<t> The construction messages are especially annoying on mining/research stations because their is not much you can do to fix it.&nbsp; At least at a colony you can order (and as you mentioned), and reorder smuggling missions.&nbsp; With a large empire, you get so many of these popups, that you don ...

<t> I research fighter bays (and the fighters that go with them) fairly early, and put them on about everything.&nbsp; It works well for me, but then again I play at fairly low difficulty.<br/>
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As your construction improves, you can make your escorts and frigates larger as well.<br ...

The toughest research project to me has been colonization, which seems to take forever; plus it costs about 200,000 credits to crash research it.&nbsp;
Of course there are several other critical high tech research projects that I would like to have ASAP.
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Morvael is talking about the small ports still controlled by the Russians to the east of Leningrad.  When you capture those, Leningrad will be cut off.

If you connect with the Fins to the east, this also cuts off supply to Leningrad.

<t> Well, if you explore the Shaturi Beacon, they definitely come.&nbsp; I tried flying away from it, but too late.<br/>
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You could always check the option that they don't come.&nbsp; They are very difficult to defeat without overwhelming force; even my death star was defeated once ...

<t> It may not be the best thing to do, but I add 4 to 6&nbsp;fighter bays to my mining/research/resort bases.&nbsp; They upgrade naturally, and it is fun to watch the pirates get nailed.<br/>
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I also just build a fair number of escorts and frigate bays with fighter bays and leave them ...

Well, I finally conquered the Shakturi home world - took 2500 troops

<t> As I understand it, defend is better if you want your fleet to target attacking fleets or pirates.&nbsp; Attack is more to attack pirate bases&nbsp;or enemy bases, althought to be honest, I do this manually.&nbsp; So, in my case, defend is probably a better posture.<br/>
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Thanks, that helps alot.

<t> I haven't had much luck invading homeworlds, unless I conquer the other colonies first (destroying their economy and ability to support troops).&nbsp; I tried bombarding the Refugee homeworld with max tech nukes to no avail.&nbsp; They had the planet fortress wonder.&nbsp; Going to try the Death ...

Lots of laugh, I am always running out of fuel until I research the better cells.&nbsp; And the super refueling gas mining station sounds great.
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Are resupply ships at all usefull, and if so, how do you use them?
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<t> Lately, I have had to manually design carriers from scratch, even after I have researched Advanced fighter bays, and can make a capital ship (size 650).&nbsp; It may be a glitch from the patch.<br/>
After doing so, I still get the 40% carrier size bonus.<br/>
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On ships which are ...

<t> Even if I beeline to the construction wonder, and build it at my capital, I only get it about half the time.&nbsp; The 3 research wonders seem much easier to get.&nbsp; I do research colonization techs first until I have plenty of new colony options.<br/>
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Weapon wise, I focus on ...

<t> Once you design anything for yourself, keep the auto design button off.&nbsp; When it comes time to upgrade,&nbsp; (for instance a new engine) simply select all of the current designs, and hit the manual upgrade button.&nbsp; Your manual designs will be upgraded as well with the same theme ...

<t> First with designs, save your designs at the beginning of the game. Turn design off, and never turn it on again. When it is time to upgrade to a new type of an old component, simply select the affected ships (or all of them - easy enough), and click the manual upgrade. I usually pick standard ...

Simply hit F11, sort the ships by type, select whichever and hit retrofit to latest design. If it is all the same ship, you pick which design to retrofit too.

<t> I wanted to thank you for your post, it has been very helpful, and I have used your suggestions to good effect, I am winning too easily on normal, and must now progress to hard.<br/>
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I do design my own ships and bases. It is not quite as tedious as you think. Once you have made your ...

Thanks - missed that.

Anyone else having trouble combining Russian Rifle Brigades with the beta patch? (These are not Naval Brigades, which could never be combined)

Or if you want, we can start the switched sides games as soon as you have time.