Military System Part 2: The Ground Combat System
Hello everyone!
With the release of the latest update about a week away, I wanted to continue the military discussion and talk about the ground combat system – how it works, and what you as the emperor can do to ensure success of your ground invasion operations!
The most important thing to realize about ground ops is that planets are not just an all or nothing ball that you can take in a single strike (usually). They are made up of regions, each with their own defense, population, infrastructure, defense/topography, etc. So when you invade a planet, what you are doing is taking control of regions. As you do so, the overall control of the planet changes depending on the value of the regions that are still controlled by each side. It is possible to have multiple armies (3 or more) fighting over the same planet, with all 3 armies (Houses) each claiming a small part of the planet!
Invasions are carried out by space infantry divisions, ala Starship Troopers. They are generated on planets that have barracks – you don’t build them like ships, they are produced by your production system – they work like starship component factories but they use Pops (generally your lowest value Pops like farmers or miners) and convert them into SI. Once they are converted, they no longer ‘count’ as a Pop and do not generate anything (but they consume food and energy).
When you decide to invade a planet, you first have to get through the system defenses. These are basically static emplacements that are meant to cover Lagrange entry points in the system. This is accomplished by a support or combat fleet to soak up some of the damage. You can’t actually attack system defenses per se, but you can attrit them somewhat.
Once you get to the orbital plane of a planet, you then combat drop your SI divisions onto the planet. Your War Prime will work out the most advantageous Regions to attack first – generally the most populous since the value of a Region will contribute to planetary control. The planet may have space cannons emplaced on the surface, meaning that your SI divisions may take damage coming in.
Once they land, SI divisions depending on their role have 1, 2, or 3 Orders they can take each 3 month turn. They can do the following:
• Attack
• Move to a new region
• Reorganize (heal)
• Retreat
As Emperor, you can control when they retreat but your War Prime will determine their Orders depending on the Invasion Plan they are given. Basically, you can give the invasion an aggressive Plan, a normal Plan, or a cautious Plan. This affects at what ratio the admiral in charge will press the attack, the loss tolerance, and the willingness to reorganize vs. press the attack, among other things.
With an Attack Order, a SI division will look to conquer the Region they are occupying. There is always an inherent defense in a region (usually local militia, citizens, and scattered local defense emplacements) as well as the terrain in the region. It is much harder to attack a Mountainous region than a Plains one. Water regions are especially tough to crack as divisions must land on small islands or archipelagos, and amphibious invasions are always tricky. If there are no defending SI divisions in the region, the division will look to inflict 50 points of suppression on the Region. In truth, this represents breaking the will of the residents of the Region to fight, and eventually surrender the Region. When a Region surrenders, the former owner loses all Installations that were there, as well as any Pop output (i.e. they do not pay taxes or generate Build Points, etc).
So let’s look at an example to see how a turn might play out with a specific SI division. They move into planetary orbit and their transport takes 15 damage, meaning that each point of damage a 1D100 is rolled where chance = total damage / 100. They roll 15 times, and take 1 damage on rolls 11 and 14.
Next, they do an orbital drop onto the planet. Keep in mind that while your support ships can order an orbital strike to take out planet defenses, this will significantly raise your Fear level and lower your Support, and Support is much harder to restore than Fear is to lower. Your SI division hits the ground and for their first Order, they Attack. There is no defending SI division in this Region, so they are only fighting local defenses. The Ground Combat rating of this division is 20, and they are using Orbital Support from the Force above (you can select this option as part of your Invasion Plan). This adds 50 to the Attack Rating (similar to ship combat). The general in charge has a 60 Military Skill. With the formula in place, the final Attack Rating of this SI Division is 140, not too shabby!
Now to get the ratio we’ll be working with, we examine the Region defense. The Region is mountainous, meaning that they have a defense factor of 3 (1 is average). They do not have any supporting SI divisions, so they have a 0 base rating. They have a region defense rating of 28, based on the size and population of the Region, and this is amplified by the regional defense factor. Finally, the Viceroy’s military skill is also a 60, so while they do not have a great effect on the defense of a planet, they do have some. The final Defense Rating of the Region is 88.
