Tables of fleet strength needed to bomb primitive colonies

How many ships do you need to successfully destroy a colony of a given strength? That depends on your technologies: Do you have shields that protect your ships and/or do you have Smart Bombs or Bio-weapons. It also depends on what type of ships you bring: Are they specialized Invasion Ships and Assault Bombers or more general warships? The tables on this page assume you do not have any special technology except possibly effective shields and that you use only the most efficient ships for bombing.

(For more choices and more detailed information use the bomb/enslave attack simulator.)

To get the most bombing capacity for as little i.p. as possible you need to build Invasion Ships and possibly top up with one to three Assault Bombers for any remaining "loose change". Four Assault Bombers cost the same as one Invasion Ship, so you should never consider building more than three - if you can afford a fourth you are better off building an Invasion Ship instead (provided you have the starport capacity and all the ships are built by the same colony).

The tables show the succes rate for fleets made up of a given number of Invasion Ships (IS) and Assault Bombers (AB) bombing a worst case primitive colony on a given turn. The "worst case" is based on the "Max." columns of the tables showing the development of primitives in "Stellar Conflict". The tables assume that the invasion fleet is completely intact when it starts bombing, i.e. that ships have not been damaged by any orbital defences. That means you should add additional fleet strength to handle orbital defences (if invading on turn 10 or later).

Empty entries to the left of the 100.0% entry in a row indicate zero chance of succes while empty entries to the right of the 100.0% entry indicate 100% chance of succes. So for example reading the first table below you can learn that if you in turn 4 attack a worst case size 75 terran planet you will have zero chance of success if you bring less than one Invasion Ship, you have 34.5% chance of succes if you bring only an Invasion Ship and you are assured success if you bring at least one Invasion Ship and one Assault Bomber.

Rather than having one huge table for unshielded ships and one huge table for shielded ships, the tables have been split into multiple tables in order not to have too many columns to fit in your browser. Entries are shown even for turn 1, but it is certainly not recommended to blindly send out expensive bombers in turn 1 before exploring your surroundings.

Unshielded ships

These tables are valid if you do not have shield technology offering protection from the defending guns of the primitives.
 Strength of unshielded bombing fleet
TurnTerran2 AB3 AB1 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB2 IS
1size 6570.0%100.0%     
size 7020.9%100.0%     
size 753.5%100.0%     
size 800.2%100.0%     
2size 65 92.2%100.0%    
size 70 79.3%100.0%    
size 75 48.9%100.0%    
size 80 21.1%100.0%    
3size 65 0.1%100.0%    
size 70  100.0%    
size 75  99.9%100.0%   
size 80  99.9%100.0%   
4size 65  80.0%100.0%   
size 70  58.8%100.0%   
size 75  34.5%100.0%   
size 80  6.0%99.5%100.0%  
5size 65   2.3%87.4%100.0% 
size 70    46.1%99.4%100.0%
size 75    16.6%95.9%100.0%
size 80    0.2%61.4%100.0%

 Strength of unshielded bombing fleet
TurnTerran1 IS+3 AB2 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB3 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB
6size 650.4%89.8%100.0%      
size 70 58.0%99.7%100.0%     
size 75 7.2%81.7%99.8%100.0%    
size 80 0.1%21.4%92.3%100.0%    
7size 65  0.2%20.2%91.8%100.0%   
size 70   0.3%28.2%99.2%100.0%  
size 75    0.4%73.4%99.2%100.0% 
size 80     12.8%79.5%99.3%100.0%

 Strength of unshielded bombing fleet
TurnTerran3 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB4 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB5 IS+1 AB+2 AB
8size 651.4%58.6%96.8%100.0%       
size 70 0.7%42.9%94.0%99.9%100.0%     
size 75  0.8%46.2%99.0%100.0%     
size 80   0.4%66.0%97.3%100.0%    
9size 65  0.2%2.0%78.2%99.6%100.0%    
size 70    10.5%65.2%98.5%100.0%   
size 75     5.7%55.3%95.5%100.0%  
size 80      1.0%30.5%97.2%99.9%100.0%

