses. If I'm swimming in population and not swimming in morale, I like traditional the best. If I'm swimming in cash and HE'S not swimming in morale, I like Info warfare. If I'm doing a Planetary Invasion rush on somebody, I like Gas. If I just want to get the game over with I'll do MD. Mini-soldiers are for the later game when I would normally do Traditional warfare, but I don't have abundant population nearby to invade with.

Another trick I'll do is Mass Drivers and lose. If you don't take the planet, no PQ loss. But you sure deal the other guy a lot of casualties.

[bovine cannibal]

I tend to use mass drivers quite a bit, for the victory. Sure, they wreak a lot of havoc. But, I find at least half of my planetary invasions use them. If I have space superiority it allows me to really tear a chunk out of an enemy's empire, with minimal expense. If the planet has capitals, very high pq, wonders, or the like, I tend to be a bit more careful. Since I tend to invade before I have a high logistics, it is more useful than infromation warfare.

Mass drivers are very useful when you suspect an enemy is soon going to surrender to a hostile civilization. I concentrate most of my transports around the best planets, and park one or two transports near each planets I don't want others to have for strategic reasons.

Even if you lose those battles for the insignificant planets, the decreased population will probably come in handy if you have to fight an influence battle for them.

Once on normal, I recieved a 91 to 2 advantage. Needless to say, by mere 1000 troops really managed to cause a lot of worthwhile pain and suffering. I can't remember the numbers, but I think they took on at least 15,000 and won.

I almost never use information warfare. It tends to only work well for the first wave, so I often forget it. If you've killed off some of the population already, then it often ends up useless.

One question I've got in regards to the Gas tactic. If you use that tactic on an earth like planet with every tile full, will improvements dissappear to match the smaller size? I'm worried about wonders, one reason I'd use tactics such as Gas, when I could be dropping moons on the poor Drengin.