Troops

[Chris21wen]

I've now got far, far too many troops on my home planet, they just keep getting produced. I've now set troop production to manual control (still a pity you can't control troop production on a planetary basis it does detract from the game).

My real question is do this troops automatically get transported to planets that might need them?

[jpwrunyan]

I play manually with no automation. In my case I must use troop transports to transfer soldiers. I do not know if this can be automated, but I suspect no.

[Jeeves]

I have 81 colonies and 1800 troops, but my conquest of other empires is slowed by not having enough troops of experience 30k to take the next home world. Once you get a cloning facility on a colony making strength 30k troopers, you want as many of those as you can get. Hint : you get strength 30k troop clones by loading up a troop ship you design with at least 10 troop compartments and conquering 10-15 independent colonies, depending upon your racial troop strength. Until you can clone troops, you need just enough for defense of your colonies and conquering independents. Once you start warring on other empires, you'll never have too many troops.

Lonnie Courtney Clay
p.s. I dropped 292 troops on the human home world which had a fortified bunker and elite troops. It took 3 months to win, just a noteworthy piece of info.
Edit : that's in game year 13

[onomastikon]

Would there ever be a reason NOT to produce troops? Does producing troops actually cause some kind of constraint? They don't seem to cost anything but a wee bit of credits, and I have those in overabundance. Producing troops is hence, again, a no-brainer. But maybe I am missing something?

[Bebop Cola]

For those of us who drop taxes for whatever reason(spur growth, happiness, whatever), troops can begin to drain on the economy, prompting you to want to clear out green/weak troops trained early in the empire in favor of ones trained/cloned later, increasing efficiency by having fewer troops with a higher base strength or greater experience. Having hordes of troops can be a pain in the ass if you ever want to clear some out for whatever reason as there is no bulk option for disbanding troops(there should be!).

If that's not on someone's radar, though, yeah there's probably not a problem with troops just generating constantly.

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: Chris H

I've now got far, far too many troops on my home planet, they just keep getting produced. I've now set troop production to manual control (still a pity you can't control troop production on a planetary basis it does detract from the game).
My real question is do this troops automatically get transported to planets that might need them?

I usually have to handle that myself. Although, with the policy parameters, you can set a threshhold of when to recruit. As to the excess troops, I usually set them into troop transports so I have a ready counter-attack force to hit the enemy with...

[Gelatinous Cube]

ORIGINAL: onomastikon

Would there ever be a reason NOT to produce troops? Does producing troops actually cause some kind of constraint? They don't seem to cost anything but a wee bit of credits, and I have those in overabundance. Producing troops is hence, again, a no-brainer. But maybe I am missing something?

Depending on Race and Government, an over-abundance of troops can wind up being a horrible financial burden.

[onomastikon]

I must be missing something, since I have never yet played a race / scenario in which I have ever had, under any circumstances, a financial burden, let alone a horrible one, once the start of the mid-game has been reached -- and it is only then that I can actually start amassing troops.
And I always seem to set my taxes around X% at my homeworld (where X is anything that makes me a ton of cash or a crazy sick overabundance of cash, e.g. anywhere between 25 and 49) and/or any other homeworlds I may have conquered, and set taxes to 0% everywhere else. This is merely habit. I may as well use a RNG to set tax rates on other planets, since setting them to 0% will net me no taxes, but 50% also nets me negligable taxes on anything not a homeworld, and in both cases it doesn't seem to matter since I have too much money anyhow; while 0% will increase growth, but I have never noticed a need for that, it gives me the illusion that by setting taxes to 0%, I am actually making a decision instead of using a RNG. Sadly, however, this is an illusion.

[jpwrunyan]

Theres a 6-page thread about the lack of financial burdens in midgame. I suggest you bump it. Nothing is difficult by midgame.