Shane Kearns
This article is intended to give players new to
stars an indication of
the capabilities of the different ways of
capturing/destroying a
planet, and when each method is
appropriate.
Standard Bombs:
(Lady Finger, Black Cat, M-70, M-80, Cherry)
These bombs kill a moderate amount of colonists, and destroy a
moderate number of installations(factories/mines/defenses).
They require only weapons technology to build.
Since most
people have high weapons tech, the Cherry bomb is the most
common of these in multi player games
These bombs are the
most affected by defenses
Smart Bombs:
(Smart, Neutron, enriched neutron, peerless,
annihilator)
These bombs kill a lot of colonists, but leave
installations intact.
They use the lower (red) curve for
defenses in the tech browser, so
defenses are less effective,
however they will not kill everybody -
the more smart bombs you
have the less effective each one is.
These bombs require
biotechnology as well as weapons.
Since most players have
expensive(+75%) biotechnology, you will most
often see
neutron/enriched neutron bombs
LBU bombs:
(LBU-17, LBU-32, LBU-74)
These bombs are
fairly ineffective at killing colonists, but they
destroy a
large number of installations.
Unlike the other bombs, they
require germanium to build.
They require electronics technology
as well as weapons.
You will most often encounter LBU-32 and
LBU-74 bombs - the battle
supercomputer at electronics 11 falls
between these two, and is a
place a lot of players stop on
electronics and research something
else.
Special Bombs and bomb-like effects
Retro Bomb (claim adjuster special part)
This bomb
deterraforms planets. It is useless, as the lower tech
orbital
adjuster is better
Orbital adjuster (claim adjuster special part)
This mining
robot terraforms both friendly and enemy planets. Enemy
planets
are terraformed away from their optimum. Friendly planets are
terraformed towards it.
Hush-a-boom (can be got from the mystery trader)
This bomb is
very cheap, and kills more people than the cherry bomb,
however
it does minimal damage to installations. It suffers the full
effect of defenses, but is is additive (if you put enough if
them in a
fleet to get 2000% kill (42 B-52 bombers full), you
can destroy a
planet in a single year. Their main use is as a
cheap (and mostly
better) alternative to cherry bombs.
Multi-contained munition (can be got from mystery trader)
This device acts as a beam weapon, minelayer, bomb and battle
computer
all rolled into one. Since it goes in a 'weapon' slot
rather than a
bomb slot, its main advantage is that you put it
on battleships rather
than easily killed bombers. Its bombing
ability is not that good
(about the same as a black cat bomb),
but still a useful item.
Population invasion ("pop-drop", "baby-bombing")
This can be
the cheapest way to get a planet - simply fill a freighter
up
with colonists, and unload it on an enemy planet.
Defences will
kill 75% * the defence percentage of the colonists
(e.g. 95%
defences will kill 71% of the invaders). In most cases,
whoever
has the most colonists on the ground after defence kills will
get to keep the planet (along with all the factories and mines).
The
invader also gets a chance to gain a tech level.
If the
defender is Inner Strength, each defending colonist counts as 2
If the invader is a warmonger, each invader counts as 1.5
Mineral packets
This is the most expensive (in minerals) way
to hurt a planet.
However, mineral packets can fly up to warp 16
even through minefields
- the victim has less warning of the
attack
Also, they can kill a planet even if it has a starbase
(with all other
methods, you must destroy the base first).
It is effective if the target planet has no defenses (or few
defenses)
and/or no mass driver. If you are Packet Physics, your
better mass
drivers and reduced decay make this form of attack
more effective.
Alternate reality races are immune to packet
attacks, since they live
in starbases. Also, anyone with warning
of the incoming packet can
intercept the packet and steal the
minerals, or 'dodge' - load all the
population into freighters
and colonise the planet again next year.
Packets don't destroy
factories and mines, but they do destroy
defenses. Some of the
minerals in the packet will be left on the
surface.
Which attack to use in which circumstance:
Poorly defended,
low population - mineral packet or invasion (you can
lift the
survivors back off the surface). If the planet has warships
in
orbit, use a packet.
Useless to you, well defended - Unless you have much better mass
drivers than them, packets will be largely inneffective. You
will
need to destroy the base and defending ships. Then use a
50/50 mix of
LBU and standard bombs. With LBU74/Cherry, 20 B17
or stealth bombers
is enough. Even through 95% defenses, the LBU
bombs will destroy all
the factories/mines/defences. The
following year, the standard bombs
will kill the population.
Even if you have to flee a counterattack,
the first year's
bombing will cripple the planet's economy, as no
factories means
no resources, and no mines means no minerals.
If possible, take
all the minerals from the planet. If you are
super-stealth, the
robber baron scanner lets you take them the year
you arrive
(upshot: the planet can't rebuild their defences/base).
Otherwise, colonise the planet and unload all minerals/colonists
the
following year (it is important not to leave the 2,500 or
25,000
colonists on the surface as they make a tempting target
for invasions
which means giving away tech to your enemy).
Useful to you, well defended:
Ideally, you want to capture
the planet intact. This means using
smart bombs and waiting
until the population is low enough that you
can invade. Once the
population is below 250,000, they won't operate
the full 100
defences, so the defence value will fall. If you have
orbital
adjusters, they are an excellent backup to your smart bombs.
Firstly, when you lower the planet value, the maximum population
the
planet will hold drops, so people will die from
overcrowding.
Secondly, if you manage to lower the planet value
below 0, only 50,000
of the colonists on the surface can operate
factories/mines/defenses,
so the defence percentage should drop
sharply. Once the
population/defences are low enough, you can
invade.
