Infantry

Infantry are assault Soldiers trained on Planets and used to attack enemy forces and Structures on planets, as well as to capture enemy Ships. Having Infantry on the ground can help capture enemy planets, as well as defend your own from enemy capture. Infantry are produced by Barracks automatically as long as the prerequisite amount of resources are present and there are still Infantry spaces available on the planet. Each planet can have a maximum of 32 Infantry, with the exception of the Home Worlds, which can have a maximum of 40. Infantry can be scrapped to add a population unit to the planet they're stationed on.

Infantry can be stored in your ship's cargo bay, taking up a space much like a Resource unit. Infantry can be ferried to other planets by this method or dropped on enemy vessels to attempt capturing hostile forces. Infantry carried in your cargo bay can also be used to defend against Capture attempts.

Infantry Types

There are two types of infantry, standard and heavy. K'luth variants of Infantry are functionally identical, but are renamed as the "Drone" and the "Drone Berserker" respectively. Both are produced by Barracks. Heavy Infantry and Drone Berserkers are stronger than their regular counterparts, but take more resources and time to create.

• Infantry and Drones take 25 resources and 2 minutes to train.
• Heavy Infantry and Drone Berserkers take 150 resources, a planet Technology rating of 10 or more, and 4 minutes to train.

Infantry Ranks

As Infantry engage in combat they gain experience, and raise in stature and ability the more experience they obtain. Upon reaching certain levels of experience, Infantry units will rank up, making them more powerful. Experience can also be gained by being stationed on a planet, but Infantry can only be trained to the "Trained" level by this manner, any additional experience must be obtained in live combat.

The rank list for infantry is, from lowest to highest:

• Conscript (starting rank)
• Recruit
• Rookie
• Trained (maximum level units can be trained to by planetary barracks)
• Skilled
• Experienced
• Hardened
• Elite
• Heroic
• Legendary

Using Infantry in combat

Infantry can be commanded to use certain attack styles during their assault on enemy planets.

In the default mode, Infantry will automatically head towards and attack enemy units on the same planet that they're on but will ignore sturctures. This mode is useful for removing hostile Infantry from a planet while leaving the structures intact.

Under the command to "Defend", infantry will station themselves at a location on the planet surface and stay there. They will engage enemy infantry if they can be attacked, but they will not pursue or retreat. This mode is best used for defending planetary structures from enemy infantry.

Additionally, Infantry can be ordered to enter "Raze" mode where they will attack enemy structures, slowly doing damage to them if they're on top of the same planetary slot as the bulding. Infantry in "Raze" mode will ignore enemy Infantry units and only target structures. This mode is used to weaken a planet's ground based defenses to make a capture easier.

AI Infantry variants

The NPC factions Pirates and MI both have unique Infantry types suited for their factions.

Pirate Raider

The feared swashbuckling maruader, raiders are experienced pirates and are spawned by the use of the DropPod gadget equpped only on Pirate vessels. These brigands are spawned automatically at Elite level and receive a bonus for capturing ships.

Automaton

Ground assaults on planets captured by the mysterious MI race of sentient machines has revealed the MI use an intelligent and increidibly dangerous secruity robot type as an analogue to Infantry. A unit of these "Automatons" is much more powerful than a comparable unit of Human or K'luth Infantry and assaults planned on MI worlds are urged to take this fact into consideration.