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Post by elwoodps on Aug 11, 2015 11:00:49 GMT -5
This is a sort of tutorial on invasion tactics designed to minimize repair times, using an Invasion Task Force (ITF) made up of 12 Invasion Transports (IT's). What makes these tactics work is the fact that your transports' repair-rates are per ship, per turn, and multiple transports can Repair & Refuel concurrently as long as they're all in Green space. The goal is to spread the damage as evenly as possible over all 12 of the Invasion Task Force's IT's during the purge of each world, so that they all take a modest amount of damage, which can be repaired in a very small number of turns, as opposed to having just few ships take massive damage that takes many turns to repair. Consider a hypothetical example where your IT's have a repair-rate of 10HP/turn (Hull Points). If one IT takes a total of 90HP of damage during the course of purging a world, it'll take 9 turns in Green space to fully repair it. But if that 90HP of damage is spread evenly over 3 IT's, (30HP each), it'll only take 3 turns to fully repair the lot. The method of achieving this goal is after each turn of an invasion, pull the most damaged IT's out of the line, replacing them with undamaged or less damaged IT's. This requires your Invasion Task Force to be made up of more than 8 IT's (8 being the maximum number that can attack any given world during one turn). Since there are 12 Green squares around most colonies, I've settled on Task Forces made up of 12 IT's. This method doesn't result in damage spread as evenly as in the hypothetical example above, but in practice it does prevent any one ship from getting beat up too badly. Used the way that I do, these tactics (which I'll be demonstrating below) make for very fast-moving campaigns on Hard. I'll be demonstrating my tactics by walking you through the purge of five successive worlds, during the Jyeeta Campaign in my current game (Cadar, Rychart and Alta Vista on the Rinze 100x100, 90 world map vs 3 Xeno [Jyeeta, Sidtax & Red Zorga] on Hard). You can see a detailed write-up on the design of the Invasion Transports I'll be using in here: Successful Invasion Ship Designs Because this turn-by-turn walk through will be heavy on screen shots (if you don't have pics, it didn't happen  ) I'm going to break it up into several posts to keep the lengths reasonable. It might take me a few days to get them all up, so to keep them all at the beginning of the thread I'll make several placeholder posts that I can edit as they're completed.
First up..... The Purge of Caltharame
 13.36AE Invasion Task Force begins purge of Caltharame (Level 42 Jyeeta) -- Scout x5, Invade x3  5 HIT's (Heavy Invasion Transports) take damage (26, 18, 8, 6, & 1 Hull Points). Caltharame loses 11 pop, 0 Quality, and the scouting reveals Defense to be only 13. This is going to be an easy one. 
13.37AE Rotate 3 damaged HIT's out of line, replace with alternates.  Invasion Task Force continues purge of Caltharame -- Invade x8 3 HIT's take damage (14, 6, & 4 Hull Points). Caltharame loses 10 pop, 1 Quality, 0 Defense and the job is done. 
13.38AE With the Purge of Caltharame complete, a Rychart colony ship founds a new colony on Caltharame (Galarian Gate) and the Task Force begins Repair & Refueling.  
13.39AE Invasion Task Force continues R & R around Caltharame. The HIT's that are fully repaired & fueled are starting to move out. 
13.40AE With a little help from the tankers, the entire Task Force is now finished R & R and en route to Osthugl-nak.  |
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Post by elwoodps on Aug 11, 2015 11:01:55 GMT -5
![]() The Purge of Osthugl-nak
13.41AE Invasion Task Force begins purge of Osthugl-nak (Level 42 Jyeeta) -- Scout x5, Invade x3
(sorry, I forgot to snap a shot before tapping End Turn, but ships are still in same positions)
6 HIT's take damage (11, 8, 32, 16, 3 & 31, Hull Points). Osthugl-nak loses 6 pop, 0 Quality, and the scouting reveals Defense to be 24. This one's not going to be so easy. 
13.42AE Rotate 4 most heavly damaged HIT's out of line, replace with alternates. Cadar Colony ship standing by and 2 Heavy Tankers moving into position.
Invasion Task Force continues purge of Osthugl-nak -- (time to jump on them with both feet) Bombard x8
2 HIT's take damage (18 & 30 Hull Points). Osthugl-nak loses 3 pop, 5 Quality, 5 Defense. 
Now I remember why I prefer not to to Bombard. Well, it softened up the defenses anyway. 
13.43AE Rotate 2 most heavly damaged HIT's out of line, replace with less damaged ones.
Invasion Task Force continues purge of Osthugl-nak -- Invade x8
6 HIT's take damage (5, 1, 2, 19, 18, & 13 Hull Points). Osthugl-nak loses 13 pop, 0 Quality, 0 Defense. It wasn't pretty, but the job is done.
