Endless Space How to retrofit my fleet so I can Invade a Planet

Hi guys,

I am looking for some help al over the web but found just nothing so i hope someone can help me out here.



This is my problem i just buy Endless space with al DLCs together, but just can't retrofit my fleets the button to retrofit fleet should be gray but it's doesn't matter what I do it stays out grayed. To avoid al discussions about have enough resources, Dust ,if I am in War with this faction or maybe don't have the right tech, I already research the Ccomplete Military tree and most of the other and have al resources i need and enough dust and declare war with this faction and my fleet stay in orbit around my capital planet, so i really have no idea what i should do because so far the game is really AMAZING it's just such a pitty I can't invade other planets.



I hope you guys understand what I mean I am not a native english speaker.

Well first you need to upgrade your ship designs, go to the ship screen and click on the modify button, then the number 2 should appear by their name (if first time upgrading). (Hopefully you know that much already.)

Then the fleet has to be in a system that you have 100% ownership to retrofit in (no planets you just invaded and I don't think they can be outposts).

To invade planets you need to equip your ships with an invasion module in the support modules section (when creating or modifying ship designs). Yes tech is required, but you have to research it as your second or third military tech (bottom of tree second level up).



If that still don't work, probably a bug.



Aside from just invading there are troop invasions which instantly take over systems (in special modules) and there are bomb modules in the support modules. One destroys buildings (and defense) and the other destroys population (for easier troop invasions).

Thanks a lot griffon you make my game get 100% more awesome

I have special ships specifically for invading. They are cruisers with maxed out siege weapons and nothing else. Every game, I give this ship type the creative name of "bomber."



Later, I will build troop ships (destroyers with two elite troops, a repair module (level 2 or even better level 3), and--if there is room--one siege weapon) for troop invasions.



However, I never retrofit a warship to become a bomber or troop ship. Use warships to wipe out enemy warships and then bring on your bombers and/or troops ships to take over the system.



Note: You will usually need a reasonable number of bombers or troop ships to get the job done--just one or two usually won't be enough. Put bombers in their own fleets and put troops ships in their own fleet. Always protect those fleets with a warship fleet since they will be defenseless against enemy warships.

If I have a ship, say a 'Caretaker' and then I modify the design to 'Caretaker 2' what's the story for upgrading my fleet of 'Caretakers'?



Have to be in a system I own? Then I update them one at a time? This costs dust, I'm guessing?



And did I read that if I create a 'Caretaker 2' design all the 'Caretakers' that are currently in build queues will be updated to 'Caretaker 2'?

Idaho wrote:
If I have a ship, say a 'Caretaker' and then I modify the design to 'Caretaker 2' what's the story for upgrading my fleet of 'Caretakers'?



Have to be in a system I own? Then I update them one at a time? This costs dust, I'm guessing?



And did I read that if I create a 'Caretaker 2' design all the 'Caretakers' that are currently in build queues will be updated to 'Caretaker 2'?

In order:

Yes, have to be in a system you own 100% of (no just captured systems).

You can upgrade your fleets 1 by 1 instead of individual units.

Yes it costs dust depending on how many ships and depending on what your upgrades are (Harmony is the only one that can't retrofit units since they don't use dust).

Updating the designs will upgrade all ships currently in the queues too, but I think you have to have that option set in your settings.

Here's a large and beautiful guide for Bombing/Invading in ES. Please spread the word.

coyote303 wrote:
I have special ships specifically for invading. They are cruisers with maxed out siege weapons and nothing else. Every game, I give this ship type the creative name of "bomber."



Later, I will build troop ships (destroyers with two elite troops, a repair module (level 2 or even better level 3), and--if there is room--one siege weapon) for troop invasions.

I kinda do that too, but I mostly rely on bombing followed up by land invasion. Regular invasion takes ages or a ton of dedicated siege ships, whereas one ship with bombs and troops backed up by regular warships with fighters and bombers usually does the job that way.

