Protecting Planets

[Windborne]

Satellites and weapon platforms are deffinitely a must for your major planets, but for major systems the best defense is fighter Groups, huge fighter Groups.

Fighter fleets don't cost much to maintain and can move at decent speeds between planets to meet the enemy fleet wherever it hits your system, especially useful when an opponent is opening new (undefended)warp points into the heart of your empire.

[This message has been edited by Windborne (edited 10 March 2001).]

[pathfinder]

hmmm, I use all those assets. Fighters, wp's (some with PD) and sats (some with pd, some missile and some gun, especially PP sats).

[Marty Ward]

Mines are also a good planet defense. you can build them by the 1000's and only deploy them when needed. They even take up less space than fighters do.

[Windborne]

I never could find a spot in the rulebook that said whether mines exploded only for enemy ships so i've been loath to place them around my planets or warp points I might wish to use.

[pathfinder]

windbourne: your mines will not blow up your own ships. so use at warp point and planets but beware that, like staellites, they tend to congrgate in one spot NOT as a "around the planet" field; unless you build a whole bunch.

[God Emperor]

I've personally hardly ever use mines or satellites (although I dont usually play above low bonus - played medium a few times).

I rely on WP's equipped with point defence and large/massive mount weapons backed by ships. I try to avoid spending on defensive weapons and buy ships, ships and more ships.
Might change my strategy a bit once the AI can use cloaked ships properly.

I dont use fighters or missiles much because my mod incorporates heavy point defence on the AI ships, which means I have to have a lot to make it worth while.
As a note though, I play tactical combat...

[Sinapus]

quote:

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Originally posted by pathfinder:
windbourne: your mines will not blow up your own ships. so use at warp point and planets but beware that, like staellites, they tend to congrgate in one spot NOT as a "around the planet" field; unless you build a whole bunch.

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Actually, mines clumping together isn't much of a problem since they don't appear in tactical or strategic combat. They just attack any enemy ship that goes into that sector.