On the bright side, the worst damaged HIT in the Task Force only lost a total of 35HP, so we should still have 'em all patched up in 2 turns.
13.44AE With the Purge of Osthugl-nak complete, a Cadar colony ship founds a new colony on Osthugl-nak (Illgard Complex) and Repair & Refueling operations commence.
13.45AE Invasion Task Force continues R & R around Osthugl-nak. The HIT's that have finished R & R are starting to move out.
13.46AE Repairs complete, the ITF is on the way to Sharnisac. One HIT that's still a bit short of fuel is topping off in the last Green square en route.
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Post by elwoodps on Aug 11, 2015 11:02:43 GMT -5
The Purge of Sharnisac 13.47AE Invasion Task Force begins purge of Sharnisac (Level 42 Jyeeta) -- Scout x5, Invade x3  4 HIT's take damage (12, 8, 35, & 49 Hull Points). Sharnisac loses 9 pop, 0 Quality, and the scouting reveals Defense to be 22. 
13.48AE Rotate 4 damaged HIT's out of line, replace with alternates. Tankers are moving into position, but Alta Vista Colony ship is still 2 turns out.   Invasion Task Force continues purge of Sharnisac -- Bombard x3 Invade x5 3 HIT's take damage (1, 11, & 10 Hull Points). Sharnisac loses 7 pop, 3 Quality, 3 Defense. Not so painful, but the loss of Quality sucks.  
13.49AE Rotate 1 damaged HIT out of the line, replace with less damaged one. Alta Vista colony ship standing by, and early fueling begins. ![]()  ITF continues purge of Sharnisac -- Invade x8 1 HIT take damage (29 Hull Points). Sharnisac loses 6 pop, 0 Quality, 0 Defense. Definitely not thrilled with the loss of Quality, but the purge is complete. 
13.50AE With the Purge of Sharnisac complete, an Alta Vista colony ship founds a new colony on Sharnisac (Ormox Gates) and regular Repair & Refueling operations begin.  
1351AE ITF continues R & R around Sharnisac. The HIT's that have finished R & R are starting to move out. 
14.0AE While two HIT's remain in Green space one more turn to complete repairs, the rest of the ITF is already en route to Spabunus. 
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Post by elwoodps on Aug 11, 2015 11:03:01 GMT -5
The Purge of Spabunus
14.1AE Invasion Task Force begins purge of Spabunus (Level 43 Jyeeta) -- Scout x4, Invade x4
4 HIT's take damage (6, 4, 22, & 20 Hull Points). Spabunus loses 5 pop, 0 Quality, and the Defense not revealed. Should've stuck with Scout x5. 
14.2AE Rotate 4 damaged HIT's out of line, replace with alternates. Cadar Colony ship standing by and 2 Heavy Tankers moving into position.
Purge of Spabunus continues: Scout x5, Invade x3.
5 HIT's take damage (11, 10, 11, 24 & 22 Hull Points). Spabunus loses 5 pop, 1 Quality, and the scouting reveals Defense to be only 17.
14.3AE Rotate 1 damaged HIT out of line, replace with less damaged one.
Purge of Spabunus continues: Invade x8. Hopefully we can finish 'em off this turn, with no further loss of Quality.
No such luck. 4 HIT's take damage (3, 30, 24 & 22 Hull Points). Spabunus loses 10 pop, 0 Quality, 0 Defense. Well, at least it didn't lose any more quality.
14.4AE Purge of Spabunus continues: Invade x5.
1 HIT take damage (2 Hull Points). Spabunus loses 2 pop, 0 Quality, 0 Defense. Not happy with the Quality, but the purge is complete. .
14.5AE With the Purge of Spabunus complete, a Cadar ship founds a new colony on Spabunus (Civitas Latens) and regular R & R begins.
14.6AE Cadar sells Spabunus to the Independents. Repair & Refueling continues while HIT's that have finished R & R start to move out.
14.7AE Two HIT's remain one more turn in Green space to complete repairs, as the rest of the ITF proceeds to Stion Wastes.
14.8 The Task Force converges on Stion Wastes.
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Post by elwoodps on Aug 11, 2015 11:03:26 GMT -5
The Purge of Stion Wastes 14.9AE Invasion Task Force begins the purge of Stion Wastes (Level 43 Jyeeta): Invade x8 (Defense=0 already revealed )  4 HIT's take damage (15, 22, 23, & 1, Hull Points). Stion Wastes loses 9 pop, 0 Quality, and 0 Defense. The full Invade against 0 Defense didn't work nearly as well as I'd expected. We'll try mixing it up a little next turn. 
