[Growltigga]

Andy, I suspect this argument will go on and on and on.

Personally, I have only played against the v1.49 AI and a particularily daft friend (sorry khanuk). We all know the AI is a bit lacking sometimes so I make a point of not using fighters or mines or massed warp point defences against them - it just gets a bit sad

I dont use battlestations or even space stations at warp points for a lot of the reasons Gryphin goes into. A static defence is no way to win a war and you need mobile units to win the fight anyway.

I research advanced military science ASAP and build a sizeable fleet of say, light cruisers, which actually have very few components in them. When war breaks out, I retrofit these ships to the design spec I need (PDC heavy versus the Krill or Norak for example) and bingo, you have a modern, sizeable, hard hitting fleet.

The advantage of building the hulls first is that you can take advantage of your ships/fleets being trained up as per the ship training/fleet training facilities you have built by now.

Mac is right too, you need to diversify your construction capability and also expensive, spaceyard equipped spacestations over your planets are extremely important if not vital!!
I generally will have say 4 spaceyards orbitally Growltigga Prime before 12-15 turns have passed!

Back to defence, fighting the AI, I dont defend warp points, I defend planets with weapons platforms, satellites, defensive troops etc, sometimes fighters too if the enemy is using them. Make them a hard nut to crack and also you can continually upgrade your fortresses to the latest tech with your planet and space-based building modules

I do built bases in planetless nexii as you can use these guys as resupply depots (bases have infinite supplies)