Planet loss - damage limitation?

OK so it happens to the best of us - that invasion fleet is a few parsecs away and you've got nothing to defend with that'll get there in time. What do you do?

Just let it happen. Oh well, stick happens. Hope that when they invade they screw up the planet enough to take some of it's usefulness away.

Abandon ship (then sink it)! Since it's likely an outpost under threat, it's more than possible you have troop transports to hand. Forget "women and children first", get your soldiers out of there to fight another day. Once they're gone, noke everything you can. You'll still lose the planet, but at least those invaders will have to waste time and money rebuilding from scratch. This takes some resources from their war effort, and when you get around to re-taking the planet, it won't have too much of a defence.

Go down fighting. Cripple your economy buying planetary defences and fighters. At least they'll pay for daring to invade your holiday home. If you get real lucky, you may even buy enough time to get your armada there, but that's never a realistic target.

Use it as a bargaining chip to buy time. If they're in a good mood, handing over the planet with no damage might cheer them up enough for a quick break in the war, while you prepare plans to beat them to a bloody pulp, or at least pee in their coffee.


I'm generally spiteful enough to destroy and abandon the planet, but will sometimes peacefully hand it over if I *REALLY* need a break. What does everyone else tend to do?
8,289 views 8 replies
Reply #1 Top
If it's a planet I want to keep, start on getting a transport heading to it. Population will still be pretty small after the loses from taking over the planet. I haven't had the AI destroy anything after an invasion, so the planet should be mostly the way it previously was.
If I don't care about the planet, destroy the colony or sell it to a friendly race.
Reply #2 Top
I usually make the planet worthless one way or another. With fleet costs and logistics having a a couple quick mover fleets in some of your hot zones is a good idea, but you can keep the entire empire covered 24/7. Sometimes ya just gotta take it
Reply #3 Top
Depends on our comparative soldier ratings and techs. If mine are notably higher, I'll take no action and try to weather the invasion. If I don't think I have suffucient advantage, then I'll probably rush the best ship I can, and hope I can get more over there soon enough. Of course if I'm rich enough and have more than one or two turn's warning, I can buy a whole fleet.

Other than that, I don't do too much, I just leave it to be taken. Getting troops onto transports is a good idea though, I might try that.
Reply #4 Top
I generally fight to the end for my planet's, but I have been forced to surrender them to a more powerful enemy...in the hopes of getting them back intact. After all, the AI does tend to damage your planet to guarantee that they will capture it.
Reply #5 Top
I try to have a decent reserve of cash for war, so I'll quick buy a ship just to intercept the transport. Let's be honest, the AI isn't in the habit of escorting their transports. At least on Bright it isn't.
Reply #6 Top
It has escorted transports on Normal difficoulty for me.. It seems its pretty random if the AI is really smart or stupid, on either intelligence level.
Reply #7 Top
It all depends on how many troops theyve got in those transport(s) approaching and if there are any more a few turns out. If i think my population has a moderate chance of repelling the invaders without any help from myself and there ar no more transports on the way ill rush buid a planetary defence, with any luck that 25% bonus has saved the planet, and it has not fallen into enemy hands who if it didnt work now have a 25% defensive bonus in their favour.

However i dont loose planets often, i usually research most of the soldiering techs befoe the AI and build the soldier training facility too further reinforce my ground forces making getting a foothold on my planet rediculously difficult. And since i usually start off with a 30% bonus to economy most of my high-med quality planets have very high populations.
Reply #8 Top
Yes, you need farms and entertainment on your front planets. High population does not only mean more money but also more soldiers.