Planet bombardment strategy (question)

In your stategies, have it set so it will not attack colonies but does attack weapon plats/troops etc. After the stuff it can target is dead it will not fire on the planet itself. Of course, some shots might take out some pop anyways but its highly doubtful it would glass it (maybe tiny planets?).

Theres also a "Capture Planet" strat you could use but you might have to edit some of the things so it won't target them.

That won't work. Units are just cargo. You have to set your strats to attack the planet until "all weapons gone", and hope they stop firing soon enough. Try not to use too many seekers so you don't have a large volley on the way already when your ships stop shooting.

It still takes luck.

I usually move my ships into (their) firing range and let them distract the defenses while I drop troops. After that I have everything fall back out of range and wait for combat to end. If I dropped enough troops, they'll wipe out the defending troops and the WPs, or at least thin the herd. Then, if I won in ground combat, any remaining facilities are mine.

I do basically the same, though with heavily shielded and armored Point-Defense Cruisers. (All the better to swat down those pesky missiles, fighters, satellites, and drones with)
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I'll make one later.

that is more or less what I meant by "my ships", Combat ships.

I wouldn't worry about killing troops in bombardment. Just land with plenty of your own troops and/or fighters.

Myself, I just put 1 to 3 fighters in each troop ship so I have enough to mop up cripples and off-screen units (hopefully). I think the off-screen unit problem's been cut down by a patch, but why take chances?

If the WPs are stocked up with missiles, try sending in something that missiles can't attack eg fighters or drones. Use them to soften up the planet before dropping your invasion force - make sure you set your strategy to stop attacking when all weapons are gone (fighters give you more control than drones for this).