doesn't work so easily. shipyards have about 8/8/8 attack, 10/10/10 defense and 150 HP. you need more than just a small fighter to destroy a shipyard,

So... you've never attacked a shipyard? Ever? With all of your master-class posts, I would have thought that you would have actually played a game by now. Huh.

Maybe, instead of trying to break the code, try actually playing it? I mean, I get it if you gain all of your enjoyment from theory instead of practical experience. That's totally cool. Just not all that useful to those who gain enjoyment from playing it.

Does someone have a thing for offering snuggler colonies?

Makes a change from socks, I guess.

So, either with a small ship or bigger ship, what you're suggesting is you just kill a planet's shipyard and if you keep at least one ship near that planet to kill any newly minted shipyard, that planet's borked...

And the reasons for that are the AI can't sceam like a girl for help once it's shipyard's destroyed and it can't build a bigger, better, stronger shipyard so you have to send more/bigger ships to destroy the upgraded shipyard.

Unless it surrounds it's shipyards with starbases (which given how vital shipyards are in the scheme of things, it should probably be doing)...

I don't believe that you can destroy a faction's shipyard without going to war.  Once a war is declared, all the other planets of the faction can attack you at will. 

They can also try to turn other races against you.  You will find your freighters attacked, your constructors attacked, your survey ships attacked, your starports attacked, and you will find new enemies at your doorstep.  You will have to cut back on research to build still more war ships.  Your finances will suffer, and your exploration will probably suffer also.

I don;t think you hit his nerve, I think he was just pointing out that the idea was dumb, on the basis of it not being feasible.  Which, I have to agree with him, you'd know if you tried (and then posted).

Uh ... yes. Of course, if you invade and conquer an enemy planet which feeds into a shipyard, the shipyards production in diminished. And if you conquer all planets that do so, the shipyard is destroyed.

So yes. The conquest of enemy planets is feasable. What are you trying to say here?

Well to be honest, that all isnt really needed.

When playing on a small(ish) map, you can focus all your research to reach Planetary Invasion as fast as possible (and colonize as usual until you reach it).

By doing that, the enemy has pretty much no defenses and you can send your transport right next to their homeworld, declare war, and conquer it.

I dont really get why people in a transport module seem to have magical powers and suddenly 1 million people can kill 10 million when invading. But I guess that's the way invasions work in the future.

When you destroy an enemy's capacity to proscute war then that enemy is beaten.  This is standard military doctrine.  The problem in GC3 is that the AI doesn't seem to be able to identify valuable shipyards that are at risk of attack, and properly defend them; however, if you have a superior force and you can push your way through AI defences to destroy their shipyards -- or if you're playing the late game where fleets have hundreds of moves and you can just weave through everything that the AI has without a care in the galaxy* -- then yes, the war is effectively won. 

* Which is super, super, super dumb for the game to allow BTW.

You don't wipe out the shipyards in the early game.  You focus on wiping out the PLANETS NEXT TO THE SHIPYARDS. 

Same difference. 

And hey, it's a free world.  As long as I come up with good/interesting ideas, it's all good. Clearly you need to take a deep breath. 

Chill, man. Chill.  It's just a game.  

I have read some of your posts, mostly just for a strange type of amusement.  Theorycrafting is spiffy.  I would recommend that you actually win a game though, at least just once.  Not get into it 20 turns and declare yourself the victor because your theorycrafting says you must have won by now.  But actually finish a game and have it registered on the metaverse.  Sure the game can be exploited and broken and won.  A lot of people take advantage of your amazing exploits already, they just don't think it is an awe inspiring  discovery to brag about on the boards.  And until you actually play and win a game, so you don't say silly things like "just have a small fighter blow up all their shipyards on the first turn", all of your theorycrafting really only amounts to a stale breeze in the face of a hurricane.  You are somewhat amusing though, I will give you that.

BUT THE YOR SHOULDN'T LIKE THEM.  THAT'S WRONG!!!!!

The AI does try to build new shipyards as soon as you destroy one. If more than one planet was connected then it might build more than one shipyard. Currently the AI does a very poor job a protecting its assets. But early game fighters are no real match for several shipyards so...

Anyway, this does raise an interesting option: should it be possible to build a fortified shipyard? it will cost more manufacturing but would have superior attack/defense capabilities.

This would allow a planet to effectively "rescue" itself.