Troops on ships

[Euler]

Hi all,

First of all, new player, really enjoying DW so far. It's great to be on the forum with so many helpful people.

I am starting to get into designing my own ships, and wondering if troops on ships play any role in preventing ship capture or ship combat. Or are they only for invasions? Also, do troop bonuses help in ship combat at all?

I originally thought I would put them on my ships for security, but not sure if it makes any difference.

Just wondering cause I haven't seen this anywhere (it could be somewhere and I just missed it). Thanks!

[Darkspire]

ORIGINAL: Euler

Hi all,

First of all, new player, really enjoying DW so far. It's great to be on the forum with so many helpful people.

I am starting to get into designing my own ships, and wondering if troops on ships play any role in preventing ship capture or ship combat. Or are they only for invasions? Also, do troop bonuses help in ship combat at all?

I originally thought I would put them on my ships for security, but not sure if it makes any difference.

Just wondering cause I haven't seen this anywhere (it could be somewhere and I just missed it). Thanks!

Welcome to the forums Euler [:)]

If your playing Shadows a few boarding pods on bases and mines help with defense against boarding, on ships it does the same but you also have the option to do some boarding yourself.

I am sure someone with more light bulbs than me can give you the exact ratios, numbers etc.

Just read your post again, if your on about troops, infantry, armored and artillery, they are used for invasion and garrison on colonies, I do not think they help with defense as regards the troop pods you fit on transport class designs.

I was just thinking about the fact no one has ever seen a marine, the ones that are in the boarding pods. I think there a different troop altogether, spoken of but never seen, most strange, the unseen marine, not me [:)]

Darkspire

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: Euler

Hi all,

First of all, new player, really enjoying DW so far. It's great to be on the forum with so many helpful people.

I am starting to get into designing my own ships, and wondering if troops on ships play any role in preventing ship capture or ship combat. Or are they only for invasions? Also, do troop bonuses help in ship combat at all?

I originally thought I would put them on my ships for security, but not sure if it makes any difference.

Just wondering cause I haven't seen this anywhere (it could be somewhere and I just missed it). Thanks!

Welcome Euler;

Yes, troops are for colony invasions, colony defense(garrisoning) and also attacking Pirate facilities on
colonies. In addition to what Darkspire mentioned, the number of Hab Modules on a ship or base also adds
and increases the ability to assault/board during attack and defend during an assault. During ship/base
design, near the bottom of the stats section you can view the amounts of ship boarding / ship defense
increase as you add both assault pods and hab modules. Hope this helps, and glad you're enjoying DW!
[:)]

[Euler]

Great! Thank you both. I particularly like the part about checking the ship stats as I add and remove things. That will come in handy!

[Plant]

Your racial troop strength matters in raiding, so I presume it matters for boarding as well.

[btd64]

Euler, Also you can research marines I believe for defensive purposes, Can't remember. Its in the tech tree under weapons.
Cheers
Marines add to boarding strength[8D]

[sprost1]

Can you move troops from one planet to another?

[Aeson]

Can you move troops from one planet to another?

Yes. Use a ship with Troop Compartments. Troop Transport designs always have troop compartments, and the abandoned warships in the destroyer, cruiser, and capital ship roles typically have a troop compartment or two. Your own ships of destroyer, cruiser, and capital ship roles may also have troop compartments on board if you (or your main species' ship templates) add them to your warships. Select the ship with troop capacity, order it to load troops at the colony you wish to take troops from, then order it to unload troops at the colony you want to transfer troops to.

I was just thinking about the fact no one has ever seen a marine, the ones that are in the boarding pods.

Unless pirates use a different troop type for raiding than for boarding, we have seen at least the pirate version of marines whenever planetary raids occur, as those troops are delivered via boarding pod.

[Keston]

I manually control troop recruitment and transport.

I have used (designed) several types of transports. One is relatively small and cheap with space for shuttling a few units around in safe skies - a stripped down functional design. The other is the MAT (Marine and Assault Transport). It is a big ship. The Marine part is the several assault pods, tractor, and light armament that lets it help in boarding ships or stations.

The Assault part is the very heavy shielding, armor and speed that is intended to (and as a general rule does) allow it to get its troops dropped and survive the space defenses.

I reckon ships by troop strength per ship. For the warlike Keskudons, 250K-350K worth of infantry on a MAT is enough for most colonies, with enough strength to leave the most damaged as garrison and have enough for further landings. Using the "transfer" dropdown in my planet troop/character window, I tend to select troops myself by experience and type for particular campaigns and landings - the higher the troop quality, the more combat power for the maintenance cost.

Orbitals surrender once the planet surrenders, so transports alone can take many planets efficiently even without space superiority (though some old ships going in to divert fire from the dangerous defenses on the approach can't hurt). A well-developed colony or defended but unfortified home world is likely to have a million defense including civilians (I'm rounding to the nearest million) before special bonuses, and the modifiers translate to such huge changes in strengths that it's prudent to always include a good general and go with enough of a fleet to keep the defenses engaged enough so the space superiority bonus is favorable or neutral. If the defenses are to be cleared, then normal transports as well as the emptied MATs can be used to shuttle in more troops to increase the odds (and broaden the experience gain to the troops).

Having a warlike species like the Keskudons or Boskara for troops makes this a lot easier in terms of combat strength per ship, but the same principle applies - it is just more expensive in ships and troops, meaning maybe paying for only one invasion-worth of ships and troops in the entire navy, and relying on clearing the defenses to enable non-assault-style but large transports to be safely used for landings.

Recovered or captured capital ships and cruisers that I keep in service tend to get some (veteran) infantry loaded on them at some point. A few troops may be enough to crush a small rebellion or bolster defense if at risk of pirate or enemy landings, and they can be thrown into an invasion if desired.

Captured or recovered transports always get retired fairly quickly since they don't fit my strategy.