Nirual wrote:
I kinda do that too, but I mostly rely on bombing followed up by land invasion. Regular invasion takes ages or a ton of dedicated siege ships, whereas one ship with bombs and troops backed up by regular warships with fighters and bombers usually does the job that way.

what difference time-wise can one expect using that strategy?

Rancor wrote:
what difference time-wise can one expect using that strategy?

Well, land invasion is instant if successful. Generally a few turns bombing either improvements or population and a final turn for the invasion, which should then be a 100% success chance. The bombing will usually drop the turns left for the normal invasion a lot too, but often enough I'd still be looking at 20+ turns. Only downside in all of that is that the system you just captured will obviously be in a very sorry state (no improvements, minimal population).

Griffon wrote:


Updating the designs will upgrade all ships currently in the queues too, but I think you have to have that option set in your settings.

Indeed you do. But without the option, there is also a button in the army window labelled "Update queue" or something like that which does the same thing.

Well now, it sounds as if I have a new type of invasion to try out. No more nice guy.

he he, If I have the tech that is. either way, missing upgrades and people on a system is a temporary problem - or so I hope -

and thus, an excellent way of gaining more systems. I lost my last game when my planet take-over had 9 more rounds to go,

and the enemy took over the third party planets to achieve an expansion victory... Next time AI... next time.

Nirual wrote:
Well, land invasion is instant if successful. Generally a few turns bombing either improvements or population and a final turn for the invasion, which should then be a 100% success chance. The bombing will usually drop the turns left for the normal invasion a lot too, but often enough I'd still be looking at 20+ turns. Only downside in all of that is that the system you just captured will obviously be in a very sorry state (no improvements, minimal population).

How is this even an issue? it takes minimal research into invasion module (the cup tech, the one underneath the tech that unlocks the use of endless artifacts of the 4 types. it gives 500 invasion +15% per copy on ship.)... plus, if you are gonna invade you can make a seperate siege ship and combat ship (like the AI does), where the siege ship is just full of nothing but invasion modules. (keep them in seperate fleets to defend siege units). So for example 4 of these = 2000 * 1.6 = 3200 invasion. And 4 is just what you can put on a lowly corvette with no tech)



The real issue is that once a colony is fully established it has a minimum invading siege time of 5 turns, no matter how much you outstrip it. Which is why in later parts of the game I bring in troops. Set them to Elite too (30 instead of 25 tons, double strength, much higher civilian population casualty rate on conquest, 0 damage to buildings... pop reproduces fast). Incidentally troops respawn even while in orbit of an enemy planet.



If you are going to spend MULTIPLE turns bombing, then you might as well use siege only for a clean capture (5 turns). The reason I use troops is for that instant 1 turn capture thing. Very useful, declare war, capture a planet, end turn, capture a planet, end turn, repeat until satisfied. (especially because I only have a few turns before the AI sues for peace offering me some of their systems in exchange... accept, declare war on next AI, rinse and repeat)



Another thing, you should prioritize the enemy capital. Losing it demoralizes the enemy and unlocks the possibility of the enemy surrendering to you (giving you ALL their systems in exchange for peace). I thought it was a bug but amplitude clarified it isn't and said in next patch they will specifically call it as surrender when the AI offers you every single system they own.

Looking through the thread, I notice nobody gave out a list of all the different invasion options (instead each saying what they prefer)



The full list of things that give you invasion points are:

1. Siege Modules (called invasion module in tooltip) in Support Modules section.

2. Fighters Module in Special Modules section, but only if configured to "balanced" or "invasion"

3. Bombers Module in Special Modules section, but only if configured to "balanced" or "invasion"

4. Troops Module in Special Modules section



In addition, there are two types of bombs.

AP bombs (kills people), and Bombs (destroys buildings).

Both are found in Support Modules section, both can only be used if you have a Bomber Module as well that is configured for invasion or balanced (although it might be usable with fighter as well, don't think I tried that)

For some reason you can't bomb from orbit, you gotta send in your bombers to nuke the surface cities.