Aurora is on version 2.5.0 C#, available at the Aurora Forums.
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C-Ground Combat
Basics
Combat involves three locations, Front-Line, Support or Rear-Echelon. Units in a Support position can only attack using bombardment weapons, or defend themselves against air attack. This formation is intended to serve in the Support location and is organising accordingly. However, it is possible for a Support Formation to temporarily find itself moved into a Front-Line position, so the Guardsman Element will provide additional protection in that case. 21.02.2018
Fortification
Fortification Modifier by Terrain
The fortification modifier is a modifier for the max fortification level, rather than an automatic defence increase. It means you can dig in much deeper (given sufficient time) in Mountains than you can in Steppe or Swamp. The to hit modifier is a reduction in the chance to hit in that terrain (for other ground units and any supporting ships in orbit). In effect, fortification is a benefit to the defender, while to hit is a penalty to both sides. Within the new ground combat rules, you can assign ground units 'capabilities', such as Jungle Warfare, Mountain Warfare, etc. which will double their chance to hit in those types of terrain. Ground units of species with certain types of home world may gain capabilities for free (if you are from a desert planet, you would gain Desert Warfare for free, for example). There are additional capability options to avoid penalties for ground units fighting on worlds that are outside their species tolerance for gravity, temperature and pressure.
An important factor to bear in mind is that when ships are engaging ground units with surface-to-orbit capability, the main defence of the ground unit will be its fortification level. The ship-based weapons are assumed to hit 100% of the time divided by the fortification level. On a planet with Steppe as the dominant terrain type, the maximum fortification of a static ground unit will be 6 with no penalty for the ship to hit. On a Jungle Mountain world, the maximum fortification level will be 18 for that same ground unit and any shots against it by the ships will be modified by 0.125, giving the ground unit an effective fortification level of 144. In other words, the ship in orbit is going to hit once every 144 shots. So trying to use orbital bombardment against surface to orbit units buried in jungle-covered mountains is going to be a Bad Idea. It would be far more effective to send in ground forces (which can't be hit by STO units) to dig them out. That is an extreme example, but there should be many more situations where there are some serious decisions for the attacker.
http://www.pentarch.org/steve/Screenshots/DominantTerrain.PNG
Space to Ground & Ground to Space Combat
Basics
Atmosphere and Energy Weapons
In C# Aurora, there is no penalty for energy weapons firing in or through an atmosphere. Date 07.04.2018
Point Defence
In C# Aurora, fire controls set to 'Final Defensive Fire' or 'Final Defensive Fire (Self Only)' will fire on hostile missiles, regardless of whether the fire control is set to 'Open Fire'. Fire controls set to Area Mode or for AMMs will only fire defensively when that fire control is set to 'Open Fire'.
When a missile reaches its target, a target ship will use its CIWS first. If that is insufficient, it will use any weapons linked to fire controls set to 'Final Defensive Fire' or 'Final Defensive Fire (Self Only)'. If that is still insufficient, ships or the same race or an allied race with fire controls set to 'Final Defensive Fire' will be checked in increasing order of distance from the target ship.
A target population will use any ground units assigned to point defence to shoot at incoming missiles. If that is insufficient, the same process as for ships will take place, checking same race or allied ships within point defence range of the planet.
Planetary Bombardment
In C# Aurora, populations can be attacked by missiles and energy weapons. However, because missile warheads are area-effect weapons, they are much more effective at destroying the civilian population and any installations.
Each installation type has a Target Size. The chance of each attack (either a missile or a single energy weapon) destroying an installation is equal to: Weapon Damage / Target Size.
| For example, a construction factory has a Target Size of 20, so a 10cm laser fired from orbit would have a 15% chance to destroy the target (3 / 20). For the purposes of this check, missile warheads are treated as equal to 20x warhead strength. Therefore, a single 1 point warhead has a 100% chance to destroy a construction factory. |
A single energy weapon can destroy only one target per hit. A missile warhead is applied until all damage is used.
| For example, a 5-point missile warhead is counted as 100. If the first installation hit is a construction factory, that factory is destroyed and the remaining damage reduced to 80. That damage is then applied the next installation hit and so on. |
Missile warheads cause radiation and dust levels to increase by an amount equal to their warhead size. Energy weapons increase the dust level by 5% of their damage amount.
Missile warheads inflict civilian casualties at the rate of 100,000 per point of damage. Energy weapons inflict civilian casualties at the rate of 2,000 per point of damage.
Populations will no longer surrender purely due to orbital bombardment. You have to land ground formations to force a surrender.
Energy weapons now provide a way to destroy the industry and infrastructure of a target population, without causing radiation or using up ordnance. However, this will require considerable effort for a large population and consume maintenance supplies due to weapon failures. It will also bring you within range of any ground-based energy weapons. Of course, it will usually be more beneficial to conquer the planet and gain the installations instead of destroying them.
