Advent are probably the best defenders, having upgrades to give them additional Tactical Slots as well as upgrades to their Hangers (usually the most effective defensive weapon, aside from the Repair Bay).

First of all though, you can't rely on static defenses. At best they can stall and augment your defense, but they won't hold off any determined attack (this is true for both the AI and for people).

But as a rule, I would say Repair Platforms are probably the most useful of the defensive structures. They use up relatively few Tactical Slots and are very, very good at what they do. A cluster of them is an incredible pain for an enemy to kill (they can either spend time whittling away at the rather strong platforms repairing one another, or attack your fleet which is killing their units). A fleet fighting from Repair Platforms is just much more difficult to kill until either the platforms are disabled, they run out of antimatter, or are destroyed. For single player, these structures seem very low on the AI's targeting priority list, so that helps matters as well

Hangers are effective because they have the reach. The most common units to see an an offense are Heavy Cruisers and LRMs, the latter of which will simply destroy turrets outside their effective range. Hangers can deploy fighters and bombers to attack anything within the Gravity Well.

Turrets are really only decent against an AI, from my experience (when supported with Repair Platforms) and for Light Frigates (which become obsolete very fast in game, so usually not an issue). With the AI though, clumping them up with your Repair Platforms on the avenue the AI is likely to take to reach your planet to bombard it is effective.

For Advent, an Antimatter Recharger or two can be decent, but they are quite high tier (T5) and in the Civil field, so you're likely to get it fairly late, if you bother with it at all.

For your actual defense, you're best using a real fleet. Support Cruisers, a Capital or two (depending on the faction, Heavy Cruisers, LRMs, etc.. If you're Advent the Guardian with Repulsion can buy a ton of time as well.

How I would handle it.

Station your fleet 1 world away from your choke planet. Have a phase jump inhibitor. Have a few repair bays.

Watch as the enemy attacks you, jump to the system, watch him run, kill his fleet.

I usually take 2-3 hangers and 2-3 regen bays for choke points. It is not really worth it to put too much more unless your fleets are on the other side of the galaxy. Even by maxing out your hangers at a choke point, the enemy can still send siege frigates PAST your choke point and into your empire, defeating the point of defense structures at a choke point. (Though, inhibitors are good in this way if your hangers have lots of fighters.)

When it comes to hangers, I usually deck them out with 2:3 fighters:bombers if they are on the rim and 3:1 if they are in my empire. Since fighters excel at killing siege frigates.

However if you have a fleet that is at the choke point, I'd go pure regen bays and if advent, antimatter bays. Maybe 1-2 hangers for when the fleet leaves to pursue the enemy.

On another note, if this is late game and you have the phase stabilizer and the available slots/money, I usually put them on new planets with 2 regen bays. Being able to warp in a fleet from anywhere in the galaxy (so long as you follow this routine for all planets conquered) is pretty valuable. The one draw back is focus firing the stabilizer means an extra jump from the closest planet which has another stabilizer. And the boon here is that RA will use all these stabilizers anyways, so you might as well use them.

Finally, place a culture building on a choke point to gain your races benefits for being in culture. This will also help stop enemy culture from destroying your choke if you have no caps present. Though, dead astroids (which seem to be common chokes) have no logical slots unless your TEC

I'll usually put in 5 hangers on the opposite side of where I expect the enemy to phase in, and then the rest of my points in turrets as close as I can to that point. Late game, I will scuttle enough turrets to put in a jump inhibitor. I park my fleet between the turrets and my planet. The statics will usually take care of most pirates, and will augment my fleet against a determined human opponent. If I fight under the guns of my turrets with help from the hangers, it's usually a big help.

If it's a human opponent, the same thing applies, except I keep a reserve fleet just outside the gravity well of an adjacent planet. A humans scouts will tell him what I've got already, and they will show up with overwhelming odds. If he doesn't see my reserves, I have the advantage. I also make that system my rally point for new units. As I crank them out, the system gets nastier and nastier, until I launch an offensive.

Better still, hold the choke point with statics and a small fleet, and attack from another angle. A decent choke point is no substitute for a raging fleet behind his lines. Usually there's a back door somewhere, although I had one random map where the only way to enemy territory was through the pirate base !

I don't use repair bays much. Defense against an AI doesn't require them, and a human will either arrive with such a numerical advantage that they won't be much help or they will focus fire them right off the bat. Repair cruisers are a better option by far. I don't want to have to fall back to repair.

I make a small fleet of about 15-20 maybe 25. TEC: 10Colbalts, 2Robotics, 2Cielos, 2-3 Kodiaks. Advent: 10disciples, 1Guardian, 3Dominas, 2-3Destras. Vasari: 8Ravastras, 2Kanrak, 2Subverters, 2Overseers, 2-3Enforcers. NO CARRIERS FOR ALL RACES!!! Place alot of hangers and keep the bomber/fighter ratio 2-2.5:1. Fortify the planet(s) behind the chokepoint enough so about a dozen enemy ships damaged or otherwise are destroyed with ease.

