Playing a game right now where a neighboring race has nabbed a nice barren world planet in the corner of the map just outside of my zone of influence. I'm at war with them and this planet is ripe for the taking but there's a problem, I don't have barren world colonization and I've disabled tech trading.

If I invade the planet with a transport will I at least take it away from them and it becomes neutral? At this point I could hire the mercenary which allows me to colonize one extreme planet. That seems to be my only option short of obliterating the planet with some starbase tech ( if that's still a thing, can't remember)

Thanks for tuning in!