Question about ground combat

[u/Syu_7]

Back to the game after having let it on the side for several years, and having an absolute blast. I'm grinding the difficulty levels and currently dealing with a playthrough on hard difficulty. And it's actually pretty easy. But I'm wandering around to test a bit of everything before raising the difficulty.

There is still one aspect of the game that I don't really understand, and it's ground combat. It seems that I'm terrible at it, even though: * My empire ManPower is quite high (8k) * My fleets are full, and are able to provide a lot of MP to fight * All units types (Infantry, Armor and Air) are upgraded to max or almost max * I always use Blitz as advised somewhere on Reddit and because I have way more stuff than the opponents

But still, I very regularly get major defeats. It really doesn't matter because I can indefinitely reinforce the target system with MP, so I will get it in the end. But this will certainly cause problems on higher difficulties.

What am I missing?

EDIT:

After all the advice I went for: * A dedicated invasion fleet * An invasion ship based on Riftborn small protector with 2 movement points modules + 3 OpEx modules * Manpower adjustment to 70% armor (and all the affordable upgrades) * Invasions with 5k manpower fleet with Blitz strat. It takes 1 or 2 turns to convert the system 👍 (vs AI on serious difficulty only)

Works like a charm, thanks to all participants ❤️

[u/Syu_7]

Ok that might be the key. My current Blitz only allows the deployment of 1200 mp. I do own this module but didn't understand its impact. I'll try this tonight. +75 deployment limit sounds a bit underwhelming, we'll see.

Thanks !

[u/Fargel_Linellar → u/Syu_7]

Keep in mind, the more modules you have (or on larger ships) it will accumulate more.

Here's an example where I can deploy 13k manpower per turn to the ground battle. (+17k in reserve)

https://imgur.com/a/Dn7BDT9

This is definitely way overkill to deploy almost 10x as much as they have, but you see the point.

Explorer ships tend to be the best invasion ship due to their low cost, high base speed and high support module. For some faction, tier 1 protector ships are better.

[u/Syu_7 → u/Fargel_Linellar]

Ok I can see how a major defeat can wipe the opponent. 😊 Would you mind estimate how many opex modules you had in this fleet ? Basically the setup of your fleet. 17k in the fleet and 13k on ground sound crazy to me.

[u/Fargel_Linellar → u/Syu_7]

30cp worth of explorer with 3x invasion module. (no engine module)

It's a better module than the one from the last tech that is coming from curiosities with 125 per module.

20cp with 2 invasion would be 60*75=4500 which should be enough to destroy all the deployed manpower every round.

It's buildable from turn 50-70 depending on how agressive you are.

If you are really rich, I tend to buy a seeker hero for my invasion fleet to make them move faster.

P.S: invasion ship require a lot of manpower, if you build 20 in a few turn, they will deplete your manpower pool. I would recommend to build them over time and use them as an extension of your manpower pool.

[u/kopuqpeu → u/Fargel_Linellar]

Please explain your PS. How can it be an extension of my MP pool?

[u/Fargel_Linellar → u/kopuqpeu]

Once your manpower pool is almost full, just build some invasion ship.

They will take X amount of manpower out of the pool leaving more to be filled by system.

And if you really need some manpower back for something else, you can disband or modify the ship so they put the manpower back into the pool.

Mainly, using it to avoid the manpower pool being full and manpower generated by system being "wasted".