Ground forces

Ground troops are troops on the ground, unsurprisingly. They provide a reduction in unrest (by, we must assume, shooting dissenters).

In addition, Engineer brigades allow you to exploit alien Ruins, and can assemble PDC elements.

Ground Combat

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Stats from Ground units.

• Type, The type of unit. Different types, AST, BHQ, DHQ, ENG, GAR, HVA, LTA, LTI, MAR, MRC, INF, REP, ICD, ACD,, and more. Base attack and def stats are determined by the type, and Racial Ground Combat Strength (RGCS). Morale is based on the experience and training of the unit.
• Atk, Attack
• Def, Defense
• Read., Readiness
• Morale, Morale
• GCB, Ground Combat Bonus, given by commanding officers

To train different ground units, they need to be placed under the command of a headquarter. Training will then start. And morale will increase. Unknown if you need to assign leaders. But you probably need to.

Ground Unit Types (5.42)

• Assault Infantry Battalion - AST, Atk is 100% RGCS, Def is 50% RGCS, Size 5, costs 100 training points.
• Brigade Headquarters - BHQ, Atk is 0% RGCS, Def is 20% RGCS, Size 5, costs 150 training points. Can command four brigades.
• Divisional Headquarters - DHQ, Atk is 0% RGCS, Def is 30% RGCS, Size 5, costs 250 training points.
• Engineer Brigade - ENG, Atk is 0% RGCS, Def is 50% RGCS, Size 25, costs 150 training points. While on a planet it acts as a construction factory for all purposes. The Engineer is to the Construction Factory as the Automated Mine is to the Mine.
• Garrison Battalion - GAR, Atk is 0% RGCS, Def is 100% RGCS, Size 5, costs 60 training points.
• Heavy Assault Battalion - HVA, Atk is 120% RGCS, Def is 120% RGCS, Size 5, costs 180 training points.
• Low Tech Armor Division - LTA, Atk is 30% RGCS, Def is 30% RGCS, Size 50, costs 90 training points.
• Low Tech Infantry Division - LTI, Atk is 12% RGCS, Def is 25% RGCS, Size 50, costs 50 training points.
• Marine Battalion - MAR, Atk is 100% RGCS, Def is 100% RGCS, Size 5, costs 180 training points.
• Marine Company - MRC, Atk is 20% RGCS, Def is 20% RGCS, Size 1, costs 36 training points.
• Mobile Infantry Battalion - INF, Atk is 50% RGCS, Def is 100% RGCS, Size 5, costs 100 training points.
• Replacement Battalion - INF, Atk is 0% RGCS, Def is 5% RGCS, Size 5, costs 40 training points.

Headquarters: This unit has no attack strength and a defence strength equal to one fifth of the RGCS. The sole purpose of a headquarters is to house a commander. The senior HQ commander in a PDC uses his ground combat bonus to affect all ground units within the PDC. The senior HQ commander on a planet that is not in a PDC uses his ground combat bonus to affect all ground units outside PDCs.

Transport

Individual ground units MUST be manually transported from place to place. It is also important to provide your troopships with sufficient capacity to embark the whole of the formation, you can't have a brigade spread around five troop transports for example.

How To Transport

Bring a ship over to a planet or another ship with troop transport bays. Select the ship you want to load from and select Load GU into Troop Transport. You select the Ground units you want to add from the selection box that fits into the screen one by one.

Combat Drop

Infantry loaded into drop pods can be combat dropped, which doesn't require any time for them to hit the ground and begin fighting.

How To Combat Drop

1) Go to the f12 task group screen, select a Ship with Combat Drop Modules, click load GU into Drop Module in fleet. You should see a selection of units to load into the unit right below the Plotted Move screen called "Select Ground Unit" appear. Select one and hit add move.

2) Advance time till this is complete (takes time to load GU's into the drop pods but they exit the drop pods instantly).

3) Your unit should now be loaded onto a Combat module.

4)Now when you get near a planet or ship you can select an action for this ship called Combat Drop Ground Unit, or Boarding Action.

Ship Boarding

The ability for drop modules to be shot toward an enemy ship and get infantry onto the hull of that vessel.

Infantry then begin blowing holes into the armor to enter the ship if none already exist.

Important facts about Boarding Combat

Trying to board a ship moving at several hundred or several thousand kilometers per second in this manner is still incredibly risky. Because of the speeds involved, the intercepting vessel must have a huge speed advantage to make the boarding attempt without suffering heavy casualties among the boarders. The cause of those casualties will vary but could include missing the target and ending up within the exhaust plume, impacting the hull at too high a speed, missing entirely and being lost in space, etc. The percentage of casualties from the boarding attempt is equal to 20xD10, giving a range from 20-200%. However, the amount of D10 rolled is reduced by Interception Speed / Target Speed. For example, if the interception speed is 6000 km/s and the target is moving at 1000 km/s, the number of D10 is reduced by 6. Therefore, if the intercepting ship is at least twenty times faster than the target ship, the attempt is automatically successful and no casualties are suffered during the boarding. Because of the risks involved, in most cases before a boarding attempt can be made the target ship will have to be slowed down or disabled.

1) Combat takes place every five minutes after movement and combat. Once a unit has successfully boarded a hostile vessel, the Boarding

Combat Clock begins counting. Once it reaches 300 seconds or greater, a round of boarding combat is fought and the clock is reduced by 300.

2) Low readiness units on both sides cannot avoid combat

3) The boarders cannot retreat so they must keep attacking until they capture the ship, die trying or surrender.

4) As a result of the boarding combat, collateral damage may be inflicted to the ship itself. If this is severe enough, or causes secondary explosions, it is possible the ship might blow up in the midst of the fight.

5) If all the defending units and crew are eliminated, the ship is captured.

How To Use

First you need a much faster ship than the ship you plan to try to take over. This is achieved via the small Drop Module and a fighter with an engine and a little bit of fuel and a tiny engineering section.

Load GU into Drop Modules within fleet (if fighter is in a fleet). Then select an enemy ship and issue a boarding order.

The Troop Shuttle will carry the troops from the fleet over to the enemy vessel and barring any accidents like the enemy blowing a 80cm hole in the troop ship you are all set for the shuttle to launch its troops at the enemy vessel and begin boarding actions.

The faster your Troop Shuttle is the better chance that more Marines will land on the enemy ship and giving you a better chance to take it over successfully.