Here I will describe a typical Planetfall game and best practices. Whether it is a game desigh failure, or not, Paradox will decide.
From the very beginning it is mandatory to build central building, that produce energy. Also claim and build two energy provinces. That's not only because of upkeep, that drains money, but also because of modding units and casting operations drains money too, so you must always have as much big income as possible. Waiting several turns before you can mod a new tank or drop a bomb is a disaster.
For same reason, it is mandatory to have cosmite mine captured asap, so you can begin stockpile it from very start. So it turns good to restart mission several times and roll a map on which cosmite will be close to your base.
Because of AI is a coward and will always sit in city with army of 5+ stacks, and wait for your mistake to come out with all of this, in which case war is absolutely pointless, there is just one possible scenario to win - you must build your own 5+ stacks and face his blob like a man. Either you will come to dig him out from his city, or you will launch a planet destruction spell, ho he will become mad and will rush on u with all he has.
And let's be honest, 99% battles on this game you will do in autoresolve. On small scale, because you are too lazy to bother with any worm in any cave, on big scale because you are too lazy to control army of 5+ stacks and wait for turns. So your army must be prepared to win in autoresolve.
In autoresolve, AI tries to simulate a battle, instead of simply calculating numbers. And in battle there are two possible tactics:
1) Offensive. You come into enemy's reach, and bomb him with maximum of control abilities, like blind, sleep, stun, etc, and use save abilities, like smoke clouds, energy shields, ets. Point is to turn enemy into useless garbage, which will stand and watch how your units get in position. Then you do damage.
2) Defensive. You stand and wait while enemy will do what is described above, and get a punch in the face. Then you heal yourself, clean away controls and debuffs, and do damage.
It's up to you what to choose, but it is important that all units in army must be suited for your selected tactics. What means, all must have controls and saves, or all must have heals and dispels. Mixing will do things worse. Also it is good to have some DOT damage, bleeding or burning or whatever. Burning is the most universal so the best. AOE damage is also good.
And never use flying units. They are good when you control battles manually, but in autoresolve they will die first, because AI thinks that it is good idea to send them to first line, where they are easily shot down because of no cover. My favorite choice is to equip all stacks with tanks and robots, modded with additional armor, healing device and fire dot damage device. And heroes with melee weapons, heavily defended and with ability to repair killed vehicles, just in case. Such blob never die.
Also, autoresolve is heavily influenced by enemy's hp, drained by bombs. So it is mandatory to research all possible bomb spells and raise amount of operation points, so you may drop maximum bombs on enemy's head in one turn, and then drive in. If battle is going to happen on your territory, you also can pop defensive spells, which will additionally debuff enemy. So your blob's power will overwhelm him x2-3 times and easy win.
And this is all game. If you want some lore or roleplay, you may do something else, but if ya want to finally end a mission, you will do this.
From the very beginning it is mandatory to build central building, that produce energy. Also claim and build two energy provinces. That's not only because of upkeep, that drains money, but also because of modding units and casting operations drains money too, so you must always have as much big income as possible. Waiting several turns before you can mod a new tank or drop a bomb is a disaster.
For same reason, it is mandatory to have cosmite mine captured asap, so you can begin stockpile it from very start. So it turns good to restart mission several times and roll a map on which cosmite will be close to your base.
Because of AI is a coward and will always sit in city with army of 5+ stacks, and wait for your mistake to come out with all of this, in which case war is absolutely pointless, there is just one possible scenario to win - you must build your own 5+ stacks and face his blob like a man. Either you will come to dig him out from his city, or you will launch a planet destruction spell, ho he will become mad and will rush on u with all he has.
And let's be honest, 99% battles on this game you will do in autoresolve. On small scale, because you are too lazy to bother with any worm in any cave, on big scale because you are too lazy to control army of 5+ stacks and wait for turns. So your army must be prepared to win in autoresolve.
In autoresolve, AI tries to simulate a battle, instead of simply calculating numbers. And in battle there are two possible tactics:
1) Offensive. You come into enemy's reach, and bomb him with maximum of control abilities, like blind, sleep, stun, etc, and use save abilities, like smoke clouds, energy shields, ets. Point is to turn enemy into useless garbage, which will stand and watch how your units get in position. Then you do damage.
2) Defensive. You stand and wait while enemy will do what is described above, and get a punch in the face. Then you heal yourself, clean away controls and debuffs, and do damage.
It's up to you what to choose, but it is important that all units in army must be suited for your selected tactics. What means, all must have controls and saves, or all must have heals and dispels. Mixing will do things worse. Also it is good to have some DOT damage, bleeding or burning or whatever. Burning is the most universal so the best. AOE damage is also good.
And never use flying units. They are good when you control battles manually, but in autoresolve they will die first, because AI thinks that it is good idea to send them to first line, where they are easily shot down because of no cover. My favorite choice is to equip all stacks with tanks and robots, modded with additional armor, healing device and fire dot damage device. And heroes with melee weapons, heavily defended and with ability to repair killed vehicles, just in case. Such blob never die.
Also, autoresolve is heavily influenced by enemy's hp, drained by bombs. So it is mandatory to research all possible bomb spells and raise amount of operation points, so you may drop maximum bombs on enemy's head in one turn, and then drive in. If battle is going to happen on your territory, you also can pop defensive spells, which will additionally debuff enemy. So your blob's power will overwhelm him x2-3 times and easy win.
And this is all game. If you want some lore or roleplay, you may do something else, but if ya want to finally end a mission, you will do this.