How well defended should your Home planet be in the beginning stages of the game?

depends on the map size. but generally, in the first few minutes you won't be attack, bc. either the enemy doesn't even know exactly where you are or you are too far away. going halfway across a map takes time and if you need to pass through militia crowded wells, you take dmg. add to that the fact that you should be able to return your fleet fairly quickly from nearby systems, since you won't be too far off early on, and there is not much point in any special kind of defenses at your hw. most of the time anyway.

usually you dont defend your homeworld unless you are losing. Even then the best you can hope for is a stalemate should the enemy come.  You need 100% of your fleet there few repairs and as many hangers with fighters as possible if you plan on surviving.  The extra 10 tactical slots your homeworld coems with is really handy for this!

Likes others said the first while anyways you dont really need to leave anything there the only exception is pirate raids if you are the target. The AI my current game has out bid me at the last moment putting a higher bounty on my head.

Anytime your are at least 2 jumps away from your home world and lack major structural defense like lots of beams and hangers you should keep at least a small defensive force in orbit even if only as a delaying tactic till you fleet can come back.

The best defense is a good scouting. If you scout the nearby systems, and nothing is there, why bother? It's a waste of fleet resources to sit around defending against nothing.

If you catch an incoming fleet a few systems away, don't wait for them to come. Take them out!

you shouldnt really, you soon learn its kind of pointless.

I tend to leave me home planet unprotected.  I usually start building defenses once I've encountered an enemy - usually after I have 3 planets.  Only the planet that is is on the outside of my grid needs to be defended provided it can serve as a choke point - so I start defenses from this point forward.

The only way I bother defending my home planet is if I am facing TEC and it's late game - since they can send insugurgents to attack.

I never defend my home planets. I expand aggressively then bunker down. Early on I have 12 planets when all others (I play AI) have 3 or 4 and by the time they have full I'm defending a few choke points. TBH if you're playing AI as long as you treat them nce and watch the bounty you won't need to defend at all till late game.

Made a full game using only ten Cobalts and an Akkan from the start

Do you bother with Gauss platforms?

I play on custom maps, so that I am the only one in my system. Anyway, I don't think that you really need defenses for your Homeworld because by the time the enemy reaches you they would have to go through all your other planet's first.

Samurye.

I usally use them as a defense close to other structures like research or ship building.

They are good only that they can at least slow down a few enemy and it clustered close so that thier range over laps they are not to bad but still easy to move around and ignore or pick off one at a time.

I was referring to opening/beginning moves where you're just about to start leaving your home. But you're right once you have other planets, they pretty much act as choke points against intruders. Thanks.

Obviously, all of this is assuming that its at least a medium map. If your homeworld is right next door to the enemy's, then you should try to get at least one repair platform and hangar up pretty quickly.