Now, we have a ratio – 1.6 : 1 in favor of the attacker. This gives them a 72% chance to inflict at least 50% damage (20) on the Region as suppression damage, and a 36% change to inflict a full-damage attack, which is quite good! As long as you have a positive combat ratio, you will always inflict at least 25% of your attack rating. The defenders have a base Region Defense of 9, meaning that they have a 28% chance to inflict 9 points of damage to the attacking SI, and a 72% chance to inflict at least 50% damage.
The attack is made – the attacker rolls a 62, meaning they inflict 20 points of suppression on the Region, and the defenders roll a 22, meaning they inflict 5 points (defense rounds damage up; attackers round down) on the HP of the SI. With that, the first Order is done;
Now, depending on the Invasion Plan, the SI division could Attack again, Reorganize, or Retreat. Since they didn’t take much damage and they inflicted 40% of the needed Suppression, the General chooses another Attack Order.
After 2 more Attacks, the Region falls and the invading House is one step closer to conquering the Planet!
Just for fun, let’s drop a Ground Defense SI Division in the Region to help out, and let’s see what that does to the calculations!
The Attack Rating stays at a 140 for the attacking SI division, but the Defense Rating (thanks to the 35 Ground Defense Rating of the defending SI Division) thanks to the Mountain multiplier, jumps all the way to a 193!!! Now the ratio is .7 to 1, and the chance for the attacking division to inflict full damage drops all the way to 17%! In addition, the defense gets a 66% chance to inflict 12 points of damage (50% of the 15 Ground Combat rating of this division + the inherent 9 points from the Region defenses) and a 33% chance to do a full damage attack (15).
So as Emperor, you want to make sure that your more valuable Holdings have at least a few Ground Defense SI Divisions on-planet. They will automatically be based at the largest and highest-value Regions, but you can designate certain Regions as ‘priority’ for defense (at 1 AP point cost) and when new divisions are generated, any prioritized Regions will get 2 Divisions assigned, other normal Regions will get 1 if they have sufficient value, and low value Regions will not get any (usually outlying or sparsely populated Regions).
We hope to do much more with this system in the future, including a 3D globe that shows the current planetary situation, but we’re excited about the foundations of the system!
-Steve
With the release of the latest update about a week away, I wanted to continue the military discussion and talk about the ground combat system – how it works, and what you as the emperor can do to ensure success of your ground invasion operations!
The most important thing to realize about ground ops is that planets are not just an all or nothing ball that you can take in a single strike (usually). They are made up of regions, each with their own defense, population, infrastructure, defense/topography, etc. So when you invade a planet, what you are doing is taking control of regions. As you do so, the overall control of the planet changes depending on the value of the regions that are still controlled by each side. It is possible to have multiple armies (3 or more) fighting over the same planet, with all 3 armies (Houses) each claiming a small part of the planet!
Invasions are carried out by space infantry divisions, ala Starship Troopers. They are generated on planets that have barracks – you don’t build them like ships, they are produced by your production system – they work like starship component factories but they use Pops (generally your lowest value Pops like farmers or miners) and convert them into SI. Once they are converted, they no longer ‘count’ as a Pop and do not generate anything (but they consume food and energy).
When you decide to invade a planet, you first have to get through the system defenses. These are basically static emplacements that are meant to cover Lagrange entry points in the system. This is accomplished by a support or combat fleet to soak up some of the damage. You can’t actually attack system defenses per se, but you can attrit them somewhat.
Once you get to the orbital plane of a planet, you then combat drop your SI divisions onto the planet. Your War Prime will work out the most advantageous Regions to attack first – generally the most populous since the value of a Region will contribute to planetary control. The planet may have space cannons emplaced on the surface, meaning that your SI divisions may take damage coming in.
Once they land, SI divisions depending on their role have 1, 2, or 3 Orders they can take each 3 month turn. They can do the following:
• Attack
• Move to a new region
• Reorganize (heal)
• Retreat
As Emperor, you can control when they retreat but your War Prime will determine their Orders depending on the Invasion Plan they are given. Basically, you can give the invasion an aggressive Plan, a normal Plan, or a cautious Plan. This affects at what ratio the admiral in charge will press the attack, the loss tolerance, and the willingness to reorganize vs. press the attack, among other things.