 Strength of unshielded bombing fleet
TurnTerran4 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB5 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB6 IS+1 AB+2 AB
10size 650.5%10.9%61.2%96.5%100.0%      
size 70 0.2%3.3%30.8%95.7%99.9%100.0%    
size 75  0.1%1.2%44.8%88.7%99.6%100.0%   
size 80    2.1%18.3%64.0%96.8%100.0%  
11size 65 1.4%15.5%67.7%99.9%100.0%     
size 70  0.1%3.3%63.9%96.3%99.9%100.0%   
size 75   0.1%4.4%30.8%79.8%98.2%100.0%  
size 80     0.8%11.0%52.1%98.6%100.0% 
12size 65 0.7%9.0%46.2%97.9%100.0%     
size 70  0.1%2.0%40.6%87.7%99.8%100.0%   
size 75    1.5%16.0%60.3%93.6%100.0%  
size 80    0.1%0.3%6.3%29.9%92.8%99.8%100.0%
13size 65 0.5%9.0%45.6%98.1%100.0%     
size 70  0.1%2.0%40.6%87.7%99.8%100.0%   
size 75    1.5%16.0%60.3%93.6%100.0%  
size 80    0.1%0.3%6.3%29.9%92.8%99.8%100.0%
14size 65 0.5%9.0%45.6%98.1%100.0%     
size 70  0.1%2.0%40.6%87.7%99.8%100.0%   
size 75    1.5%16.0%60.3%93.6%100.0%  
size 80    0.1%0.3%6.3%29.9%92.8%99.8%100.0%

Shielded ships

These tables are valid for a fleet where all ships are eqiupped with shields offering protection against the current weapon technology of the primitives. In turns 1 to 3 this means at least the Energy Shield, on turns 4 and 5 it means at least the Graviton Shield and on turn 6 or later it means the Antimatter Shield.
 Strength of shielded bombing fleet
TurnTerran1 AB2 AB3 AB1 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB
1size 650.5%100.0%     
size 70 100.0%     
size 75 100.0%     
size 80 100.0%     
2size 65 99.9%100.0%    
size 70 98.9%100.0%    
size 75 93.5%100.0%    
size 80 78.7%100.0%    
3size 65 12.9%100.0%    
size 70 3.5%100.0%    
size 75 0.9%100.0%    
size 80  100.0%    
4size 65  97.7%100.0%   
size 70  91.2%100.0%   
size 75  82.9%100.0%   
size 80  57.5%100.0%   
5size 65  0.1%100.0%   
size 70   99.1%100.0%  
size 75   94.2%100.0%  
size 80   53.6%100.0%  
6size 65   0.2%89.0%100.0% 
size 70    59.5%100.0% 
size 75    10.6%99.1%100.0%
size 80     71.4%100.0%

 Strength of shielded bombing fleet
TurnTerran1 IS+2 AB+3 AB2 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB3 IS+1 AB
7size 657.2%97.8%100.0%     
size 70 55.9%100.0%     
size 75 3.2%100.0%     
size 80  90.6%100.0%    
8size 65  74.8%100.0%    
size 70  4.0%95.5%100.0%   
size 75  0.1%33.8%99.7%100.0%  
size 80   0.5%69.0%99.9%100.0% 
9size 65   1.4%90.1%100.0%  
size 70    7.7%97.9%100.0% 
size 75     33.9%100.0% 
size 80     0.6%96.0%100.0%

 Strength of shielded bombing fleet
TurnTerran2 IS+2 AB+3 AB3 IS+1 AB+2 AB+3 AB4 IS
10size 651.3%39.8%99.9%100.0%   
size 70 1.8%94.7%100.0%   
size 75 0.1%26.6%97.6%100.0%  
size 80  0.4%28.1%97.7%100.0% 
11size 650.1%8.3%98.9%100.0%   
size 70 0.1%42.1%99.2%100.0%  
size 75  2.6%43.6%99.4%100.0% 
size 80   1.9%49.4%99.5%100.0%
12size 65 6.3%97.5%100.0%   
size 70 0.3%25.6%96.3%100.0%  
size 75  1.8%27.5%96.1%100.0% 
size 80   1.4%29.5%96.8%100.0%
13size 65 5.6%95.8%100.0%   
size 70 0.3%25.6%96.3%100.0%  
size 75  1.8%27.5%96.1%100.0% 
size 80   1.4%29.5%96.8%100.0%
14size 65 5.6%95.8%100.0%   
size 70 0.3%25.6%96.3%100.0%  
size 75  1.8%27.5%96.1%100.0% 
size 80   1.4%29.5%96.8%100.0%

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