I had the 2nd planet early on. But I hadn't expanded beyond that.
Okay, that's still a problem but not nearly as serious. There are two reasons to stop your expansion:
A ) there is no room left to expand
B ) you're diverting your resources to actively fighting an enemy
Remember, if you stop expansion to build a fleet, you should be actively fighting (or at very least
threatening your opponent) with that force. Building a fleet and then doing nothing with it is suicide.
I guess I'm concerned if I expand too quickly, then I will get attacked be back down to one planet
While that is a concern you need to be mindful of, you're stopping
way too early. The way to think about this is to ask yourself, am
I close enough to attack my opponent? If you're too far away to attack him, then he's too far away to attack you, and you're better off growing and consolidating to prepare for the fight.
Once you're in a position where you could be doing be doing battle with him, you can slow down your colonization and start "fleeting up". However, you don't stop on a dime, you continue to advance towards the enemy and try to hit him hard.
On the typical randomly generated 1v1 map I'm usually launching my first attacks around the 20-minute mark and usually have the AI wrapped up around the 40-minute mark (I play unfair difficulty, by the way). That's fast game speed, but it still gives you an idea of the kind of pacing you need to keep.
I'm trying to figure out the right balance between leaving my planet w/ defenses, having enough ships to defend the home planet, and a sizable enough force to go out and obtain new planets.
Most of your backwater planets will never see a major battle, and that includes your homeworld in many cases. Investing in static defenses here is usually a waste of money, since many will never get to fire a single shot, and even if they do they might be destroyed before backup arrives, which doesn't do any good either.
The bottom line is that the
only defense is a mobile fleet that can respond to any threat on any planet. You can always bolster up your front-line with defenses (since it will regularly see action) but if it's not a front-line planet don't sink cash into defenses there.
Similarly, it's usually a bad idea to leave units idle. Instead, rely on your scouts to give you the heads up of an encroaching enemy. This will allow you to get existing units into position
before the enemy hits. It's win-win; these units are out doing your dirty work for you, but on a moment's notice they can be called back to defend.
I'm still having problems maintaining enough logistics slots. Perhaps I'm building too many structures around my initial, home planet.
Your homeworld should have a frigate factory, capital shipyard (you can probably scuttle that once you're done), and two labs. You should colonize an asteroid and a full-sized planet within the first ten minutes and continue to move on. That should give you 5 labs by the 10-minute mark, which is sufficient for any early-game purpose. If you absolutely need to buy a logistics upgrade, then bite the cost and do it. It's something you avoid if you can, but if you need the logistics then you don't have much choice in the matter.
Try to build frigate factories on the front-line. Particularly on maps like these your homeworld can easily become backwater, and building units there is a waste of time since they have to meander their way to the front lines. Leaving a factory on your homeworld isn't a bad idea, persay, but two or three is a problem. If your homeworld is near the front-line, however, it's a
very good idea to have multiple frigate factories there.
I always send out two scouts immediately in the beginning and usually have them running continuously so I know how the others are doing.
I usually use 4-6, but that's the right approach, you just need a couple more.
Are the flight decks which let you build a small fighter/bomber squadron worth building?
Without Entrenchment, that's a solid
NO. The mobile carriers (both cruiser and capital ship) are very effective, but the immobile hanger is a waste of time.
Does setting up a trade port help you w/in your own empire even if none of the computer "players" don't trade w/you? Should I worry about the black market at this point?
You don't need a trading partner to build a trade network. Trade is a great way to boost your credit income, but you need to build a trade route. That means setting up multiple trade ports in a line. Each additional link in the chain raises the income of every existing trade port.
As for the black market, that's a definite yes. If you're suffering a chronic excess or shortage of one particular resource, then buy/sell it. Don't use the black market as a tool of convenience, use it to correct income imbalances only. The black market rate is essentially a scam, but if you have 2000 metal sitting around doing nothing, selling it is pretty much all you can do.
One other question regarding structure building. When I capture a new planet. The ship that builds structures doesn't seem to phase jump between planets, how come?
Construction frigates cannot phase jump. Each planet maintains its own constructors and they cannot be sent to build elsewhere.
Regarding the mining of asteroids from a neutral system. I did it once by accident, but forgot how.
Colony frigate for TEC and Advent. If you're playing as Vasari, it's your scout.
has already planted their metal/crystal mines in one of these neutral asteroid zones, does the TEC have a ship which would allow me to take over those facilities w/out having to destroy them and build my own on those asteroids?
Doesn't matter if they've been claimed by someone else, a colony frigate can still capture them for you. This makes these neutral extractors easy to capture... and easy to lose.
