Planetary Battle

Hmm...another question.

How do I pick a planet as my target for the attack?

Or is this just completly random (seems so for me)
I think it's bad if you enter a enemy system with a nice fleet...want to invade the mainworld there (to get defenses etc up asap) but the battle happens at some minor world.

any way around this so you can pick at what planet you want to fight first?

[Da_Blade]

In the battle selection screen, when you select "attack planet" you can press a tab at the bottom of the screen (view system or something), you can then select the planet too attack.

[Wainamoinen]

On the combat scheduler screen (where you pick cede/watch/control), select "control combat" and "assault planet". At the bottom of the screen, a tab labelled "system view for selected battle" will light - click this. You'll be taken to a system view where you can check planetary defences and select which planet you wish to assault. Click on the tab at the bottom of this to go back to the combat scheduler screen.

N.B. You can't attack outposts, only full colonies. Also, each round of combat is against a designated enemy - you can't select to attack Race Bs planet when you're fighting Race A in this round.

edit: Da Blade got in while I was checking the tab name, the fast-typing swine.

[Da_Blade]

Originally posted by Wainamoinen
edit: Da Blade got in while I was checking the tab name, the fast-typing swine.

Well, this fast-typing swine did not give such a detailed explanation of hoe it goes, which is much more usefull for the original poster i think.

Thanks :-)

/sigh ... so many "hidden" things in this game ;-)

[DeckPrism]

If you don't have enough forces, by all means look for the least defended planet. Once, you've explored the system, you can look at the population on the planet, see which ones are rich, and make your decision based on that. Or, I'd swear that the computer has some way of knowing which planet in the system has a mobilization center, or maybe it just comes up with some estimate of the most powerfull planet. Anyway the point is that the planet it auto selects for your attack tends to be pretty good.

Nah, that's exactly what it didn't do and because of that I'm going to lose the whole system again now it seems ;-)

conquered minor world #1 (autoselect), then minor #2 (autoselect) and then the "juicy world".
because the first 2 worlds are crap I didn't manage to get a Mobilsation centre done. 2 turns after I captured the main world finally a fleet of them arrived, about 25 ships, which I thought were no match for my 34 (when I conquered the system I beat his 60 ships with my 40). bad for me is that those ships seem to be a new generation and wiped out my fleet ;-)
and because of no Mobilsation centre my reinforcements are at least 6 turns away ;-)
Even if I could recapture the worlds they will be pretty devastated I guess ;-)

If I had picked the main world first I should have had enough defenses and a mobilisation centre ready ;-)

[DeckPrism]

Juicy to you or to him? My thought was that it pounds thier production world (population, industry...). The one you liked might not have been thier best world at the time, but built up as you stayed in orbit, and might have been the one most habitable to you.

I'm surprised that a few turns made that much of a difference.

Do you have a tech advantage? What kinds of ships did you have and what kinds did they have? There ought to be some strategy for beating him even with even tech and lesser # of ships if you design your ships well.

[Patton1942]

Originally posted by DeckPrism
If you don't have enough forces, by all means look for the least defended planet. Once, you've explored the system, you can look at the population on the planet, see which ones are rich, and make your decision based on that. Or, I'd swear that the computer has some way of knowing which planet in the system has a mobilization center, or maybe it just comes up with some estimate of the most powerfull planet. Anyway the point is that the planet it auto selects for your attack tends to be pretty good.

I've been noticing this as well. Almost 90% of the time, when I invade a system, and capture a auto-selected planet the first turn in combat, the mob center is gone. Its really nice to pinch that one, key, chock point system, w/o the AI being able to mobilize massive numbers to starships there next turn.

well...com'on ...this is the newbie forum ;-)
well designed ships? ummm....well...I tend to load them up with fighters/rockets and that's about my strategy ;-)

and...it was a bit more than a "few turns"....all in all I think it took about 15 turns because I always had to get new troop ships to the world because ...well...umm...didn't know I can reactivate "used" groundtroops ;-)

As for tech...I guess we are about equal, just that my fleet there wasn't exactly up-to-date for me anymore ;-)
since I don't exactly care about fairness in my first game I played a bit with the autosaves...and well...the system is petty much lost anyway. So I guess I will give it to an ally before it gets attacked who will give me nice tech for it ;-)

[SnowFox5]

Originally posted by Da_Blade
In the battle selection screen, when you select "attack planet" you can press a tab at the bottom of the screen (view system or something), you can then select the planet too attack.

Can some one show a screen shot of this???? please thanks

[triller]

I'll pull one up when I get home and edit it to here.
Should be within a few hours.
Rats! Can't figure out how to post the .jpg file.
You can PM me and I'll Email it directly.

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by Euphorion
and...it was a bit more than a "few turns"....all in all I think it took about 15 turns because I always had to get new troop ships to the world because ...well...umm...didn't know I can reactivate "used" groundtroops ;-)

Go to the planets military tab, select the unit that you landed, and hit "dispand" - next turn its on its way back tothe reserves (takes a while)