How is Destroying a Star Nation (Empire) possible?

[Sir Gin ♂]

How is Destroying a Star Nation (Empire) possible? Other AIs in the game can do it.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Mmmm... by conquering/eliminating all their colonies

[Vanorah]

out tech em

[Sir Gin ♂]

did that. I had all their planets and systems. Didn't destroy them. Does that mean I need to bomb and destroy their planets? with some kind of planet cracker bomb? How are they getting destroyed early game by ais? even waited till they had to sue for peace. waited for their forced surrender.

[HappySack]

What happens when you select their capital using the camera button in the contact screen?

[Sir Gin ♂]

just does the diplomatic options.

[Immortalis]

Originally posted by Sir Gin ♂:

did that. I had all their planets and systems. Didn't destroy them. Does that mean I need to bomb and destroy their planets? with some kind of planet cracker bomb? How are they getting destroyed early game by ais? even waited till they had to sue for peace. waited for their forced surrender.

Occupying the planets is how you win the war, actually conquering them is a different thing: you claim the system, invade the planet and then sue for peace, obtaining both.
Once an empire no longer has any planet / habitat they are "destroyed"

[Sir Gin ♂]

Originally posted by Immortalis:

Originally posted by Sir Gin ♂:

did that. I had all their planets and systems. Didn't destroy them. Does that mean I need to bomb and destroy their planets? with some kind of planet cracker bomb? How are they getting destroyed early game by ais? even waited till they had to sue for peace. waited for their forced surrender.

Occupying the planets is how you win the war, actually conquering them is a different thing: you claim the system, invade the planet and then sue for peace, obtaining both.
Once an empire no longer has any planet / habitat they are "destroyed"

did all that. I must not own he right dlc yet. All I have is the basic starter kit.

[Xaphnir]

You need to fully annex them. You can do this in the base game, no DLC required.

To do this, bring up the diplomacy window with the empire you want to conquer, go to manage claims, then select the systems you want to claim. If you win a war with the empire that you have claims on, most war goals will transfer control of those systems to you. If you choose status quo peace, both sides gain control of any systems they've claimed and fully occupied (this means controlling the starbase and occupying any planets in the system).

There's also the option for total war war goals, where control of a system is transferred immediately, and regardless of claims. The only way to have these war goals without DLC, I believe, is through a war with an Awakened Empire. The other ways to get this all require DLC.

[Elitewrecker PT]

You have to take actual control (become the owner) of their colonies. That or bomb with indiscriminate stance until all the pops are dead.
They’re destroyed once they don’t own any more colonies.

[Segovax]

Simplest explanation is you need to have claims on all their colonies then win the war. As ElitewreckerPT said, they are destroyed once they no longer own colonies.

When you take away their colonies via claims won in a war of conquest, that will happen.

[MarkDey]

Did you actually land troops on their planets during the war?

[kirb]

how to win war:
step 1: choose wargoal, this will change your win conditions and your reward. total war, cleansing, absorption, assimilation, wipe them out, end threat, stop colossus, and conquer (with claims on every single enemy system containing an inhabited planet, made by spending influence in the claims menu on the left sidebar) are the only ways to "destroy" an empire.
step 2: capture all systems containing inhabited planets, habitats and ringworlds by destroying the starbase in the system
step 3: train ground armies on your planets, combine them all together into a fleet, and tell them to land on an enemy planet that is in a star system you've captured. if they win the ground battle you occupy the planet.
step 4: occupy all enemy planets, habitats and ringworlds.
Congrats, empire destroyed. Usually this is not worth it unless you're an assimilator/swarm/purifier/exterminator. If you do this though, capture the outposts in all their outlying uninhabited star systems first before you invade their last planet, as any of their uninhhabited territory which they own but you have not occupied will become completely unclaimed once they're considered destroyed due to loss of all planets and pops, leaving the territory open for taking from AI. Also, you'll have to survey everything to reclaim it. So just capture it first.

[Sir Gin ♂]

okay. First I want to thank all of you for your helpful comments. Secondly , I think I figured out was is going on. I had an ally in the war. What I think was happening he was already at war with the same group of folks I jumped into with. When I started taking the planets the sectors were returning to his control. So the game would not let me take those planets. If was going to be up too my ally to bring troops in and retake those planets.

[Xaphnir]

Originally posted by Sir Gin ♂:

okay. First I want to thank all of you for your helpful comments. Secondly , I think I figured out was is going on. I had an ally in the war. What I think was happening he was already at war with the same group of folks I jumped into with. When I started taking the planets the sectors were returning to his control. So the game would not let me take those planets. If was going to be up too my ally to bring troops in and retake those planets.

What that sounds like is that your ally had the stronger claim. You can claim a system multiple times, up to 10, and when two allies have competing claims, it goes to the one with the stronger claim.