Orbital combat occurs when an attacking fleet enters the orbit of any planet.
Battle will go roughly in the following order:
- Attacking transports drop troops on the surface of defending planet
- Ships and troops engage in battle
- Attacking Barges attempt to capture mines
- On possible withdrawal: Troops are loaded in Transports
All ships fire according to Firing Order Table which you can see below. The lower the firing order, the earlier the ship fires.
SHIP | ORDER NUMBER |
Scout | 1 |
Cordova | 2 |
Ripper | 3 |
Continental | 4 |
Transport | 5 |
Fortress | 6 |
Dominator | 7 |
Barge | (8) |
All ships have designated targets they fire at. Each ship fires only at the ships that are listed in their Targeting Order. All ships - except Barges - have at least three targets.
IS TARGETED BY | TARGETS | |||||||||
Ships | Scout | Cordova | Ripper | Continental | Transport | Fortress | Dominator | Barge | ||
Scout | 3 | ----- | 4 | 2 | ----- | 1 | ----- | ----- | ||
Cordova | ----- | ----- | 2 | 4 | ----- | ----- | 3 | 1 | ||
Ripper | 2 | 3 | ----- | ----- | 1 | ----- | ----- | ----- | ||
Continental | ----- | 2 | ----- | ----- | 3 | ----- | 1 | ----- | ||
Transport | ----- | ----- | 1 | ----- | ----- | 3 | ----- | 2 | ||
Fortress | ----- | 3 | ----- | 1 | ----- | ----- | 2 | 4 | ||
Dominator | 1 | ----- | ----- | ----- | 2 | 3 | ----- | ----- |
Here's an example of how this works in practice. Please note that attacking and defending ships fire at the SAME time, as opposed to what was listed before. As we can see from the Targeting Order Table, Scouts fire first. So:
Firing Order 1:
- Defending Scouts fire at attacking Fortresses
- Attacking Scouts fire at defending Fortresses
- Defending Scouts fire at attacking Continentals (if there are no attacking Fortresses left)
- Attacking Scouts fire at defending Continentals (if there are no defending Fortresses left)
- Defending Scouts fire at attacking Scouts (if there are no attacking Continentals left)
- Attacking Scouts fire at defending Scouts (if there are no defending Continentals left)
- Defending Scouts fire at attacking Rippers (if there are no attacking Scouts left)
- Attacking Scouts fire at defending Rippers (if there are no defending Scouts left)
- Defending Cordovas fire at attacking Barges
- Attacking Cordovas fire at defending Barges
- Defending Cordovas fire at attacking Rippers (if there are no attacking Barges left)
- Attacking Cordovas fire at defending Rippers (if there are no defending Barges left)
- Defending Cordovas fire at attacking Dominators (if there are no attacking Rippers left)
- Attacking Cordovas fire at defending Dominators (if there are no defending Rippers left)
- Defending Cordovas fire at attacking Continentals (if there are no attacking Dominators left)
- Attacking Cordovas fire at defending Continentals (if there are no defending Domintaors left)
Note: Multiple fleets attacking the same planet join and fight together against the defender(s). Same applies to multiple fleets defending one planet.