Defence

[HectorOfTroy]

I love the game, I've been playing it for about two weeks now. There are so many things to understand and master, but game is great.

Now, I need some advice. How do you defend your worlds? Do you build heaps of defensive bases or do you just have mobile fleets in the vicinity of the main colonies?

And how do you defend against troop carriers? I know the best way is to shoot them down, but what are the tips on how to combat them when using defensive bases or colony facilities?

[Wreck]

You cannot really defend against troop-drops, although the AI is often haphazard about it and you can toast its transports with a big base (or fleet).  And of course it is best to kill enemy armies when they are helpless.  Still, you need to keep your own counter-force of armies in a defensive fleet.  When the enemy succeeds in a drop, you wait for them to leave, then counter-drop larger.   Weight of armies (and also to a degree their quality) will tell -- just be sure to be recruiting like a maniac. 

If you can beat the enemy fleet in a straight-up fleet battle, then of course go for it.  Then you won't have to worry much about defense and can move into offense more.

Often you can't beat an enemy fleet, or it is risky.  In this case, large defensive starbases in some places are the main places you look to kill the enemy.  When the enemy fleet warps in, the starbase helps the fleet chew them up.  The AI won't replace ships very fast, and usually you can get on top eventually. 

[Kayoz]

Best defence is a good offence.

Splat 'em before they can splat you, I say!

[J HG T]

I myself follow the way of "He who defends everything defends nothing". The lesson being, that you need to prioritize your worlds and defend them as you see fit. I don't see no major point defending some backwater 22K 55% planet with lousy resources, but 29K 85% planet with rare luxury goods definetly gets at least custom medium SP and one custom defence platform.

Also, as Wreck said, it's very useful to keep counter-strike defence fleet(s) in the area enemy is likely to strike. 

[ehsumrell1]

Agreed Kayoz.....Shoot first....shoot again....THEN go to the Diplomacy
screen and see who you shot and the rep hit you took!

[Howard Mitchell]

Protecting your home world is vital due to it having the bulk of your population. (Assuming you're starting at the beginning levels). The risk of an enemy taking it may be low but if they do you're pretty much finished.

I always ensure I have a heavily armed space port over it, a number of troops on the ground, and some bases with defensive capability - either proper defensive bases or orbiting research stations with some firepower. I also use my homeworld as the base for my fleets when they aren't off doing something, and maintain a reserve fleet which sits there for defence as well. The AI does not usually try suicidal invasions in my experience, and so having a strong defence will stop invasions happening.

If they do land, keep on recruiting troops until the battle is over. The latest patches have slowed down ground combat to the extent that the defender has time to feed newly recruited armies into the battle if the enemy is not overwhelming.

Protecting colonies is much more difficult as the more you have the thinner you have to spread your defences. As Wreck says the best defence there is sometimes a counter-attack. Let them take a minor colony, mass four forces and then take it back. You can't be strong everywhere.

[Data]

yes, better make them weak everywhere....that is still so easy to do chances are they'll never reach your strategic colonies

[Bingeling]

I try to give defenses to my important colonies. That would be the top tax producers and those with rare resources. This means both defenses above the planet and troops on the ground. A major tax producer with foreign population needs a good size garrison to squash any rebellion if war breaks out with the wrong opponent. Rare goods locations are usually less rich, and can't muster as impressive rebellions...

I don't like colonies to be completely empty unless they are very fresh. Losing a colony to a single destroyer is annoying. On the other hand, retaking a colony captured by a single destroyer is very quick.

The AI seem to love the take back places recently lost. So it is not a good idea to always pick up the whole invasion force (if big). In particular if the location is high revenue.

I would really like the suggestion of being able to set a garrison level on colonies, it can be a pain to avoid greedy troop transport to empty your prized colonies of defenses. You need a crazy tech/power advantage to stop a main enemy fleet from dropping troops.

Also, an early warning system (spies, long range scanners in the right areas) is handy as it enables fleets to lie in wait to assist defenses.

But then again, I am a noob in this game

[Kayoz]

HectorOfTroy -

One of the unfortunate weaknesses of the AI is its lack of target prioritization of worlds to invade. You'll probably find that the AI will fight tooth and nail for some dinky backwater colony on a barely habitable world - repeatedly sending fleets to attack and/or blockade it. That makes it very difficult to act defensively, as it's nigh impossible to know what to defend.

I'd suggest the following if you're at war:

1. Deep cover spies - you can't defend against what you don't know about. Once you go to war, assign 4 or 5 spies to deep cover. You can always cancel the missions of the ones which are excess.
2. Monitor stations - not around your worlds - you're not interested in getting a few minutes warning of an incoming fleet, so much as you want to keep an eye on the AI's fleet buildup and movements. Locate them so they can keep an eye on his ports and troop production worlds, especially.
3 - eliminate his fleets - the AI is rather slow about rebuilding lost fleets. Use #1 and #2 to find his fleets, and then kill them. Rommel described the fortifications on the coast of France as "cement coffins", and I agree with his assessment. Defenses are nice - but historically they haven't worked out too well.
4 - stick to your priorities. You're bound to miss some small fleet which invades some world or blows up some mining stations. Don't let it get you distracted. The loss of some dinky colony or some gas miner in the middle of nowhere isn't going to have any effect on your economy or ability to wage war. Don't react emotionally and feel a need to take it back or avenge the loss. Think rationally about how important the loss might be, and whether or not it is really deserving of distracting you from your overall plan... which of course is...
5 - invade his worlds - aim for larger population and luxury producing worlds. If you have to choose between 2 worlds which are otherwise identical - look at the number of mines in the system (you'll blow those up of course), and in particular the production of "polymer" and "carbon fibre". Once you start stomping on his fleets, he'll need a LOT of these to rebuild. Taking his planets and blowing up his mines which produce these will have far more impact than blowing up a couple of gas or steel mines.
6 - blow up his civilian ships. Replacing those losses will compete for ship construction capacity with his military ships. This will further impede his ability to retaliate.

I'm sorry if I don't offer any advice in making an "uber fortress" world. I tend to find it a useless exercise. The AI (quite rightly) avoids these places - though I'm not sure if it's due to random chance or the AI's target prioritazion. Lots of worlds out there, and I tend to build defenses rather sparingly - so it's not clear if my defensive building at "key worlds" of mine and the AI's lack of tangling with them is more to do with chance or the AI's seeing those worlds as appealing as a leprous whore.

[Kayoz]

7 - keep your ships working. If you're waiting for troop builds to invade or massing your fleet for an offensive, don't just sit there. Send them out to blow up his mines and civilian ships. Hit his undefended mining stations, trash his freighters, vent his resort bases to the vacuum of space. You should have no shortage of targets which you can send a couple of destroyers out to stomp on, while you're waiting for troops or reinforcements. Doing the aforementioned will impede your opponent's ability to perform his own buildup. Try to think like a London Met copper - don't sit around swilling tea, when you can beat up some OAP or slap around some anorexic teenager. You can always do this, even if it's too troublesome or dangerous to go after someone like a real criminal - there's no shortage of opportunity to lay your boots into grannies and girls. Too dangerous to mess with the mobsters of DW? Fine - go push over some wheelchair-bound octagenarians. The more you learn to think like a London Met cop, the better you will be at this.