Favorite Army Type?

[Milten]

Xenomorphs with psi-attachment for RP purposes.
I like to imagine my telepathic monsters acting as shepherds for usual ones.

 

[bot9k]

From a roleplay perspective when I play collectivist or xenophobe I really like fielding slave armies based on a very strong primitive species I have conquered.

Yeah, it's almost like hitting a gold vein if you conquer a suitable species for that purpose. The amount of combat effective slave armies you can spam in the late game is insane.

 

[Meneliki]

Now, I'm not asking for the best one. Obviously you can just look at the army stats on the wiki and find titanic beast and genewarriors to be the best in raw combat stats. I mean in the sense that what is the one you personally use the most, or have the most fun using, and why?

Personally, I've found a liking for Robotic Armies and Clone Armies. Sheer durability is what keeps me coming back to the robots. Apparently immune to morale damage (I kept close watch during a battle and the lowest morale ever got on a unit was 198/200 even though it was heavily damaged) they will fight to their last hitpoint (well technically every unit does but robotic armies have a lot and won't shatter) and have high survivability. 400 vs. only 250 hitpoints for clone armies makes robot armies my army of choice.

However, I like clones for the rapidity of production. 30 days per army is crucial is you need troops quick and fast, and to top it off they have better stats than Assault armies for the same build time, build cost and maintenance cost.

I had the right policy for slave armies but I've never used them. Essentially they seem like a slightly downgraded Assault army that's faster and cheaper to build and maintain, but energy and mineral costs for armies have never really bothered me.

By the way, those are the only three army types I've unlocked so far, but even then I have a favorite among them.

In terms of effectiveness.. in terms of wanting to win a war... it's not gene warriors. It's not Psi-corps. It's not robots, or synths, or anything else. It's numbers.
"oh no. He has strong troops."
get more troops.

'oh no, he has WAYYYY better troops.'
get even more troops.

The quality of enemy troops can always be beaten by the sheer NUMBERS of your troops.

However. As for imaginative fun - i favor Xenomorph/Titan armies. Yay giants. Yay aliens.

 

[mergele]

Clone armies. There is something oddly satisfying about drowing the enemy in mass produced, throw-away bodies until they die. (Slaves technically fullfill the same role, but somehow dont ive that extra kick.) It's probably for the best that I'm no general irl.

 

[mackau]

Now, I'm not asking for the best one. Obviously you can just look at the army stats on the wiki and find titanic beast and genewarriors to be the best in raw combat stats. I mean in the sense that what is the one you personally use the most, or have the most fun using, and why?

Personally, I've found a liking for Robotic Armies and Clone Armies. Sheer durability is what keeps me coming back to the robots. Apparently immune to morale damage (I kept close watch during a battle and the lowest morale ever got on a unit was 198/200 even though it was heavily damaged) they will fight to their last hitpoint (well technically every unit does but robotic armies have a lot and won't shatter) and have high survivability. 400 vs. only 250 hitpoints for clone armies makes robot armies my army of choice.

However, I like clones for the rapidity of production. 30 days per army is crucial is you need troops quick and fast, and to top it off they have better stats than Assault armies for the same build time, build cost and maintenance cost.

I had the right policy for slave armies but I've never used them. Essentially they seem like a slightly downgraded Assault army that's faster and cheaper to build and maintain, but energy and mineral costs for armies have never really bothered me.

By the way, those are the only three army types I've unlocked so far, but even then I have a favorite among them.

As much as I love the crazy tech armies, I cannot pass up the ability to throw, cheap & quick clone armies, because of how less micro intensive they are.

I use the hotkeys for planets that do specific things. In practice I endup with 1-5 (depending on how far the game is along) planets that are built around literally just the naval spaceport options to build big ships, another 1 or 2 that have just up to destroyers, and 1/2 planets for building armies.

Give the planet clone vats, military academy and if you can, the virtual combat arena, use genetic engineer to make the population strong, and an army vet governor if you get one.

The clone troop will be:
Combat Arena +10% Army Damage
Strong +20% Army Damage
Military Academy +10% Army Damage, -25% Build Speed
Army Veteran -20% Build Speed, -20% Cost

Damage +40%, Build Speed -45%, -20% Cost

With these bonuses you end up with a single Clone Army being:
48 Minerals
2.63 to 5.25 Damage
16.5 Time to Build

While I don't generally use them, you could also use the Military Republic and the upgraded Martial Democracy government types to get even more army damage (and a huge drop in army upkeep).

Even if you just have the military academy, clone vats and the military general you still end up with
48 Mineral
2.53 to 5.06 Damage
21 Time to Build

You can quickly pump out a 30 stack of clones that can take down pretty much any defense, and if you fail, you can pump out a replacement stack just as quickly. I don't have to care about who I should leave on a planet to defend it, or if some of the army is damaged, I just leave whatever can fill the planet, keep the rest in orbit with the fleet, and start building another stack of clones for the next planet.

You can build 12 clone armies in the time it takes to build a single xenomorphy or gene warrior or psionic army.

 

[Knotz]

The jedi ones. I always have like six on my home planet even though it's never threatened and they never leave cuz they're cool.

 

[Slynx]

definitely slaves.
you harvest the primitives and send them to their death. (and you don't care even though they suck)
that's rp-wise...and stat-wise....probably xenomorph(space marines!) or synthetics

 

[extrapancake]

I like to make an elite psi army of my own species then follow them up with waves of expendable slaves.

 

[scaper12123]

I like my jedi warriors

 

[Naelar]

An easy fun army is the droid army, however, I always prefer to get the psionic army whenever I can. The morale damage they do is highly underestimated.

 

[melkor88]

Robotic armies all the way!

 

[Jastebro]

As long as the armies are drawn from my strog/very strong vanquished & enslaved enemies, I'm good.
A favorite tactic is to find a double planet system & introduce at least one strong slavepop per planet, for rapid training of new armies.

But yes, synthetic rangers with clone commandos as support will do the job too.

 

[Jerree17]

Slave armies and droid armies are probably my favorites, but it definitely depends on the character of the empire I'm playing.

 

[Andarus443]

The xeno beast armies are awesome if you want to feel like you're simulating swarm tactics. Coupled with my race of Hive Queens, it's very satisfying being able to roleplay that kind of invasion with the appropriate army type.

 

[Jerev]

Psionic Armies
I like playing as an evangelizing spiritualist and what's convincing others more of your beliefs than telepathic super soldiers on their planets?

 

[Pchang]

Clones with military academy. No substitute for ability to crank out an army every 24 days.

 

[balmung60]

Clones. Clones are so fast and cheap that it's amazing, especially now that cloning vats aren't just a dead tile for resources.

 

[DAKOTA567]

Clone army spam master race.

200 transports of clone troops swarm over a planet and boom, it's captured in seconds.

 

[YagabodooN]

Gene Warriors are simply the best and coolest in my opinion.

A mere 12 stack with a general and no attachments can take just about any planet with full fortifications. This saves a LOT of bombardment time letting you stomp on empires faster in late game.