How do you keep golems away from your Homeworld?

[ShiroIchida]

So, I was playing a game with a couple of friends. We had a fortress planet a couple of jumps South of our homeworlds (we all started next to each other) and were expanding North. The only issue is that we had Spirecraft 3 on, and occasionally a golem would appear and start trashing everything in the fortress system, but we were able to take down 2 armored golems (one of them did actually punch through and manage to trash my homeworld but we still had 1 left). The third golem that came through, though, was a Black Widow golem and instead of fighting, it just charged straight to our last remaining homeworld and lost us the game.

How do you prevent this? Actually alpha-ing the golem as it jumps in would require a ludicrous amount of firepower, but other than that I can't figure out how to keep it from just running through the system and simply ignoring your defenses. I had a Black Hole anti-escape thingiemabobber up, but it doesn't work on Golems. We had implosion ships there (we parked them there after the first armored golem) and we might have been able to take it, but it was super fast and...yeah.

So, what were we missing? Is there a good way to keep an enemy golem to hang around to fight, or if there isn't how do you deal with a super-fast golem just charging straight on through?

[chemical_art]

To beat golems requires units able to beat their high firepower and durability. No reasonable defense grid can handle a golem supported by a tender feelt.

So first thing I would suggest is to not just rely on defenses. Exo-wavs are super waves: You need both a fleet and defenses to counter them.

The one golem that will beat you without planning is the botnet golem. If you rush your fleet over to it quite soon you will see that fleet controlled by the AI heading toward your home. You must either out range them (bombards work great) or use units immune to reclaimation (starships, some fleet ships) otherwise they zombie you.

A cap of bombers is the usual solution for most other golems. Even 3 armor golems can't stand up to a I - III cap of bombers.

[Commiesalami]

If you happen to be lucky and have captured a Decoy Fabricator, A single decoy ship will shut down a botnet golem in its entirety without taking any damage.  (The hard part is keeping the decoy alive from the rest of the exo-galactic wave).

As for a golem rushing your Homeworld, My defense lines (Typically 3 systems) all have logistical stations & Zenith Time manipulators.  I'm not sure if the logistical stations slow down enemy golems at all but the stations plus Manipulators will allow your bombers and the like to keep up to the golem to pound it down.

[Philo]

I have realized there is only one single right answer for countering exo waves. Get golems of your own, nothing else is really guaranteed to work. A fully loaded Hive golem will obiliterate ANY amount of wave that comes in. An Armored golem will kill of the small troops so your fleet can concentrate on the big ones. Artillery Golems are nasty too but require micro to keep them alive since they are so fragile. As for the other golems, haven't experimented with them enough yet.

[Orelius]

Fun fact:  AI Botnet Golems have only a measly 3.6 million hp.  This means you can easily go snipe it out with a handful of bomber, siege, and fleet starships in a matter of seconds.

[keith.lamothe]

Are you folks seeing Botnet golems in exo-waves?  I thought I intentionally made them ineligible for picking for those due to the major spike in difficulty they would pose compared to even the (rather beefy) Armored golem.

The AI can still get them if it's a golemite, and possibly a few other ways that I'm not remembering offhand.

[Orelius]

I've never seen a botnet golem in any wave whatsoever, just lots of 250 million hp armored golems =\.

I don't think I've ever seen an AI botnet golem outside of playing against golemites/

[Commiesalami]

I've never seen one in a wave.  But i have accidentally riled one or two and had them go on the offensive.