Militia and troops.

[Q]

I don't like to talk about realism in a game like SE (although you could argue about the difficulties the number one military power on earth today has in certain countries against very rudimentery equipped "militias").

I just think that it is not good if you can conquer a homeworld with 20-30 small troops without shields and one louzy depleted uranium cannon. That makes the first strike option against any encountered empire in the beginning of the game too strong. I like it better if in the early game destroying or conquering a homeworld is almost impossible.

But everone has his taste of the game and the beauty is you can mod it accordingly.