If you expand to a point where their's only 1 space lane into the system for the opponent to enter, than keeping a fleet there would be a suitable choice. What you want is to have a limited number of entries into your "area" of a system and guard them with additional ships. What you don't want is to spread your fleet too thin while upgrading. Have allies at your flanks and attack distant targets, that would work best early on.

hopefully 1.03 will make PJI's a bit better and in that case chokepoints would be possible.

even if you do find a system with 2 lanes going into it (one from your side, one from enemy) if the phase lanes arent exactly the opposite side of the gravwell (e.g. -O-) and form an L shape or something close, the enemies dont even need to really enter the gravwell at all (only move through the outskirts) to pass that planet.

Try to balance the placement of your turrets so that they are the closest to your planet, without actually wasting space by dipping into areas that ships can't travel to anyways. Then overlap them in an 'oval' feature. This way there are always at least 2 turrets capable of hitting any one ship that enters into the main gravity well's zone of control.

The down-side to this, is that you can't cover all of your turrets with a Regeneration Bay - even with three being placed down. What I would do in this situation is to sacrifice hangers, in favor of placing "Four" Regeneration Bays strategically so they over-lap over each other (So they can repair each other) and still cover all of the turrets.

And then back this city up with about four Carrier Ships and a Carrier Capital Ship or two stuffed full of fighters. Make sure to leave them by the furthest phase lanes, so that it takes the enemy ships forever to reach them. If the enemy ships get too close, just phase them to your next Planet. (Where you probably have your defenses condensed, and ready for the enemy to phase through after your ships.)

The best part about the Carriers is that they're a mobile defense. If things get too rough, you can pull them back to the next planet to halt their advancement, or if a nearby chokepoint is taking heavy fire, you can

I'm not a big fan of Hangers, unless I'm playing as the Advent. The reason is because they're a high priority target, and they're flimsy to boot. 4 slots is too much in my books... Put one or two down at most, and back it up with carriers.

You and I differ greatly in our strategy opinions.

Hangers will only replenish the fleets, if they're still alive.

If you build nothing but Hangers, without bothering to build turrets, Hangers are guaranteed to be the first thing targeted by the Non-Siege capable ships - meaning, your powerful Fighter/Bomber Fleets will disappear almost as fast as your planet will.

You 'need' turrets, even if you're going for a nearly All Hanger defense set-up; if only to serve as the nearest target for the invading non-siege capable fleet. They're surprisingly resilient for their low cost, and tactical slot value.

They're also quick to build, so you can keep rebuilding new ones as the enemy fleet knocks existing ones down. (A particularly nasty trick to use against the AI, or new Players in MP.)

I'm all for Multi-player co-op if thats the kind of game you're looking to play Multi-player. Add Dairuka to your X-fire, and we'll talk about setting something up.

Turrets by far are the most effective against Siege Frigate Spam - even two turrents in range are capable of decimating an entire squadron (Up to 5) of siege frigates in no time. Three turrets in range can take down ten siege frigates without breaking a sweat. Plus, with the proper use of Repair Bays, the turrets will be darned resilient too against even the largest fleets. Making this choke point last much longer than any other will.

Multiple Repair Bays are particularly effective at prolonging the life of a Planet, with enough tactical structures laid down.

Hanger Bays sadly seem to suffer from what I call "Glass Cannon syndrome". It's got the power, sure; but if it takes a hit, it shatters. Thankfully the AI will target the nearest priority tactical structure first; meaning if you keep your Hanger Bays hidden away, they'll be left for last, and the turrets will take the majority of the damage. Of course, if you get unlucky, they may just target your hangers anyways. Then it's all over.

So to that end, I'd rather have three to four turrets strategically placed in range of incursion fleets at any given time around my planet's front line (Covering up to 70% of the planet's gravity well), with multiple repair bays over-lapping each other, with one or two hanger bays, followed up with a squadron or more of extra fighters from an impossible to kill source (Carriers hidden way out of range, and capable of retreating, or phase-jumping to backup other planets if necessary) to fend off the LRM's - than I would with 10 fighters and six bombers, a single repair bay, and a single turret, (35 Tactical Cost in all.) backed up by easy to kill Light Frigates and Long Ranged Frigates that'll invariably cost you even more than a Capital Ship Carrier (Cap wise, and resource wise) would to actually be effective.

Factor in how long it takes for groups of ships to phase jump properly, and you'll find that Light Frigates and Long Range Frigates are absolutely horrible to have in a mobile defense fleet, since you need a large number of them to be effective. It doesn't take long for Five Carriers, and a Capital Carrier to phase around. (5-7+ fighters/bombers to backup any given planet within two phase-lane hops in less than a minute.)

I say use turrents. You can normally find out which phase lane the enemy will use by scouting. And place your turrents to that phase lane. You can even tell this early on by which direction their scouts came from.

So scout the entire map. Set three scouts on "Auto scout". Know where your enemy is. Place full tactal slots of turrents and a few hangers right in front of that phase lane where you know the enemy is coming.

I have stopped big fleets on hard AI this way.

Keeping a small fleet on such planets helps too.

Thanks so much for all the advice! I used a lot of it and I was able to hold off any attack they threw against me. Looking forward to becoming a better player and moving to harder AI's