Troop Tips

[Zygon]

Could someone give me some tips on the ground combat side of things? I have troop recruitment on auto but I don't want it to become a crutch causing me not to learn that side of things.

1. Is there a good number of troops to have on each planet?
2. What combinations of different troop types do you use?
3. Do you keep some troops standing buy in troop ships? If so, how many?
4. When you colonize a new planet, how many troops do you drop off for defense?
5. Any general advice for protecting planets from invasion?

[Henzington]

1. 2 infantry are fine for worlds that are likely to see pirate raids etc unless for some reason the pirates have gotten huge.
2. 2 infantry and 1 armor is the ratio I usually go with as armored breakthroughs help speed up capturing planets quite a bit
3. Usually I keep a fleet of ships loaded up to the max with the above ratio the number of ships or fleets depends on the size of the game
4. Depends if the planet isn't by any pirate bases/other empires there is no reason to even bother with troops
5. Ports along with defense bases number depends on the population of the planet/proximity to enemy empires and course a fleet in orbit is the best way to prevent invasion in the first place.

[Canute0]

You should allways take a look about cost and strenght.
At the beginning when you don't got much cash income so far, you shouldn't recruit any other then standard infrantry for defence. Others are maybe stronger, but when you look at the maintance cost of them you will disband then real fast.

3. Unless i start a war against an empire i don't have much troops ready. Maybe 1 Troop transport at max shipsize full of troops to capture independent colonies. Once a war start, i recuit alot of troops to fill 3-6 Troop transports. You will need them to capture the enemy homeworld.

4-5.It don't make sence to recruit or drop troops at small colonies except they are raided by pirates. Keep just the well populated defended.
The smaller colonies you can recapture back, its a good training for your troop general and troops too.

[Ardilus]

An important factor to consider is the racial strength of your troops. Mortalens will need fewer numbers for defense than Securan. Low maintenance make swarms of robotic troops useful as well, though considerably less so since the introduction of troop research in Shadows. Do not overlook bonuses from troop-related research. The higher your research, the fewer troops you'll need. Underground bunkers, for example, are great for high-priority colonies where you would otherwise station a half-dozen or more troops, and allow you to cut these numbers in half for a small annual fee.

This said it is advantageous to think in terms of troop strength instead of numbers. Colony populations will add to defensive troop strength, but only if there is a troop unit present. I will generally leave a single troop on newer colonies, or none at all until there is reason to protect it. On colonies with a couple billion, I like to maintain around 30-45k strength. On larger colonies near borders I will maintain 60-90k.

These are basic defensive numbers for early-mid game, and by mid-game I will keep a handful of 50-100k+ groups on reserve with nearby transport fleets on hub colonies. These can be rushed around to defend where needed, used as a peripheral invasion force, or called in to a major ground offensive elsewhere. I do not like to keep reserves in space; these can be suddenly and easily wiped out before managing escape, costing recruitment and transport time, ships, and possibly experienced troops and generals.

Home-worlds are another matter. You are guaranteed extensive population defenses at first, so don't overdo it. By the time you need to worry about invasion, you should have a powerful port (ALWAYS set all armed station behavior to "ALL WEAPONS") and maybe a defensive base or two. Otherwise just watch how rival empires are massing troops. I have won home-worlds with early game-blitzes, but the AI doesn't really bother with you until mid-game, even on "restless". Generally rivals will mass lots of troops before declaring; follow their lead if you are playing a defensive strategy. By mid-game I am very comfortable with 90-120k or less, but once the action starts this should begin doubling. By late-game you will know what to expect and can plan accordingly.

Also note that any pirate bases will defend your colonies if invaded. These can be quite powerful if you don't mind the activity until you get the resources to drop more troop units.

[ASHBERY76]

Only invade with 95% armour and the rest special forces.

[Zygon]

Great information, thank you all very much!

Regarding the suggestions on full troop ships, what is full? How many troop pods do you put on a single ship?

Also, does putting troops on stations/bases help in preventing boarding actions?

[EDIT] to add a question. How do you find the strength of the troops? I can open the ground screen and it shows 47K at the top, is that the number of troops or their strength?

How about on troop transports, is there a way to see what the over troop strength is of the boarded units?

[Canute0]

Depend if you want to conquer a colony without destroying defence base or not.
The troop transport should be fast and need enough shields/armor to survive until he droped the troops, the rest of the space are for troop transport modules.
On early games with shipsize of 300 you maybe can get room for 6-9 troops, later you got transports for 20+ troops.

Also, does putting troops on stations/bases help in preventing boarding actions?

You could do this, but Assault pods are better since you can capture ships they come close at this way too.

