Hey all. Good to be back.

I have the most problems in the game with the actual logistics of conquest. Even at the higher difficulty levels, I can achieve strategic victory relatively quickly, and as the Romulans losing practically no ships.

My losses almost invariably come from attacking systems with orbital batteries. What should I do as the Romulans? (or anyone else, for that matter?). From my observations, strike cruisers are a waste of credits, and unless you have Warbird II's you'll pretty much lose one (or more) ships per orbital battery per turn.

So......
1) Do the Romulans just suck at conquering systems
2) Does everyone suck at conquering systems and the key is to build fifty million orbitals and all will be safe (except from the Borg) (this selection is half kidding)
3) Do I just not know how to attack systems safely and with an acceptable chance of success?

Well orbitals 1 per crusier usually is best method to use. And keep ur cruisers at the top of the fleet list that way orbitals only attack them and not any fleets under cruisers on the left fleet menu for the system.

Generally never attack large systems with scouts/destroyers as they die easily. Even in groups with big ships.

Another good way for orbits against major races at least (cant for minors for some reason only microprose thought of) is sabatage. Use ur sabatage bonus as romulans and get a few thousand intel points first and sabatage the hell out of a enemy race. Sometimes you can destroy orbitals at there systems. As well as planetary shields and dunno but maybe bunker networks as well.

Sabatage energy means they cant power them as well.

Just some tips i know for attacking against orbitals.

Thanks. Anyone else have ideas? Does anyone really know the guts of the programming that affects orbitals?

For as far as I know strike cruisers are a waste of credits for any race. They suck big time at killing orbitals and they suck as much in general combat as they are too weak. Only Romulan Strike cruisers may be worth it because of their cloak.

Also, I wouldn't use Warbirds for planetary assault. They are capable of it, but too expensive to risk in my opinion. What I mostly do is create a squad of ships that just eliminates the enemy fleet. Mostly Destroyers II en the occasional warbird and cruiser. And keep another squad with only cruisers II that are not nescessarily trained (experience is useless against orbitals) and use them only to combat the orbitals. That way it isn;t that severe when a ship gets destroyed.
To minimise losses, use one cruiser per orbital plus one extra. Do not call in the troop transports unless all orbitals are gone. If you are in a hurry (for example when the enemy fleet is en route and you want to take a system before they get there) it is possible to take a system in one turn by taking out orbitals and assaulting simultaneously, but this is more risky. Use more transports and as much cruisers as possible and place your cruisers ABOVE the transports on the taskforce screen. Don't ask me why, but it seems to work. As another downside, you will cause more casualties this way.

I've noticed the same thing as well - whatever taskforce is set as the one on top is always the one that 'takes control' and does the most damage during a Planetary assault.

The ships with the most experience are always your most valuable ships. Keep them inreserve for only the most serious battles and assaults - keep them in training where possible, at least until they reach legendary status.

There is a MASSIVE difference in how ships perform in battle between elite and legendary status. I find that legendary ships have close to 100% accuracy and do extra damage - especially against the Borg.

This is obviously most notable when you use Defiants.

Anyways, when I play a game, I always decide who my main enemies are once I know where all their homesystems are (Or can guess where they are)

I start off a game by building 3 taskforces of Troop Transports, and then I train the hell out of them.

I also build 1 task force of Destroyers and one taskforce of Commands. I also train the hell out of these, especially the Commands.

When I decide who i'm gonna assault, I start by Sabotaging the hell out of them - I focus on Military and Economic sabotage - Military sabotage means you may be able to take out ships or even their shields/orbital batteries/bunkers, and Economic sabotage may destroy their food or energy structures.

If they have no food, the people starve and they put up less resistance to your Troop Transports. The fewer people that are in the system, the easier it is to capture.

Before attacking with your Troop Transports, check how much ground combat the system has - turn tooltips OFF in the options menu, then put your cursor over the star in the system.

Each Troop Transport has a strength of 600 (I think - or 800 if they are Klingon) You can also mod this with Starship editor programs like those hosted for download on armadafleetcommand.com)

Make sure that the combined total of your Troop attack is higher than the enemy system's ground combat - otherwise you'll lose. Klingon systems have double defense, so ensure you have at least double the number for safeties sake.

When my fleets are ready to attack the system, I wait until i've taken out some energy/food structures, their shields, bunker network, or orbital batteries. I then send in my Destroyers to futher soften up the enemy defenses.

You'll likely lose one or two ships, but this can't always be helped. Obviously the more ships you have though, the better. It's usually best to wait until all the orbital batteries have been taken out by your sabotage.

In the first turn of attack, send in your Destroyers. Send your Commands in on the second turn, and the Troop Transports on the third.

If you want to keep the system relatively intact, just send in one or two ships with the Troop Transports, but stop the rest of the ships attacking on the third turn. This will mean that there is only light damage done during the third turn, so you keep more of the buildings and people. This method is less likely to work though.

I personally prefer to wipe out a system, rather than subjugate it - unless I have some morale problems whilst playing as the Cardassians.

...

My game has the Planets mod, and i've modded the game to make subjugation and Planetary assault harder - Bunkers give bigger bonuses, Orbital batteries require low energy to power, and shields are waaaay stronger. They are all much harder to build though.

I've also modded my ships, so their advantages and weaknesses are more prominent (Eg. Federation have virtually no weapons but have tons of shields, Ferengi ships are cheap - and have weak systems because of it, etc.)

Becuase of al thse changes, my methods may not work in a standard game - in fact, I rarely ever play a standard game now...

With ships