New player struggling

[Growltigga]

Defend worm holes not planets.

Andy, the decision on this will come down to your own tactical style but keep in mind, I have always been talking about playing the AI - even the Gold AI on the highest settings is hardly a Sun Tzu - IMHO, defending warp points against an AI opponent is simply unsporting, as is using fighters and mines against them

it would cost a lot for research etc to do that and it's not my style

IIRC, the research cost for ship capture isnt really that much, at least not when you take into account what you can get from it, IIRC you research military science (50,000), advanced military science (100,000) and then ship capture (5000) - about the same as level 3 missiles or decent beam weaponry

"it is not your style" is FAR more important, this is a game, it doesnt really matter if you win or lose as long as you enjoy it

I'm not going to use fighters anymore, too fiddly building carriers and fighters and keeping them alltogether.

Aah, this is just experience my boy, my orbital spaceyards will build the carriers (say 7 turns for a light carrier) whilst the colony world builds the fighters but again, it is down to personal preference, I am currently playing a hotseat game and designing a fleet where almost every ship (CL and above) has at least 1 fighter bay - my fighters are all configured for ship-killing - it is an interesting development in power projection