When I think about it, it seems that controlling the space above a planet will be more important than I have thought. You see, if a planet loses it's space to the invaders, they've got their backs against the wall. No way to get reinforcements, stuck with the low number of units on the ground because of the pop cap. If you don't get the space back, you're doomed. No matter how many turrets you build, no matter how well you cover the reinforcement points, you're doomed, because the enemy can just poor in more and more units. This does make sense in a way, but the bad part is that you can't defeat your opponent by just defending your ground base. If the enemy is determined to get the planet, they will not stop attacking no matter what the casualties are. Seems like owning the space will be extremely vital.

Yeah but then you could always call in another fleet to try to win back the space. You bring up a good point though. A person just can't win the space and ground and think they've got that planet secure because the enemy could waltz right in 5 minutes later with a fleet and blockade the planet.

Do we know if there is a limit on the transports in a fleet? That would make a big difference in how fast reinforcements can be brought to bear on the ground. If there is no limit, it would make the ground battle go to the attacker every single time and that doesn't validate even having that mode really.

The question would be what percentage of those potential ground forces have you forced the enemy to lose in space before that began?

 

Of course, that would be supposing that, if blockades are still available, you didn't just win the orbital combat, wait for reinforcements and then invade - but the same could be said for similar situations in 'Rome: Total War', too.