Aeson
Posts: 784
Joined: 8/30/2013
Status: offline
|
quote:
The next issue is cost, can someone give me a break down of costs for the different troops (infantry, armor, PD, robotic)?
Armor and special forces cost twice what same-species infantry costs, planetary defense units cost four times what same-species infantry costs. I think the standard maintenance cost of infantry is 1000/year (so 2000/year for armor and special forces, and 4000/year for planetary defense units), with the upkeep cost being modified by the species-related modifiers of the species of the unit, not the species which founded the empire (so if you have Naxxilian troops in an Atuuk empire, the Naxxilian units get the -40% upkeep reduction). Note that upkeep modifiers stack multiplicatively between sources, so Naxxilian infantry with the full -50% upkeep bonus from the Logistics line of techs and +10% maintenance costs from the government type will cost 330 credits (1000 credits base, multiplied by 0.6 for the 40% upkeep reduction from the species, multiplied again by 0.5 for the 50% upkeep reduction from Logistics techs, and multiplied once more by 1.1 for the 10% maintenance cost penalty from the government type).
quote:
Does this affect the strength cap of the infantry and robotic troops, or only the infantry?
If I recall correctly, robotic troops do not gain experience and so are always at recruited strength. This makes it likely that robotic infantry will always be a poor deal, as highly-experienced regular units (or clones thereof) will likely exceed the strength/upkeep ratio of robotic troops.
quote:
I am also looking for good ways to train troops?
Can you for example invade a colony that the pirates control, win the initial battle, then pickup the troop immediately after and leave, let the pirates take over again and then repeat the invasion?
Several ways to train troops:
1. Use the same core group of units to invade any independent colonies you forcibly incorporate into your empire (I would suggest that you forcibly incorporate any independents that you choose to add to your empire, unless you really want to play a 'nice' empire with a spotless reputation; troops and transports are reusable and less costly to replace than colony ships are).
2. Find some colonies that are frequently raided by pirates, and instead of clearing pirates out of the area, garrison the colonies. Every raid survived grants your troops more experience, though you need to be careful if the raiding is particularly heavy and frequent.
3. Allow the pirates to gain enough influence over one or more colonies to construct pirate facilities (Hidden Pirate Bases or Fortresses), then use the forces on the planet (or, better for increasing the experience level of a core group but more difficult from a management perspective and probably slower, a core group of facility-busting troops that you shuttle from one world to the next for each facility attack) to attack the pirate facilities (go into the colonies menu, select the facilities tab and the world your troops are on, select the Hidden Pirate Base or Fortress, then click the attack button).
4. During wars with colonial empires, always remember to take the most experienced forces that survive an invasion off the planet to participate in the next invasion; less experienced units can be shuttled in (or even recruited locally, if the need for a garrison isn't too pressing). Make sure to give the units time to recover before launching the next invasion.
You cannot repeatedly invade a colony just due to pirate influence, unless the pirates manage to build all the way up to the Criminal Network after each invasion. You can repeatedly attack pirate facilities as long as the pirates have the influence and money to keep initiating construction on Hidden Pirate Bases or Fortresses.
quote:
So I am looking to try an figure out the most cost effective way to defend my planets without breaking the bank when playing a race with weaker troops.
The absolute most cost-effective way*, as far as unit upkeep is concerned, is to find a colony full of Naxxilians (-40% troop upkeep), take it over, ensure it has a stockpile of Jakantra Ivory (results in a base attack and defense strength of 13900 for infantry), and replace all of your standard-upkeep lightly-experienced units with Naxxilian units recruited from that location as quickly as is possible (infantry units with no species-specific upkeep modifiers need to have attack and defense strengths of ~23167 before they're more cost-effective than Naxxilian infantry recruited somewhere with Jakantra Ivory and without the benefit of any strength-as-recruited modifiers like the Fortress of Torak or the infantry attack/defense bonus techs). Ikurro (-30% troop upkeep), Boskara (-25% troop upkeep), Mortalen (-25% troop upkeep), and Sluken (-20% troop upkeep) are also good choices; all of these are also in the top 10 in unit strength at time of recruitment among standard playable species, whether or not you recruit them in a location with access to the resource giving a strength bonus (Jakantra Ivory for the Naxxilians, Aculon for the Boskara, Osalia for the Ikkuro, and Questurian Skin for the Sluken).
If you want to stick to the troops of your founding empire, though, your most cost-effective option is to get a core group of highly-experienced infantry and then use clones of them for garrison duty (and preferably use relatively few cloning facilities, shuttling the troops out to where they're needed using transports rather than building facilities everywhere). Armored and special forces units are not cost-effective for garrison duty (armored and special forces units cost twice what infantry units do but have the same defense strength; it's primarily the bonuses that they offer on the attack which make armored and special forces units worth having, though sprinkling them into garrisons isn't a terrible idea), and planetary defense units were never meant to be a mainstay of planetary garrisons but rather as a supporting component of the garrison and so you might see one or two for every five to ten infantry on the planet. Robotic infantry can work if you don't have a highly-experienced infantry corps to clone, though once again you probably shouldn't build the recruitment facilities everywhere or the upkeep on the facilities may cost you as much or more than you save on the troops, and it should be remembered that while robotic troops are cheap, they're also lower-quality than regular units.
*Technically, colonizing whatever world has the Fortress of Torak with Naxxilians and doing your best to ensure that they are the most populous species on that planet, ensuring that that world has an ample stockpile of Jakantra Ivory, and getting all of the strength-as-recruited bonuses from the tech tree or cloning highly-experienced troops is the most cost-effective way as far as unit upkeep goes, but that's a bit slower and can be somewhat problematic.
Edit:
quote:
Do the research upgrades benefit robotic troops or only infantry?
A quick test suggests that robotic troops benefit from the maintenance cost reductions offered by the logistics line of techs but not from the attack and defense bonuses.
< Message edited by Aeson -- 1/2/2016 11:41:24 PM >
|
Printable Version
Troops - Max strength, clones vs robotic troops, cost b... - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread