So what do ground troops do?

[Rhaegar1]

I mean, not to nitpick but in a universe with interstellar capable warships can't you just win wars by throwing down nuclear warheads (or asteroids or even big pieces of concrete) down into the gravity well of a planet and wait for them to surrender?

 

[Hans_Schnitzel]

I mean, not to nitpick but in a universe with interstellar capable warships can't you just win wars by throwing down nuclear warheads (or asteroids or even big pieces of concrete) down into the gravity well of a planet and wait for them to surrender?

I guess if you want the people to LIVE you would use ground troops.

You know, if you want to enslave the population, not destroy it, such things.

 

[Sorunily]

If you hurt the planet too much then you can't conquer it and make a profit.

 

[ringhloth]

Imagine if you used enough nukes launched from space to destroy every military on the surface of Earth. You'd be left with an uninhabitable husk, at best. Asteroids wouldn't be much better.

 

[Friedrich von Deutschland]

What's the point of ground troops now? Couldn't you just nuke them from orbit? For all the same reasons mass orbital bombardments aren't used today you won't likely be tossing them around willy nilly is starallis.

 

[Zakath]

Nuclear winter doesn't need a nuclear war, enough dust from asteroids, nukes or Rods from God will do the trick. Besides, while taking a planet by force is unlikely to be popular I can imagine Exterminatus would be received similarly to annexing a medium sized country in the HRE in one war

 

[ringhloth]

What's the point of ground troops now? Couldn't you just nuke them from orbit? For all the same reasons mass orbital bombardments aren't used today you won't likely be tossing them around willy nilly is starallis.

Nuclear winter doesn't need a nuclear war, enough dust from asteroids, nukes or Rods from God will do the trick. Besides, while taking a planet by force is unlikely to be popular I can imagine Exterminatus would be received similarly to annexing a medium sized country in the HRE in one war

Armies can be anywhere, though, and even if you don't care about the state of the planet after you take it, if you want to invade it in a reasonable amount of time, an army can hide in some godforsaken hidey hole in the deepest hole in the tallest mountain, conducting raids and such, living off some easy to grow potato or something. Orbital bombardment can help, but there's a limit to bombardment, and you need troops on the ground to do anything effective, even when throwing around nuclear weapons.

 

[Haresus]

1. If you destroy their planets whenever you can, they will destroy your planets whenever they can. Not-Really-Almost Mutually Assured Destruction. I remember Paradox saying in the GamesCom that they didn't like the "Occupy planet, it is now instantly yours" mechanics of 4X games because they believed that "the rule of law would still exist in the future/in space". And for the same reason it seems plausible that many of the space entities would agree not to completely wreck each others planets with nuclear weapons and such, for the sake of polite future relations and a civilised galaxy. So not only would it give you a lot of "badboy", it would also give them a justification to use the same methods against your planets.

2. If you don't have ground troops, who will stop enemies from simply landing on your planets with their own ground troops? Or, in the dystopic future, stop your population from starting a revolution against your benevolent rule?

3. Blowing a planet into rubble is one thing, but if Stalingrad (and to some degree, Leningrad) taught us anything it is that even when every single building is destroyed and levelled to the ground... The people will still survive, somehow. Future anti-radiation treatment/protection is probably pretty good, and the bunkers could be built underground. It would be pretty much impossible to kill them from afar once they are dug in, unless you are seriously just interested in destroying the planet. Guerilla warfare would be gruesome on a planetary scale.

 

[vyshan]

You need ground forces to well keep a planet occupied.

 

[Sernista]

Nuclear winter doesn't need a nuclear war, enough dust from asteroids, nukes or Rods from God will do the trick. Besides, while taking a planet by force is unlikely to be popular I can imagine Exterminatus would be received similarly to annexing a medium sized country in the HRE in one war

Well... I imagine the reaction will be much more -polarized- than the HRE Annexation scenario. If I'm playing the People's Space-Republic of Pacifistan, my ordering the fleet to nuke a hostile world until it glows would likely result in massive upheaval on the home front - and we might have the same reaction to anyone else doing it. If I'm playing Heinlein-by-way-of-Verhoeven state, though? It's probably going to be a lot more of a question of whether I -liked- the guys on the far end, both in terms of ideology and mutual utility.

 

[Maarten99]

I mean, not to nitpick but in a universe with interstellar capable warships can't you just win wars by throwing down nuclear warheads (or asteroids or even big pieces of concrete) down into the gravity well of a planet and wait for them to surrender?

No Earth President ever had the courage to tell to the army they were no longer necessary, so they just kept on existing. Somewhat like mailmen nowadays !

 

[Neoman]

I'm wondering if you'll be able to order troops on the ground like you can in other paradox games? That is if the planets have tiles/provinces.

 

[vyshan]

planet gets captured
planet rebels because you have no people there to enforece your rule
planet laughs at you.

 

[Sernista]

planet gets captured
planet rebels because you have no people there to enforece your rule
planet laughs at you.

I believe the theoretical reply there involves rebels being nuked into oblivion until all the other planets get the memo, but I agree that it doesn't seem the most practical for genuine statecraft. Extorting tribute? Absolutely. But when it comes to dictating policy?

You're basically going to run into massive sunk costs issues whenever it comes to expanding your reign or facing resistance. Say the people pay all your taxes but ignore the restrictions on public assemblies above three persons. Is that worth nuking the planet? What about if they elect a different ruler, who again pays your taxes but has a very different social position. Is that a nuking offense? What if they refuse to contribute military supplies to your ongoing campaign? And so on, and so on. There's almost no point at which actually nuking the planet you have is a rational decision short of legitimate armed rebellion, and even then the scope is important. I certainly wouldn't nuke my own planet (and you really can't go Armageddon on a smaller level than that) if one continent declared independence, for example.

 

[echo2361]

As others have pointed out, there are plenty of reasons to still have armies in future sci-fi settings. What interests me more is how they will be implemented. I don't need full tactical control or anything. I'm just looking to see long campaigns I can wage with my armies using various tactics. It will be interesting to see how they implement generals as well and what effects they have on ground combat.

 

[Hans_Schnitzel]

I would assume you just throw units at a planet until you overwhelm the enemy. You might be able to pick invasion policies though, or well, strategies, like how much bombardment is the Commander allowed to use? Are they allowed to use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons? Are they supposed to be careful and keep the infrastructure intact? etc etc.

 

[Biggie Smalls]

I hope there is a Hearts of Iron 3 approach to ground warfare, because having to manage a galactic scale war consisting of managing 20 fleets and keeping the siege of space Constantinople from breaking, while also directly commanding ground warfare will be annoying.

 

[FelixG]

Holding the high-orbitals and dropping rocks can be an effective form of artillery, but you will always need boots on the ground.

Even if you drop bombs, there are bomb shelters, fallout shelters and the like. SO even if you do nuke from orbit, there is a chance you will later be dealing with the Deathkorps of Kreig and they just don protective gear to continue the fight and resist you.

Plus if you drop bombs on everything, that pretty much ruins everything valuable about the planet, you will wreck their industrial base, their ecosystem, and kill all those valuable new imperial citizens just waiting to pay you taxes!

 

[tupaclives]

Maybe they win the hearts and minds of the conquered peoples?

 

[Alliegorical]

Realistically, wouldn't most planets simply surrender if faced with an orbiting enemy fleet possessing sufficient weaponry to glass the planet? It's not like an ordinary siege. It's more like the way sieges would be if every army had more than enough artillery to reduce a fort to rubble in a matter of minutes.

The only exception would be if the planetside force knew the enemy would rather leave the planet alone than glass it, and also knew that a friendly force was en route to relieve the planet.