"Chokepoints" are meaningless unless you have phase jump inhibitors. That is really the only requirement for a chokepoint. Otherwise, why would anyone care if someone loaded up a planet or asteroid with the maximum number of tactical guns and hangars? Just bypass it. Besides, chokepoints usually don't defend anything all that important. Moreover, the only important thing to attack, especially early in the game, is the homeworld, not some chokepoint dangling out in space.

I usually align my defenses based on the number of entry points. If im the TEC - shield gen, gravity distortion, 3-4 hangers, 1-2 repair stations, 8-12 turrents.

Half of the hangers are bombers. The main threat to a planet are the siege frigates. The turrents are arrainged close to the planet, but in such a way that they are facing the entry point of the well. Hangers are intermixed with the turrents and backed by the repair station.

Fighters and bombers are positioned away from their hangers and are instead waiting at the entry points. That when once the attack starts they can get in a couple of straff runs before the enemy gets into turrent range.

Depending on the type of attacker a larger planet will hold out for plenty of time and will do a good deal of damage (against the AI ofcourse). Sometimes the enemy will leave once the siege frigates are destroyed - which is basically my bases only aim. Maintain the planet.

Besides reinforcments are on the way

Zero Hero, is right with the culture, being one of the things you need, for a great defense.

But I would add, that culture is the most important defense of any planet. First if you even loss, the enemy can't colonize till your culture is gone. But the most important, is you own culture bounes(or as Zero Hero put it "races benefits"). This is more important late game, where your larger fleets recive a benfits, the most from it.




CaptainPepmus, is wrong, when it comes to this. If you can destroy the enemy fleet, when it attacks one of your world, then it not only reduces the defense power of that enemy, but also the defense power. Fight your enemy when you have the upper hand to destory there fleets. Remember, that if you attack one of your enemys, worlds, THEY have the bounes. All ways attack, will put you in more danager, where your biiger fleet, will lose to a smaller enemy fleet.

In the end, most of every thing we do, is to support the fleet, and your defense should reflect this. That is wht the culture bounes are the most important, as they increase the power of the fleet. The 15% damage increase(for the Vasari) is like adding another ships to your fleet, for ever 8 you have in your fleet(the other ones, are just as powerful).

Another important defense building is the Vasari Nano weapons jammer. It can support, both the defense systems of any world, and your fleet. What it does, when full upgraded, is reduce the fire rate of enemy ships, by 30% and Planetary bombardment by 45%. The reduce rate of fire, of 30% is equal to the redcue in damge of 33% over the same amount of time. This can help your fleet greatly, by reduceing the damage dealt to them.

repair stations loss the power over time, but ever little helps.

PJI help to protect other worlds, as it takes longer for enemy fleets to jump. It alos helps your fleet, as it takes longer for the enemy, to go after them, as well as longer for the enemy to get away.

The best of all the Tactical structures, has to be the Vasari Phase stabilizer. It allows your fleet, to move faster, and to attack alot faster, then you enemy normally sees.

Other defense like hangers and turrents are only good, as defense against Pirates.

I rarely build defense for the purpose of augmenting my fleet. If the enemy has a greater offensive force than me, I'll try to build ships and hit his vulnerable planets instead of engaging him directly.

However, I use defenses to prevent exactly that from happening on my end. The most important key is the phase jump inhibitor- Otherwise the enemy will skirt out of range of your turrets and ignore your hangers. PJIs make them actually pay in blood.

PJIs are also great for securing the soft interior of your empire. The jump delay means you can arrive back at the heart of your empire before the enemy can reach the homeworld or important tech center. It gives you time to build defenses, and makes raids a much more difficult thing to pull off. You can use PJIs to break up reinforcements from a main force and keep the enemy separated.

Since slots are limited, I place one or two guns at each phase lane and do the research to get them upgraded so at last they'll fire every now and then. Then I usually place 10 light frigates and two heavy kodiaks nearby. Small investment, and if you have groups like that protecting each phase lane, then the others rush to help out too.

Later in the game when I have several capital ships, I leave one capital ship to cover each of my key planets along with the mini fleets. I am starting to realize how bloody tough those things really are. Thay can take one hell of a beating (even when shields are down) and dish out worse back. I just dont find the Gauss guns very useful side from drawing fire. Much too slow. The guns and mini fleets are cheap and quickly replaced. If you're concerned and a few of your phase lanes face nasty guys, just kick up the size of the mini-fleets. Having heavy cruisers really help though, so do get the research done quick. Those things are tough and do lots of damage (as you can see I am a TEC fan so far).

Repair hangers backing these guys up always add major toughness to the mini fleets. Dont depend on static defenses to keep your planet in shape. They just arent up to the task by themselves.

I have an every planet 5-10 hangers all with bombers and they can take care of a fleet with two or three caps as laong as there is a pji. single player

It's kind'a sad when building Hangers and turrets are "not worth it". I understand that with chokepoints, making defences too strong can lead to impassable stalemates, but as it is, I wish that when I spent that much time/money/resourses on a planet packed to the rim with defences, that it made an opponent flinch a bit. As it is, Repair bays seem the only thing worth really building; I wish it were otherwise (big space defence guns are my favorite part of most sci-fi movies/games).

Heck, I'd love to see turrets get their range increased 200%, even if it reduced their damage by half. . .