too much to ask?

I've had a few was where my offense fizzeled out, not because of tech, money, etc, but becuase I can't produce enough troops to invade the planets without crtically depopulating my planets (accidentlyhad a couple planets go to "0" once. Making bigger transports helps with the logistical aspect, but usually after four or five planets being taken, I'm hurting for soldiers. I think it actually works well though, since your not just cranking out infinate transports (ala moo2), makes invasions a more serious affair, and restricts you from snowballing an alien race in a matter of (game) months.

If you want an effective invasion and war fleet you should have fast ships, and for transports you really should research advanced troop modules. You can then have really fast (10+ pcs/turn) troop transports and warships, and each troop transport can hold several thousand legions, so you only need a couple of them to take a planet. That's how I play at least. If you only focus on weapons, and no engines, then of course it is going to be a very slow process to invade

I at least find invading to be quite possible with such a fleet. With slow 5pcs/turn ships it gets tedious though.

Yep, fast transports with advanced troop modules. The core ship of this for me is my "Invader Cruiser" which can carry 3000 troops and goes 7 pc I think. If the problem is running out of population for troops then you need to build another farm or two to bump that population up. I usually have at least 2, sometimes 3 planets with the capcity for 20-30 billion because of several farms. Between times for transports being built they have usually grown back the 3000 troops I used in the last one. Just a continuous stream of these guys will eventually overwhelm the enemy quickly.

Use tidal disruption or mass drivers and totaly level the planet if you want a quick victory. Otherwise, the larger and faster troop transports that DRavisher mentions are about the best way to go to speed things up.

Oh, and if you're biggest problem winning the game is the grind, turn up the difficulty a bit. When you're fighting for your life these sort of things aren't as annoying.

-Dewar

Movement isnt really an issue.. in the game where I allied with everyone to finish it.. I had transports that moved 12pc per turn and carried 1500 troops a peice. i could bump it up to 3000 troops a piece but that is overkill on some planets, so that wastes a troop transport.

In my next game, im thinking im just gonna sit back and defend while I build up a huge force and about 30 full troop transports.. then make one big push and see what happens.

As for the difficulty.. Im playing on Tough now.. which is the comp at 100%.. if I go any higher then the comp is going to start cheating, which I dont really want to do.. but I may not have any choice.

All in all..id just prefer it if the biggest strategical hurdle I had wasnt micromanaging my troop transports

building a troop transport..filling a troop transport..placing it in a fleet.. flying to a planet.. attacking the planet

Trade for them.... they come complete with expendable alien troops.

Nothing better than seeing a troop ship full of toasters wiping out their own kind by the billion!

I haven't really had this problem. It can be a problem and has been a problem for me in the past but essentially if you wanna conquer the galaxy you have to plan for it and be ready to support it for extended periods of time. Have a lot of planets for building ships and have a lot of high pop (within reason) planets for building a constant stream of transports.

In my conquering it's transports that slow me down - lack of them, that is. So you have to be dedicated to cranking them out (without totally depopulating your nice planets too). You also need to be dedicated to making the fastest transports possible so your troops can get from your backline, built up worlds, out to the front where you need them. I also tend to build transports even when I'm not at war to keep my planet pops trimmed (and be ready for the eventual war I will be having). During peace I'll often have my beefier warworlds alternate building a capital ship and a transport (and boy do I wish you could queue up ship building).

IMO, if you intend to be a conquerer you need to prioritize propulsion techs (in the grand scheme and juggling act) - because you know you're going to be continually sending out transports, upgraded warships, constructors, etc - all across vast distances. Miniaturization helps too so you can pack more fast drives into hulls.

Usually my transports and constructors are my fastest ships. I don't always crank up the available speed in my warships because they'll typically be "on location" in a given area laying waste for longer periods of time, so they're slower and have more weapons/defense instead. But my transports, constructors, and even freighters are always completely packed with engines so they have the maximum possible speed.

On a medium map, even without being that far into the tech tree, you can easily have transports and constructors with 20+ pc/wk movement, which is pretty nice. With that kind of movement (on a medium map) your troops are only a few turns away.

In my next game, im thinking im just gonna sit back and defend while I build up a huge force and about 30 full troop transports.. then make one big push and see what happens.

Thats usually my method... massive all-inclusive fleet built out side of any opponent's sensor range. I usually find that after I take about 20-30% of their planets they surrender (on the relatively low difficulty setings I've played so far, at least)

I would add, since the forum is bombing when I try to edit, that conquering always takes more effort and time in these kinds of games.

I can beat Civ (IV) in two hours if I go for a peaceful victory like space race and avoid conflict along the way. But if I elect to win by domination and conquest it will always take much, much longer due to the extra micromanagement and extra time to fight battles. (I might finish faster with the right map and other conditions, but on average conquest takes much longer).

DOn't forget the obvious bait&switch method.
Have your heavy production planets build transports.
Beef up your mega planets for high-population.
Launch the transports and move the "volume" slider to 1.
Send the skeleton crew transports to Populace Planet.
Relaunch, fill em up!

I'm familiar with the grind you speak of, and this seemed to help cut that in half.
I had enough production planets to have a few crank out nothing but transports (4-6 in orbit), and when it came time, I'd roll em out, follow the procedure above, put the women and children to bed, and go looking for dinner!