How many of those turrets would you like?

Depends on my situation and what I'm defending against.  The best defensive structure is, hands down, the repair bay.  Not only does it improve every other defensive structure by making them harder to kill, but it also provides a place where you can retreat a damaged fleet or capital ship to be repaired.

I usually don't use turrets.  The reason is that their range is poor and they are too easy to go around or just kill with long range units.  They're not worth their heavy price.  I use them to defend repair bays and other key structures; on their own they are practically worthless.

 

Couldn't be more true.  While you occasionally get a random map with some very tight chokes, most of the time it's not possible to create an adequate defense on all your borderline planets, so without a good offensive to keep the enemy's main fleet pinned down you're going to get outflanked and annihilated.

 

Oh definitely!  The AI has a bad habit of running head-first into your defenses.  While in Entrenchment it finally learned to move its fragile siege frigates around your planet to a defenseless angle, it still rushes into tightly packed static defense rather than staying back and pounding them from afar.  Because of this, against a player you need to spend more frugally and rely on your fleet more for defense.  This also applies to starbases.  You can pack a starbase with attack and defense upgrades against an AI and it will run straight into its lethal gunfire, while a player will sit back and never give it the chance to fire a shot.

Hold position + LRF=Win. You should be able to figure this one out.

Thanks Darvin!

wasp, where is the hold position button again?

In the fleet behavior menu (you don't need use fleets to do this) there is a button that lets you toggle the targeting AI of your units.  One open is "hold ground" (the unit won't move unless ordered to), the second is "local area" (the unit will only move to attack units within a short range of its current position), and the default is "gravity well" (move and attack anything in the gravity well).

I typically use local area most of the time, so that units like guardians don't go running off from the rest of my army because they want to attack a scout.

Oh, I see! Thank you very much. ^^

You can do it with SP too.Thats useful against strutures and as a defensive option with hangers (maybe not sb though , sb squads i use mostly in a offensive manner)

Anyway , back to turrets:I usually put them to cover all the gravity well (if lots of tact slots). You can put them round your stuctures and bunch them all together(good against vas. bad against advent).This tactic is good when you have those phase lock thingys.Anyway theres waaaay more but you can figure it out for yourself pretty fast.

Sounds cool. I have gotten to the tactic of placing a repair bay facing the phase lane adjacent to possible enemy entry, covered by 3 turrets, and the planet would have 2 fighter bays. What do ya'll think?

Against a computer that's a decent stall, but comps are finally smart with seige frigates, they'll just go around. That's what you'd need the fighter bays for (and only get fighters, bombers are good agaisnt HC and Capital only, if the comp brings Cap and HC, ur stationary defences aren't enough to hold anyway).

For the record, I don't like stationary defense, but if you're going to use it, get the upgrade for the turrets. TEC get missiles. Vasari get nanite that stop passive regeneration. Advent get more damage and shields based on how clustered they are.

The upgrade for the hangar bays isn't bad either.

Everyone talks about how a well balanced fleet tends to be better than spamming any one unit (in most cases, stay with me here).  I think the same applies to defensive structors around a planet, at least against the AI.

Computer: As TEC and Advent I like to build my defence structures around my starbase.  I put repair platforms so the starbase is just barely in their range, and then I place point-defence platforms right around them to help defend them during an attack (make sure to protect the planet with Aux Government or Enduring Devotion via the starbase).  Point defences can't do it on thier own, but niether can any other structure.

As Vasari I place point defences as close to the planet as possible, going around the planet, so that the entire "surface" of the planet is within range of one.  This protects the planet against AI-owned siege frigates and pirates, but little else.  Usually 6-8 'guns' will cover the planet; only 2-3 are needed for asteroids.

Human: Against the AI, on any level, a well balanced mix of point-defence, hangars, and repair platforms will do, especially if you mix them in with a starbase.  Against a human opponent... good luck.  Unlike our unfriendly dunce of an AI, a Human opponents can learn, and come up with a solution to any stragety.  An Advent player could culture you out, Vasari could skip to anywhere else they want (or launch their own SB against you), and the TEC could come in with a missile-barraging marza and a buttload of orogov's and hoshikos (a few basics just for starters).  Against humans, you need to be as adaptive as your enemy, you might even need to scuttle/change you defences midgame.  There is no one best trick.