14.10AE Rotate 4 damaged HIT's out of line and replace with alternates. Cadar Colony ship standing by and 2 Heavy Tankers moving into position.  Invasion Task Force continues purge of Stion Wastes: Scout x3, Invade x5.  5 HIT's take damage (19, 7, 10, 9 & 7, Hull Points). Stion Wastes loses 8 pop, 0 Quality, and 0 Defense.
14.11AE Rotate 2 most heavly damaged HIT's out of line, replace with less damaged ones.  Invasion Task Force continues purge of Stion Wastes: Scout x5, Invade x3. Task Force suffers no damage. Stion Wastes loses 5 pop, 0 Quality and 0 Defense, and the purge is complete.
14.12AE With the Purge of Stion Wastes complete, a Cadar colony ship founds a new colony on Stion Wastes (Sharlea) and Repair & Refueling begins.  
14.13AE Invasion Task Force continues R & R around Stion Wastes. The HIT's that have finished R & R are starting to move out. Sorry, but I forgot to snap the shot of this one before tapping the End Turn button.
14.14AE R & R completed, the ITF is converging on Vvylerock. 
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Post by johndramey on Aug 11, 2015 19:04:48 GMT -5
Haha, very nice. Late game fleets are always a joy to see. I've got a game going right now where I'm just unlocking troop transports and will work on clearing out a xeno world, I can post up a very early game guide here for you to see if you like?
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Post by elwoodps on Aug 12, 2015 6:44:06 GMT -5
Haha, very nice. Late game fleets are always a joy to see. I've got a game going right now where I'm just unlocking troop transports and will work on clearing out a xeno world, I can post up a very early game guide here for you to see if you like? Thanks. I think an early game guide would be of great benefit to many forum users, but it would get far more exposure and use if you started a separate thread for it titled as such. In the invasion discussions on the 4x forums recently, there's been a number of folks arguing that under the current rules that it's not cost effective to repair IT's. That it's cheaper and faster run 'em til they explode and build new ones. What I'm trying to do here, is demonstrate tactics that hold repair costs and times down, making repairing IT's a very cost effective and attractive option. |
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Post by tenbsmith on Aug 12, 2015 8:48:20 GMT -5
If johndramey starts a new thread, maybe it should include 'early game' in the title. In which case, elwoodps might add 'late game' to the title of this thread. In my current game, at year 7, I just purged a Xeno system with 3 Transports (Planetary Invaseion 1, NOT heavy). I used the rotation strategy to even out damage, and each received around 80 points of hull damage. I'll let them repair as I build 2-3 more Tranports for my next purge. The point being, you can use the rotation strategy earlier in the game and with fewer ships and still have successful, if somewhat different outcomes. |
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Post by elwoodps on Aug 12, 2015 14:42:06 GMT -5
If johndramey starts a new thread, maybe it should include 'early game' in the title. In which case, elwoodps might add 'late game' to the title of this thread. In my current game, at year 7, I just purged a Xeno system with 3 Transports (Planetary Invaseion 1, NOT heavy). I used the rotation strategy to even out damage, and each received around 80 points of hull damage. I'll let them repair as I build 2-3 more Tranports for my next purge. The point being, you can use the rotation strategy earlier in the game and with fewer ships and still have successful, if somewhat different outcomes. I agree with what you say for the most part but don't want to label this thread "Late Game", because I'm confident that these tactics will work well for invasions in early game too. I'm using late game transports to demonstrate these tactics, only because they're what I have to work with in my current game. But you've given me an idea: As soon as I free up enough resources, I now plan to build an Invasion Task Force made up of standard (not Heavy) Invasion Transports using only early to mid game techs, and invade a few worlds with them. I anticipate they'll take more lumps than the HIT's going against Level 40+ Xeno systems during Year 14 or 15, so the Task Force will have a greater number of transports (maybe 16). But if I can demonstrate the ability to purge late game Xeno worlds with mid-game tech IT's, and still keep repair times and costs low, that'll be fairly conclusive proof that these tactics will work at any stage of the game. |
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Post by tenbsmith on Aug 13, 2015 9:12:04 GMT -5
johndramey I hope you will post your early game guide. elwoodps, you may have to deal with some thread derailing here, it's sort of a fun tradition.
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Post by johndramey on Aug 13, 2015 18:09:21 GMT -5
elwoodps and tenbsmith, I'd be happy to try to make up a thread sharing my early game invasion tactics. I don't think I'll make a new thread unless elwoodps really wants me to, as it'll still deal with invasion tactics and is just a smaller scale version of what elwoodps is doing. Give me a bit of time, my current game is a bit of a hairball. Playing a two enemy game one crazy and got sucker punched by the AI. I was in the process of invading a world controlled by xeno A, which seemed like the much bigger threat to me, when xeno B rolled up to one of my worlds with a decent sized fleet + world destroyer. They got three rounds of bombardment in before I could recall my fleet and smash the world destroyer. I'm going to need a bit of time to recover funds and repair my fleet before jumping off to invade. I think xeno B just nominated themselves, since xeno A's fleet is (probably) smashed to bits due to my push into their space with 10 cruisers.