With an Attack Order, a SI division will look to conquer the Region they are occupying. There is always an inherent defense in a region (usually local militia, citizens, and scattered local defense emplacements) as well as the terrain in the region. It is much harder to attack a Mountainous region than a Plains one. Water regions are especially tough to crack as divisions must land on small islands or archipelagos, and amphibious invasions are always tricky. If there are no defending SI divisions in the region, the division will look to inflict 50 points of suppression on the Region. In truth, this represents breaking the will of the residents of the Region to fight, and eventually surrender the Region. When a Region surrenders, the former owner loses all Installations that were there, as well as any Pop output (i.e. they do not pay taxes or generate Build Points, etc).
So let’s look at an example to see how a turn might play out with a specific SI division. They move into planetary orbit and their transport takes 15 damage, meaning that each point of damage a 1D100 is rolled where chance = total damage / 100. They roll 15 times, and take 1 damage on rolls 11 and 14.
Next, they do an orbital drop onto the planet. Keep in mind that while your support ships can order an orbital strike to take out planet defenses, this will significantly raise your Fear level and lower your Support, and Support is much harder to restore than Fear is to lower. Your SI division hits the ground and for their first Order, they Attack. There is no defending SI division in this Region, so they are only fighting local defenses. The Ground Combat rating of this division is 20, and they are using Orbital Support from the Force above (you can select this option as part of your Invasion Plan). This adds 50 to the Attack Rating (similar to ship combat). The general in charge has a 60 Military Skill. With the formula in place, the final Attack Rating of this SI Division is 140, not too shabby!
Now to get the ratio we’ll be working with, we examine the Region defense. The Region is mountainous, meaning that they have a defense factor of 3 (1 is average). They do not have any supporting SI divisions, so they have a 0 base rating. They have a region defense rating of 28, based on the size and population of the Region, and this is amplified by the regional defense factor. Finally, the Viceroy’s military skill is also a 60, so while they do not have a great effect on the defense of a planet, they do have some. The final Defense Rating of the Region is 88.
Now, we have a ratio – 1.6 : 1 in favor of the attacker. This gives them a 72% chance to inflict at least 50% damage (20) on the Region as suppression damage, and a 36% change to inflict a full-damage attack, which is quite good! As long as you have a positive combat ratio, you will always inflict at least 25% of your attack rating. The defenders have a base Region Defense of 9, meaning that they have a 28% chance to inflict 9 points of damage to the attacking SI, and a 72% chance to inflict at least 50% damage.
The attack is made – the attacker rolls a 62, meaning they inflict 20 points of suppression on the Region, and the defenders roll a 22, meaning they inflict 5 points (defense rounds damage up; attackers round down) on the HP of the SI. With that, the first Order is done;
Now, depending on the Invasion Plan, the SI division could Attack again, Reorganize, or Retreat. Since they didn’t take much damage and they inflicted 40% of the needed Suppression, the General chooses another Attack Order.
After 2 more Attacks, the Region falls and the invading House is one step closer to conquering the Planet!
Just for fun, let’s drop a Ground Defense SI Division in the Region to help out, and let’s see what that does to the calculations!
The Attack Rating stays at a 140 for the attacking SI division, but the Defense Rating (thanks to the 35 Ground Defense Rating of the defending SI Division) thanks to the Mountain multiplier, jumps all the way to a 193!!! Now the ratio is .7 to 1, and the chance for the attacking division to inflict full damage drops all the way to 17%! In addition, the defense gets a 66% chance to inflict 12 points of damage (50% of the 15 Ground Combat rating of this division + the inherent 9 points from the Region defenses) and a 33% chance to do a full damage attack (15).
So as Emperor, you want to make sure that your more valuable Holdings have at least a few Ground Defense SI Divisions on-planet. They will automatically be based at the largest and highest-value Regions, but you can designate certain Regions as ‘priority’ for defense (at 1 AP point cost) and when new divisions are generated, any prioritized Regions will get 2 Divisions assigned, other normal Regions will get 1 if they have sufficient value, and low value Regions will not get any (usually outlying or sparsely populated Regions).
We hope to do much more with this system in the future, including a 3D globe that shows the current planetary situation, but we’re excited about the foundations of the system!
-Steve