Station LRM frigates or Kodiaks with the Intercept ability. Both will help pick off fleets.

The TEC cap ship with Ion Cannon is great for preventing a single ship from jumping out. This won't do much to stop an entire fleet, but it lets you pick off a cap ship with ease.

PJI's don't do enough to stop them bypassing systems, especially heavy cruisers which have a ton of health + intercept, they can just run through to your back systems and kill orbitals

And no haven't really found a counter other than mass hangar defences at every world and seperate fleets of LRMs/carriers but the best option is just to go on the offensive, it's next to impossible to stop harassment without splitting up your fleets many times and then unless you harass yourself then he's already got the advantage.

The problem was that it was a map that I set up with few planets. The chokepoints were the star, asteroid belts and nebulas, so the Ion Cannon wouldn't have worked everywhere.

When the enemy jumps in, he more or less immediately was able to move forward, while my fleet slowly reacted and turned. By the time it was chasing the enemy fleet, they were already at the border of the gravity well. And with gamespeed on 'slow', they were also able to jump at once.

It's a bit strange that we have movement limited to phase lanes, creating chokepoints - and then can't use these chokepoints properly to blockade enemy movement.

Hanger Defense are great and should readily deal with this sort of harrassment. A regular fleet does struggle and that is why once I get a capital ship fleet going I try to get at least one carrier included. The speed and responsiveness of the bombers and fighters is great, espcially for the Advent. Also, don't underestimate the value of building your planetery shelters to give the yourself enough time to react, whether with hangers or a portion of your fleet.

the problem here is that your planets need defenses

if you "know" which planets are on a posible bypassed route make sure u have 2 or 3 hangars there

some gunz wont do bad either

this wil especialy pay of when u are fighting a TEC, since the rebel spawn tech can be pretty anoying (mostly more destructive then the TEC fleet itself, if not prepared)

Right - you CANNOT set up or use choke points, so don't even try. It's simply not the game dynamic they were trying to create, strangely enough.

You have been given advice on using fighters, however on a recent thread I discussed my experience in trying to use fighters, including going advent (with carrier), obtaining and upgrading hangers, etc. They won't stop the siege frigates from getting to your planets, nuking them, and then leaving, so don't go that route.

Someone else here suggested planetary defenses, however that's incorrect too. Planetary defenses are just weak - that's obvious. A developer stated on this forum that this was by design - he said moderate defenses were just enough to stopping a few thin pirate raids, but that's it.

I think the game dynamic they've forced you into is to be mega-offensive with your ships. Just be super-mobile - think of yourself as a migrating type of society that is always on the move. Don't build defenses - carry colony ships with you to plop down new colonies as they take out your old ones. Build your own siege frigates to bomb him as he bombs you, etc. Doesn't suit me, personally, but if you want to stick with the game, you can try it and see if you like it.

I find this really annoying too. The computer would send a scout through my systems and even with my entire fleet shooting it, it still manages to get away past the planetary defenses and all that jazz.

Really need to do something about it

I agree with mnikkel. I usually reserve all slots for front line planets for hangars or turrets. fully upgraded tec gauss cannons set properly, or the advent hangars crewed with three wings will chew through small groups of ships.

Two hangars won't do it on front line planets, it's just not enough firepower.

i tried cannons, did not like them. range is not good enough. too easy to avoid for enemy. Fighters hangars filled with bombers are the best defense from what i noticed because they cover all the map and instead of spreading few cannons here and there, all of them always work. Couple cap ships with few cruisers can easily defend planet that covered like that. Just need to make sure you have upgraded health of the planet and did all upgrades to give yourself time to wipe the enemy before they kill your planet.

If you're playing the computer, you can usually just set up the guns to do a massive amount of damage clumped up together. Still, I usually go for bombers, they upgrade with the rest of the ships. A fully upgraded TEC bomber squad is just nasty. Fifteen of them makes it incredibly risky to enter the area.

If you're going up against another human being, definitely need to go all bombers.

With Vasari, you can use 10 tactical slots for the stabilizer, and have a single defense fleet to move around. That's probably the best defense around.