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Post by fallen on Aug 16, 2015 13:20:17 GMT -5
Big +1 for this great thread!
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Post by johndramey on Aug 19, 2015 3:47:58 GMT -5
Ok, I actually took turn-by-turn screenshots of my conquests of two xeno planets and will work on posting them ASAP. The strategy isn't all that complicated, but it took me a while to get a handle on the proper way of planetary invasion so I figured it couldn't hurt to share.
Bear with me because work has been pretty heavy lately. Just started a new job as a patent application editor and, whew, blasting through 100+ pages of patent application everyday is a TREAT!
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Post by johndramey on Aug 20, 2015 2:36:33 GMT -5
So, for some reason my work computer doesn’t let me get files off of my phone. Since I spend way too much time at the office these days, that leaves me in a bit of a lurch for this post and I’ve decided to go ahead and post a verbal account of my invasions which I can supplement later when I get a chance to upload images from my home computer. First off, let me state that I am by no means a professional at Star Traders 4X. I rarely actually complete any of the games I start even though I love the game. That being said, I am playing on Crazy difficulty and feel pretty confident that I can handle whatever the game throws at me. On to my strategy, then. I’ve never really been one to throw away ships needlessly. Never saw the point in it, actually, as in most of my games I’ve found that a butt load of experience can make up for a lot in the way of tech shortcomings. As such, I disagree that throwing transports into the grinder is a good idea. My current game had my building the Imperator fairly early on and, to be honest, it’s still my invasion work horse. I’ll list its stats and load out right here:
Imperator
Class = Transport
Load out = Reactor 3 / Planetary Invasion 1 / Low orbit drop pods / Heavy mechanized brigade
Ship skills = Durability & Shielding 10 / Evasion 5 / Sensor 2 / Refuel 3 / Gun Decks & Torpedo Bays 0
Captain skills = Gun Attack, Pilot, Torpedoes, & Warrior 0 / Stealth 2 / Repair 2 / Invasion 7
Nothing too special, I know. Sure, it could be updated. Actually it could be updated a lot in my current game, but I’m still rolling with it. The thing to remember is that, aside from the heavy mechanized brigade, everything I used is unlocked with just the first level of planetary invasion. Anyways, I invaded my first planet on turn 6.29. I chose it because it was on the upper edge of the map and gave the Krangg xeno a nice little jumping off point to harass my space. I really hit the jackpot with it, though, because when I scouted it with my first Imperator I saw its stats. It sported a lovely 20 quality, which meant that I had to have it at any cost. It had a xeno population of 20, a defensive rating of 23, and a radiation level of 13. Not the toughest nut in the world but by no means easy pickings. Time to begin the invasion! Over my time playing ST4X I’ve learned a lot of lessons. One of those lessons was this; never roll up on an enemy planet with less than 4 transports if you want to both have a decent chance of bringing home experienced troops and capturing a planet intact. So, first order of business was to build 4 Imperators and get ‘em fueled up. After getting my Imperators up to the planet, after clearing a path with my cruisers of course, I set my plan in motion. Here is where things get really simple and you’ll probably go “ah, geez John, that helps me not at all” but I don’t care. My strategy for taking a xeno planet goes like this: Scout -> Invade -> Invade -> Invade. I usually will pull one more scout after 5 or so turns just to roleplay a little bit of recon but it is by no means necessary. If I have more than 5 transports, which is actually very rare, I’ll pull a rotation similar to elwoodps. My rotation is a bit different though, as I usually don’t pull a transport back until it has suffered over 33% damage. Sure, pulling transports back faster will save on repair time, but I like to focus on getting experience for my troops and captains. It took me just 6 turns to reduce that 20 population / 20 quality planet to a ripe little uninhabited rock just waiting for my Thulun Caravan to land on it. Those turns went juuuust like this. 19/20 Population (Just a scout) 14/20 Population (Invasion starts) 10/20 Population 6/20 Population 5/20 Population (damn you dice!) 0/20 Population Not bad for what amounts to practically the most basic troop transport you can field, eh? I hope my post is helpful and entertaining to some of you out there, and I promise to come back and fill in the pictures soon! I’ll also post up a log of my second invasion complete with pictures as well. |
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Post by anrdaemon on Aug 20, 2015 7:22:00 GMT -5
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) I'm going to break it up into several posts to keep the lengths reasonable. It might take me a few days to get them all up, so to keep them all at the beginning of the thread I'll make several placeholder posts that I can edit as they're completed.
