How do you actually win ground battles?

[Talezteller]

I have a fleet of some 8 medium-size support ships crammed full of manpower modules trying to take a Vodyiani system, but every combat round, no matter what tactic I choose, no matter if I get a victory or defeat, I do a bit of damage, and the next turn the system has more manpower than the previous turn, despite being blockaded and under siege.

Sieging a system takes dozens of turns at best so that doesn't seem like a viable answer.

Help?

[CursedPanther]

Besieging a system doesn't take dozens of turns if you have ships built with A2S Slugs modules for system bombardment. At times I will build like fifteen T1 support ships filled with the modules, group them up and I can wipe out like 800-900 enemy defense manpower per turn. That takes me at most 2 to 3 turns before I send in the assault troops with less than 10% casualties in most cases.

The game does allow the player to fully create and customize ship blueprints. Make good use of this useful feature.

[Groo the one]

From my experience Vodyani get ground force reimprovements (manpower) from their anchored arch each turn when ground combat started.

It's faster to attack the arch and to set an outpost on this system. Sadly you can't do so, if the archs are equipped with these modules what prevent them from beeing attacked in space battle.

The manpower reimprovements are taken from Vodyanis empire wide manpower pool. I tend to siege and/or start ground combat on multiple Vodyani systems same time, what speeds up the process to lower their empire-wide manpower pool. This finally leads to less or no more reinforcements at one point.

[Freny]

Originally posted by CursedPanther:

Besieging a system doesn't take dozens of turns if you have ships built with A2S Slugs modules for system bombardment. At times I will build like fifteen T1 support ships filled with the modules, group them up and I can wipe out like 800-900 enemy defense manpower per turn. That takes me at most 2 to 3 turns before I send in the assault troops with less than 10% casualties in most cases.

The game does allow the player to fully create and customize ship blueprints. Make good use of this useful feature.

1) They nerfed the A2S Slugs from 25 to 7. I had a AS2 fleet of 8 ships with three AS2 modules each, plus whatever attack ships I had there orbiting, and it was removing 250ish defending troops per turn. Still useful, but no more 900 troops per turn.

2) The game doesn't allow for blueprint customization, you get to choose one blueprint from the list and it comes with the modules that it comes with. Can't change nothing.

[Prometheus]

Vodyani get a cheat. You basically have to go in with excessive troop modules to get the width high enough you can destroy over 300 troops in a single round. This isn't as bad as it seems. You'd want to do this when going after someone else anyways. Its just required vs Vodyani.

[Varg K]

Originally posted by Freny:

1) They nerfed the A2S Slugs from 25 to 7. I had a AS2 fleet of 8 ships with three AS2 modules each, plus whatever attack ships I had there orbiting, and it was removing 250ish defending troops per turn. Still useful, but no more 900 troops per turn.

In the lategame you will have 30 AS2 equipped ships in one fleet that decimate any planet's manpower defense. Even 15 can achieve 900 per turn, depending on the faction.

The game doesn't allow for blueprint customization, you get to choose one blueprint from the list and it comes with the modules that it comes with. Can't change nothing.

You can always delete the default designs and create new blueprints that are suited to your liking. And even the default designs can be customized at will.
What you CAN'T do is equip Support class modules onto Attacker ships. But everything else is fully customizable.

[utilityguy]

Use modules to increase your fleet's Manpower deployment limit.
A deployment limit of 1200-2000+ (excluding Blitz tactic) should be enough to deal with any early and early-mid game planet invasions. Late game you're better off getting the limit up to the 5000s.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Ground battles are pointless because of the overcolonization penalty (Unless you absolutely need to secure a strategic/luxury resource early game)

Just go in with planet crackers or have an Obliterator nearby.

If you're really hell bent on it though, people have already suggested the AGN2 slugs, but you can also (This is super effective early game too) spec your entire military into Tanks instead of Infantry/tanks split. You'll pretty much blitzkrieg any ground battle until you find a civ that's researched Air Power, and even then, just put maybe 25 to infantry as Aircraft numbers are always really low.

Manpower limit is also an over-looked mechanic. Utilityguy pointed it out, and in my games, I usually transition my "Small support/tank" ships (In the UE's case, the Yaneref) from a damage sponge to an invasion craft. I usually have a few sprinkled in my mixed fleets to screen like a carrier or battleship (I love Antimatter lenser+Adamantian Jammer combo on a flotilla) so these can function as sort of the "Tip of the spear" on light invasion. For a heavy invasion I've usually got a fleet of 10+ Yarenef's with a Seeker hero ready finish the job of an entrenched target.

Similarly, I transition my light attackers (the Egezrey in the UE's case) into siege craft/missile corvettes. Yeah, you lose a bit of damage from like an Adamantian intensifier, but I'd rather loose that on a small ship, than something big. And since even late-game Egezrey form a core block of my fleet (on UE I do a lot of Egezrey-Sheredyn), as there's just nothing that can match the sheer efficiency of a cadre of Egezreys with Decay or Entropy torpedoes, the numbers just work in my favor to put some slugs on them.

[Talezteller]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Ground battles are pointless because of the overcolonization penalty (Unless you absolutely need to secure a strategic/luxury resource early game)

In the lategame overcolonization is mute, I am 5 planets over the "limit" and am sitting at 100% global approval.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by Talezteller:

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Ground battles are pointless because of the overcolonization penalty (Unless you absolutely need to secure a strategic/luxury resource early game)

In the lategame overcolonization is mute, I am 5 planets over the "limit" and am sitting at 100% global approval.

It's still pointless, because it's faster to just kill everything and move on, maintaining your momentum. If your military can't essentially win a war with the first major engagement, you've done something wrong. Here, hacking can actually play a big key, as you can view what technology the enemy has. If they've researched say, Hyperium magnetics or other energy weapons, you can just put shields on all your ♥♥♥♥ and rickroll their fleets with overshielded small vessels, lol.

[Talezteller]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

If your military can't essentially win a war with the first major engagement, you've done something wrong.

How can you have a decisive engagement when if you have 51% power in an engagement the AI will always retreat regardless of whether it can actually find a system to retreat to or not

[dergefata]

Originally posted by Talezteller:

How can you have a decisive engagement when if you have 51% power in an engagement the AI will always retreat regardless of whether it can actually find a system to retreat to or not

Early to mid game, you just follow them to their destination and hit them again. They can't retreat twice in a short time. If your fleets are all very slow (say, you've swapped out engines for other support modules) then just park a very cheap ship in basically every sector, set to defend. Sure, it'll get wasted the first time an enemy fleet retreats into its star system, but it'll also stop them cold for a turn, allowing you to catch up.

Later on, make Interdictor carriers with the Tractor Beam and stick one in each fleet. They can't retreat if they're caught in your tractor beam.