This sort of capture takes several years, as opposed to the two
for
LBU/standard bombing. As a result, the defender has more
chance to
counterattack. You may want to stick to standards/LBU
for faster
damage to your enemy. Also if you have no hope of
keeping the planet
once captured then use LBU/standards
Hit-and-Run attacks:
Sometimes you want to do maximum damage
to an enemies economy with
minimal risk to yourself. There are
two options here: cloaked fleets
or mineral packets.
With cloaked fleets (by far the easiest for super-stealth), you
need
to make fleets with warships and bombers. Use plenty of LBU
bombs,
especially if your enemy relies on factories for their
resources.
Sneak around until you find a weakly defended planet
and then go in,
hit it hard. If theres nobody who can
counterattack you, stay for the
second year and kill the
colonists. Otherwise move away. Super
stealth should use robber
baron ships as well.
With mineral packets (by far the easiest for packet physics), you
should launch mineral packets at highest possible speed against
as
many targets as possible all in the same year. After the
first packet
attack, the enemy will be sure to build defences,
so make it count.
If you are forced to retreat after bombing
enemy planets, remember
that when your enemy re-colonises them,
they have to rebuild the
defences. This gives you a window of
opportunity for another packet
attack.
Packets through defences:
Sometimes, it is worth making that
25000kT mineral packet to kill a
planet despite its defences. If
the planet is exceptionally
important. A prime example of this
is "one world wonder" races. In
tiny/sparse games, a lot of
players design races that have habitable
ranges so narrow they
can only live on their homeworld. If you can
destroy their
homeworld under the feet of the dreadnaught fleet
they're
building to come and kill you then its worth whatever amount
of
boranium you have to put in the packet.
I know, I've been at the
receiving end of it once :)
Jason Cawley
Shane Kearns wrote:
(Generally excellent piece of how to kill planets :-)
A few
quibbles/additions/amplifications...
1. minor points - the standard bombs (cherry sequence) are
cheaper than
the other types. But all low-tech bombs aren't
terribly useful. Also,
some useful simple numbers to remember -
20 cherry minibombers or 30
M-80's or 42 M-70's each get 100%
pop kill vs. no defenses (with similar
facility kills to). Each
of those bombs is roughly half-again as good
as the previous
type. Divide by 4 for B-17s w/ only standards of course
:-) One
lot of M-70's can sometimes be worth it early (crowded game
e.g.) but usually better to wait for the later, better bombs
(M-80's are
ok and cherries are great).
2. although it takes a lot of smart bombs or more advanced ones
or both
to hit a defended planet so hard you can invade it the
same year, it is
possible. When done correctly it can also be
rather effective. Of
course, it costs some investment in all
those bombs :-) But e.g. some
races with TT will have the
biotech for better ones (or SDs because they
need the bio for
mines). Also useful for HP=style races to capture
factories.
Note that population invasions *by a moving fleet* occur
after
bombing; if you start the turn in orbit, though, and then invade,
that happens first before bombing (it's a "waypoint zero" or
start-of-turn thing). For calculating things, the red
curve/defense
effects vs. smarts is 2/3rds times rated defense
coverage.
3. A point people sometimes miss is that defenses are only 1/2
effective for purposes of facilities destroyed calculations.
They are
full effect only for defending the population. That's
why LBUs +
cherries can work well vs. highly defended planets -
enough
facility-destroying power will level any world through
any defenses
because the best defenses can't stop more than 1/2
the destruction.
> Poorly defended, low population - mineral packet or invasion
(you can
> lift the survivors back off the surface). If the
planet has warships
> in orbit, use a packet.
Well, maybe if there is an orbiting fleet, but packets are an
inefficient way to kill off small worlds IMHO. Over 100,000 pop,
packets kill a % of the population (which can be 100 of course).
No
harder to kill 1,320,000 than to kill 100,000 with a packet
if those are
the populations of the two worlds. The ideal packet
target is a big
undefended planet that is close to the shooting
base.
Also, small undefended worlds in the 25,000 - 100,000 pop range
can be
killed very cheaply by using e.g. 20 cherry minibombers.
You can double
up these "small bombing squadrons" to take on
defended worlds.
> Otherwise, colonise the planet and unload all
minerals/colonists the
> following year (it is important not
to leave the 2,500 or 25,000
> colonists on the surface as
they make a tempting target for invasions
> which means
giving away tech to your enemy).
A little trick to get the minerals without using colonists or a
colonizer is to bring along 1, count 'em 1, small remote mining
ship
with orders to remote mine. It will let you load the
minerals from the
surface once it has mined 1 kt.
> Useful to you, well defended:
> Ideally, you want to
capture the planet intact. This means using
> smart bombs and
waiting until the population is low enough that you
> can
invade... Once the population is below 250,000, they won't operate
> the full 100 defences, so the defence value will fall...
> This sort of capture takes several years...
The right way to do this is to bring along so much smart bombing
power
that through the full defenses you can kill almost all the
planet's pop
in one turn - down to the 25,000 - 50,000 pop level
or lower. Then have
your marines invade the same year - like
drop a full large freighter's
worth or so. You can then take the
planet will all facilities for a
loss of 50,000 - 100,000 pop,
sometimes less. But you need a lot of
smart bombing power to do
this to well defended planets. E.g. 10 B-52's
with annihilators
vs. a 95% defended planet will kill ~98.4% of the pop
on the
first bombing run. That's like 15,900 left out of 1 million,
which can't operate many of the defenses and can't fight the
marines
that get through. Obviously this is easier to afford
later on in a
game.
Those are my quibbles, but a fine useful
article. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Jason Cawley
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