[Slick]

That's good advice. Along with the spaceyard and defense bases already mentioned, I also have some specialty bases that I use - rarely, but sometimes they are appropriate:

Repair Base - Has maxxed repair bays. Used in a sector that has at least one space yard to expdite fleet retrofits, usually between my core production and the front lines. Mothballed when not needed. This is great at a training planet. Retrofit and train at the same time!

Fighter Base - (space stations are a bit small for this. If you want to include a spaceyard, use larger bases) with or without a spaceyard, these can hold and deploy fighters for defense. Keeps cargo room on the planet available for other things like weapon platforms. Use fighter bays and cargo bays. This can also be used as a staging point for carriers on the way to the front.

Cargo Base - Very rarely used, but if you want a staging point for units, and you don't have room in the planet cargo, a base can hold lots of misc units and/or population. Any base with cargo capacity (cargo bays, fighter bays, satellite bays, mine layers, drone launchers) can help your population transports. Wrong breathing population can be temporarily stored there until the next population transport comes by without doming the planet. Another rarely used but useful function is to put one of these over a huge breathable when the planet population gets full. This way you can transfer some population to the base to allow the planet dwellers to be fruitful and continue to multiply.

Slick.

[ September 29, 2003, 15:53: Message edited by: Slick ]