Attacking a Planet

Sorry to ask, but do they have ordnance? Anyway, if you get it fixed tell me if shield imploders work on planets.

In the strategies part of Empires screen, make sure under Target Types Orders and Settings that "Planet with Colony", "Buildings" and "Facilities" all have an engagement distance of anything beyond Do Not Engage or Ram and that the damage is 100%.

If you have already tried that then I'm not sure what it could be.

You said the bombard planet is greyed out in command editor.

You might have a treaty that prevents planetary bombardment, check the diplomacy. It doesn't have to be with the race you are planning to bomb, it could be any race.

I find the AI proposing treaties to limit planet destroying, black holes, etc humorous at the beginning of the game when you won't have that sort of ability for ages.

"Yeah sure I'll agree not to use them.....that is until I actually develop the things :)"

No problem, glad to be of assistance.

True. It is also doing the suggestions at somewhat random. You can get a nice treaty with good proposals, or you get treaty with "no treaty with others, no research, no intel and you have to give all your tech to them."

Now why on earth would I want to have a treaty like that?

Its always fun to mess with a Neutral Empire, In my last game I had 2 Neutral Empires with a treaty that Did not let them make treaty's with others, Set them up with tech 2 levels behind me, and trade, and shared views, I did have to take some really funny restrictions Like Only I could not Make black holes, Destroy Stars, Destroy Planets, No Viral Weapons,.Ect... Except any that really mattered Like Research and Intel. . Was great fun to watch empires trying to go through the Neutral systems, and have them slaughtered by the Neutral empire. . The only way stock Ai is fun. Now if playing Unnamed Ai mod. . . Cant take the luxury of enhancing the Neutral empires. Have to fight to keep my empire. .

Always read the fine print!

You need to be careful in accepting treaties from the AI. If you do not read the fine print, you could end up in a heap of problems.

I have discovered an extremely useful thing. It seems to be a factor of the combat running out but in two cases in a game I have sent my small fleet to attack a planet, it wipes out the enemy defences and population but because it's a small fleet and the time runs out the planet is left with its facilities, or at least most of them, and I can send a small landing party the next turn to take the colony with no trouble.

You have to be careful though as I left the fleet above an enemy planet an extra turn and they completely glassed it.

I actually LIKE the No-bombard clause. Makes it much easier to capture planets intact.