[minipol]

Hi,

i was wondering how you guys defend your planets, systems and warppoints.

I usually build 30 sats for large to huge planets with the 30 sats being a mix of direct firing, missile weapons and point defense. I also throw 1 spy sat which has a scanning device and a cloaking device on it so i can hide the whole sat group. I sometimes add about 20 mines to the mix.

I then procede to build as many weapons platforms as the cargo space allows me. I sometimes add a cargo space just so i can add more weaponplatforms. Again I tend to use a mix of missiles and beams.

On the important planets, i place a massive planetary shield and a system shield generator to protect the whole system. When i have the resources, i might even add a Battlestation.

Plus i add troops. If i'm invading a system, i can pass a transport from planet to planet picking up the garrisons along the way to fill the transport up. I then rebuild the troops on the planets where i extracted them.

I haven't used fighters or drones much on planets.
Because there is so much building going on, a build a small "buildstation" in orbit and this kind of station is very easy on the maintenance since it's only about 550 in minerals in maintenance. I then can build my facilities and build up my defense at the same time. So as more facilities are built on the planet, the planet is better defended.

As a precaution, i also build extra DNS that i immediately rename to "RESERVE_x" and mothball.
You never know when there might be an invader that hits the core of your empire. A strategic reserve of ships that don't cost any maintenance can always come in handy.

For warppoint defense, i mostly use mines (100).
I wonder if using sats isn't more effective? Building a large starbase doesn't seems very effective. I did some tests with the simulator and 6 dreadnoughts took out the biggest base i could build although the DN's suffered heavily. And a base costs a lot of maintenance.
Sats (direct fire, missile, point defense) and fighters would be ideal i guess since they have no maintenance.
I'm not sure if you can build fighters that don't need to resupply.

Any other thoughts on this?