Quote:
Posted by Jarok
place your cruisers ABOVE the transports on the taskforce screen
place your cruisers ABOVE the transports on the taskforce screen
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...
