Other than maintaining your own empire one of the most important aspects of Starpires is attacking others. There are currently four different types of military attacks that you can perform on another empire, in addition to all lots of special operations (in another post).
Each turn you may launch a single attack against an opposing empire.
Launch an invasion
Invading another empire is the primary attack type where you send a fleet to attack and attempt to capture planets from your opponent.
- An invasion is the only attack type which allows you to capture planets from an opponent.
- You much have overwhelming military strength for your invasion to succeed, and it must include at least some ground forces (troops) in order to capture planets.
- If the opposing empire has defense pacts with other empires, up to 3 of their allies may send forces to help repel your invasion.
- If your invasion is repelled, you are likely to take very heavy military losses. This is why is sometimes is advisable to send only some of your military forces if you are unsure about the strength of your opponent, or who they have as allies.
- You can’t send defense stations to attack an opposing empire, they are defensive only.
- Troops require generals to lead them into combat (min. 1 general per 50 troops) and fighters require carriers to transport them (min. 1 carrier per 100 fighters)
- All military unit types have different strength and weaknesses, for example troops are nearly useless against space based military units such as cruisers and command ships. Heavy cruisers are great against defense stations, but there weakness is fighters.
- You are awarded points for a successful invasion based on the size of the empire you invaded. Conversely your opponent will get points based off of your size if they repel the invasion.
Guerilla Attacks
This surprise attack on the opponent that allows no warning, so the victim empire has no time to call on their allies to help defend them. Unlike an invasion where the key is to have overwelming military odds in your favor a guerilla attack is most effective against a larger military force. Thus it is great for wearing down a more powerful empire in preparation for an invasion.
- You can not capture planets during a guerilla attack, just kill off their forces and lower military moral.
- Attack success is based in large part on the size of the two forces. The larger their force and the smaller your force the better the chance of success and the less chance some of your forces are captured (giving away your identify)
- A guerilla attack is most successful against a larger force, so your attacking force may actually be more destructive if you only send a portion of your military.
- Your opponents military moral will be lowered if the attack is successful.
- You will be awarded points for a successful guerilla attack based on how much of your opponents military you destroy.
Chemical Attacks (Research required)- Chemical strikes are not available to your empire at the start of the game but can be researched. Research planets will then produce chemical warheads each turn which can be launched at an opposing empire.
- The use of WMD’s is looked down upon by the galactic council, so their unprovoked use maybe met with penalties including (civilian revolt, sanctions, or retaliatory strikes)
- You are limited in the number of chemical warheads you can launch against an opponent in a single attack based on their empire size.
Nuclear Attack (Research required)
Is there any way to defend against Chemical or Nuclear attacks?
There are a number of technologies that can be researched to help defend against them. There are missile shields and lasers that will shoot down some of the incoming warheads. There is also a temporary planetary force field that can be researched which will block them all for a period of time.
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