How do land invasions work?

from GalCiv3 Forums

They seem pretty bugged to me. I had 15 legions invade a homeworld with only 5 defending and no matter what they'd always beat me back. I tried softening them up with multiple invasions bombarding or poisoning the planet each time instead of doing one big invasion, still lose. It's like the first invasion 99% of the planet dies, and the last 1% becomes Sparta and refuses to die. The blue bar, tech, and numbers are so far in my advantage it shouldn't even be a contest. Eventually I just hit the quick battle button and it somehow decided I'd win.

Later on in the game I got a huge advantage in the invasion bar and the SAME THING is happening.

I recorded it this time to see if I'm doing anything wrong here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZZT-Y9yFAE

99% of the population dies, then despite me still having a majority of my army left. They stop dying. Continue to kill off my guys as if they turned on some invincibility cheat. And then I randomly "lose" despite still having tons of troops left. I figure, okay... they must've routed. But then they aren't back in space or anything all the legions are lost. So if they're fighting to the death why do they give up fighting halfway through and then magically vanish? Either route and be usable for a second invasion or fight to the last man standing.

Like what is going on with this mechanic? Are you supposed to just invade with like 100+ legions just to get one crummy homeworld that has nothing going for it in a doomed civ? Things used to be a lot more fair in GC2. I could even be outnumbered, but with superior tech still take a win. Please tell me there's a star or planet buster in this game still so I can just skip land invasions entirely. Or a way to just mod out this mechanic to be more fair because it seems very broken and buggy to have an interface tell me one thing and the results be something entirely different.

20,879 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

It happened to me too. Literally the only time I can win is if I use 15-20 Legions and even then I lose half to a 5 legion defended world when I have max invasion tech and using the special invasion things to soften the planet up. It's getting fucking ridiculous because it takes forever to revive the legions I've lost to one measly planet when I have massive fleets orbiting each enemy planet and crushing every attempt they have to rebuild any sort of fleet. It's taking literal hours to grind down a dozen remaining planets because of how stupidly misleading a 90-95% success rate is when most of the time I'd lose if I go below 15 legions minimum vs 5. Honestly, this is getting so stupid and tedious so hopefully this is just some strange a bug and not a feature.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hi Crocell, I watched your video and it looked like you spread your troops out instead of placing them all in the same spot next to the capital.  I am not truly clear on how the combat numbers work, but from what I have read in the forums, a stack of doom (which the defender was using) wipes out spread out assaults since the big force can take the smaller forces on individually (even if the smaller forces in total outnumber the stack of doom). I have not tested and do not know all the mechanics, but it may explain your situation.

 

Good luck.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Yes, just put all of your legions down on one single hex next to the capital. It's unintuitive silly nonsense, but that is the only way to make it work right now.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Oh dear lord that was it? Stacking them on one tile? Didn't even know that was possible... that is pretty unintuitive. Just confirmed that it worked myself and it's like night and day. Thanks a lot for the suggestion! It makes war much more enjoyable.

I really wish this game had some sort of civopedia for things like this.