How do you find the strength of the troops?

Open the Troop screen (the icon on the right below the message box or click on a troop at the info window)

How about on troop transports

You see it when you put them into a fleet.

[elanaagain]

One additional assist with invasion fleets. Some of the recovered (found/repaired hulks) war ships (not transports) have a limited troop transport capability. IF you don't want these ships landing troops, but instead doing fleet actions, change there stance to "never invade."

[ReadeB]

If your troops are weak or costly. Try recruiting troops at colonies dominated by other races.

Don't be shy about disbanding older weaker troops after you get some of the ground troop techs since they only apply to newly recruited units.

[Spidey]

Since we're talking aboutt troops, it might actually be of interest to consider the relative troop strength of the various races. What the below table means is that you're playing as one of the races with relatively weak troops then you're in good luck if you can find a early colony of indepent Mortalens, Boskarans, Ikkuros, or Slukens, since you can then recruit all your invasion troops at that planet and reap the benefit of really badass troops.

As an example of how this works out, I'm currently trying out the Quameno for the first time and their BattleMech infantry has 11800 attack and defense. My Sluken Terminator infantry, on the other hand, have 17000 attack and defense. That a 40% bonus from out of nowhere, which is definitely making ground battles easier for me. And the Sluken troop bonus to infantry maintenance reduction doesn't hurt either, does it?

Anyways, the raw troop strengths for the vanilla races, sorted from highest to lowest.

Code: Select all

 Shakturi  164
 Mortalen  138
 Boskara   134
 Ikkuro    132
 Sluken    130
 Naxxilian 129
 Kiadian   128
 Dhayut    126
 Haakonish 124
 Human     121
 Zenox     104
 Quameno    95
 Gizurean   92
 Ackdarian  88
 Mechanoid  85
 Wekkarus   84
 Shandar    81
 Securan    76
 Ugnari     72
 Ketarov    72
 Atuuk      68
 Teekan     65
 

[CyclopsSlayer]

I believe that list might no longer be current.
We may well have to recompile from base unit stats and maintenance costs to get the Shadows values.

[Canute0]

The values are valid. You can check them self, just look at the race folder all races are as text-file.

[Spidey]

I compiled most of the race data into an Excel table from the various race files in the Races directory, so it should be current as of 19.0.13. Otherwise I'm not sure where their stats would be located.

I've done a bit of preliminary number crunching, though. It seems to me that the displayed unit strength adds up to the raw unit strength multiplied with the researched bonus multipliers, shortened to int, and then multiplied by 100. I'll provide three illustrations.

Quameno BattleMech infantry unit
The typical displayed attack and defense strength for an experienced unit in my current game is 11800. I've researched the 25% bonus to both attack and defense. The table I provided suggest that Quameno troops have a raw strength of 95. So, let's do the math. 95*1.25 = 118.75. Shortened to integer, this is just 118. Multiply by 100 for 11800, matching perfectly what the game displays.

Sluken Terminator infantry unit.
The typical displayed attack and defense strength for an experienced unit in my current game is 16800. I've researched the 25% bonus to both attack and defense and my Sluken colony has access to Questurian Skins for a +5 strength bonus. The table I provided suggest that Sluken troops have a raw strength of 130. (130 + 5)*1.25 = 168.75 or 168 in integer. Multiply by 100 for 16800, matching perfectly what the game displays.

Teekan Trapper Group infantry unit
The typical (sort of, as I don't have many of them) displayed attack and defense strength in my current game is 8100. I've researched the 25% bonus to both attack and defense. The table I provided suggest that Teekan troops have a raw strength of puny 65. 65*1.25 = 81.25 ~= 81. Multiply by 100 for 8100, matching perfectly what the game displays.

[CyclopsSlayer]

Ok, excellent.
Do the ratios hold up for Armor, PDU and SpecOps? Or do some races specialize, ie. Teekan Inf is weak, but their Tanks are superb, and Ackdarian PDU's couldn't hit the broad side of a Moon...?

[pkoko]

How do you recruit other troop types other than infantry?

[FingNewGuy]

You have to do research to get other troop types. In the Weapons research tab, near the bottom of the Weaps tech tree are the ground forces techs. Then you have to build planetary facilities on a colony in order to be able to build different types of troops.

[pkoko]

What about robotic troops or Battlebots?

[pycco]

same you have to research the tech then build the facility to build them.

[pkoko]

ORIGINAL: pycco

same you have to research the tech then build the facility to build them.

But their maintenance is the same as for standard infantry

[pkoko]

Is this a bug? Look at Battlebot maintenance. Should it be less than standard infantry?