Bombing

Bombing is the process of weakening, disabling, or completely eliminating the presence of planetary facilities and the fragile inter-dependence of a planets economy. A well-executed bombing raid can wreck the resource cache of shipyards and mining planets, as well as disable planetary defense bases, annihilate ground troops, reduce the population, and much more.

Bombs

Planet structures can be damaged by space-to-surface ammunitions, which are carried by specialised warships known as bombers. These bombers are loaded with scanners to target and attack structures from range.

Bombs are divided into two types -

• Anti-structure bombs: Munitions which are used for damaging structures, but also hurt the population and infantry. MiRV bombs (human), Tele-Kinetic bombs (K'Luth) and Planetary Siege Missile (human) fall in this category.

• Anti-population bombs: Munitions which deal lethal damage to only populace and infantry. Neutron bombs (human) and Bio bombs (K'Luth) fall in this category.

The range of bombs are 750 gu, and that of the Siege Missiles are 1250 gu. The bombs have a minimum arming time, so they cannot be launched near the target structure. K'Luth bombs have a slightly shorter arming time than human bombs.

Bombing is done mainly for making target planets easier to invade by removing key structures such as Interdictor Bases, Shipyards or Barracks, as well as neutralising the threat from enemy infantry. It is also done to prevent enemy ships from spawning in home territory, making critically important planets such as mining colonies useless and clearing depots and starports from frontline planets.

When a planet is bombed, the morale of the population is severely affected. Constant and prolonged bombing can cause mass fear amongst people, and may lead to revolutions, uncertainty, plague or even topple the governments of the planet. Chaotic populations will then be controlled by rebels, who claim independence from the major factions and are termed as neutrals.

Infantry

Infantry are ground troops which are trained and discharged from Barracks. They are tasked with the capture and defense of both planets and ships, and also perform Raze strikes on target structures. Infantry can be loaded in pods and be ordered to land on an enemy planet or on an hostile ship. Once they safely reach their target, they will attempt to attack enemy infantry and gain control of the ship or planet for their faction.

Newly trained infantry have the rank of Green. They are trained, yet inexperienced to being soldiers. After being garrisoned on a planet for some time, they become Veterans, which have better tactics and threat potential. Veteran troopers are very common as they cannot learn about real battles on friendly and undisturbed planets.
When infantry fight enemy infantry or attack enemy buildings, their morale, experience, confidence and skills improve. These troopers are conferred the rank of Hardened soldiers. Further victorious conflicts and successful raids hone their skills further. These soldiers emerge as elites - masters of tactics, subterfuge, diversions, and merciless slaughtering.

The experience of infantry is crucial towards the capture of warships or planets, as hardened and elite infantry are more threatening and dominating towards hostiles than greenhorns.

Barracks can be instructed to train soldiers for Heavy Infantry units. These soldiers require a far longer training and more investments, but are equipped with sturdy gear, which make them resilient to wounds, injuries, and death more than regular troopers.

Infantry affect the control of a faction over a planet's people. The presence of only a handful of infantry units results in an easily toppled population, whereas the presence of numerous infantry makes the population confident in their governing faction and resistant to influence by enemy warships.

Special : Death Beam

Extremely rare beings known as Crystalline Entities have been known to depopulate planets almost instantly. "Death beams" is the term coined to explain this behavior. MI ships also use a weapon which is functionally similar and also fits under the death beam moniker. Death beams are capable of completely wiping out the population of a planet. They also ruin the resources stored on the planet and sometimes damage planetary structures. If a planet is attacked by a death beam, and is not rebuilt and guarded properly, then the new population may revolt against the faction.