Space Empires 2 and warp point defense

[Mylon]

Am I the only one that sees guarding warp points a little silly? I can understand in the early game, but what good is a fleet of 20 starbases sitting on a warp point when another one opens somewhere else? I'd much rather park those starbases over my planets. Sure, it's riskier because enough suicide ships can rush the planet and blow it up, but at least they help to some extent.

That, and the maintenance cost for starbases seems awfully high, even with the 50% reduction. Each battlestation practically requires a tiny planet just to provide the maintenance.