Can someone give me an example of appropriate turreting?

[_K_]

I almost exclusively play singleplayer

Spoiler for Hiden:

Forever alone ;_;

, so i have unlimited pause time at my disposal.
As result, I'm always trying to set my defences in a very orderly, symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing manner. I usually play on simple/realistic map and try not to take too many planets, so I'm forced to spread my defences.
On the screenshot is an average defence line i have on most of my planets that dont get harassed too much.
On their own they can only fend off border aggression, but when the enemy waves come they mostly just support my main fleet.

Also, spoiler on game situation in that screenshot:
I played against 2 lvl8 "All Random" AI's, and rolled The Core and Technologist Raider.
So i was pretty much doomed from the very beginning. Lost the game somewhere around 6:00, after trying to break open an AF system that had been on alert for 5 hours.

[FarAway Warrior]

As was noted above, there's no ideal strategy--a fluid response involves multiple criteria.  But, as a starting point:

• Missile turrets are good for medium-range firepower and can often cover a couple wormholes.  Sniper turrets have less firepower but infinite range, and can serve much the same purpose if wormholes are more spread apart.
• I put a couple Tractor Beam turrets around any Enemy wormhole I think opposing ships might come through.
• I often build extra turrets after a specific wave announcement arrives--so long as you have the resources, you'll have plenty of time to build them.
• I also like Minefields, just as a cheap deterrent.

In general, you want to manage the number of enemy wormholes that might throw a wave at you.  This is done through conquering adjacent planets and/or gate raids--whichever seems prudent, given the AI progress implications and the overall strategic situation.

[Silver]

The biggest help to me personally was learning to defend BOTH sides of a wormhole(I learned this from Lois McMaster Bujold). Meaning, you build a bunch of turrets, tractor beams and possibly a FF or two on your side, then take out the biggest threats on the other side and rush some mobile builders and engineers in there.

 Get a FF(possibly more than one as they are absurdly, incredibly good) right next to the wormhole to force a fight there. I will usually get 30-40 of the basic turrets (MLRS, Basic, Sniper, etc.) and place them around the forcefield. Naturally, if it's very late game, you'll want to max out the number of turrets and always run with a heavy escort(non-frd since you want your ships fighting near your turrets).

Ideally, do this on a world that has a Drill(make sure to NOT take over the world, as the AI will destroy the drill!). Other things that help: Black Hole Gen under the FF's (keep in mind a few ship types are immune to this so it's not a 100% guarantee), Armor Inhibitor, Spider Turrets/ Riot ships to slow down the biggest threats and possibly some mines on your side of the wormhole (by "some", I mean 50-100+).

You can even put a logistics station on the friendly side of the hole to make sure you can get reinforcements there asap. The resources lost from this are negligible compared to the benefits.

[Wanderer]

The biggest help to me personally was learning to defend BOTH sides of a wormhole(I learned this from Lois McMaster Bujold). Meaning, you build a bunch of turrets, tractor beams and possibly a FF or two on your side, then take out the biggest threats on the other side and rush some mobile builders and engineers in there.

Out of curiousity, what do you use for wave defense then, since a decent portion of your defenses will be ignored?  Waves spawn either spawn directly on a wormhole in a Player system, or spawn as threat out in the nether regions, and will try to move around your defenses.

[Silver]

I take out the warp gate in the "hostile" system where most of my defenses are. This leaves the waves that spawn from the destruction of a warp-counter-guardpost-thing (I usually take my main fleet or a hive golem to deal with them) and those sneaky warp guardians (usually not much of a threat). As far as the larger waves that don't warp in, I try to setup this duo-wormhole defense at a massive chokepoint to force an engagement.

It can sort of be done at 2-3 chokes at the same time, but I find spreading my defenses any thinner than that late-game ends badly.

[MordredofFairy]

I tend to use one "choke" system with 3 warps as Fortress World.

One of the warps goes to my cluster of home system+economy colonies, however small that may be.
One of the warps goes off to whereever i need to expand/go.

One of the warps goes to a low-level(MK1 or MK2) border world that will be the _ONLY_ world bordering one of mine with an intact warp gate.
That means all normal waves will be funneled into this world, and all CPA's or other attacks will also need to pass here to get at my juicy backlands.

This allows me to HEAVILY fortify this system, usually with a Logistics 3 station, Black Hole Machine, Planetary Armor Booster+Inhibitor, Radar Jammer MK2, full caps of turrets, several force fields, Spirecraft Attritioners and Siege Towers and a Fortress or 2(in Low-Power Mode until needed). I don't even use "grav turrets" in this, as i feel like cheating the pathfinding AI when doing so, but still, normally it holds it's own...if i find a golem of lesser utility in my situation, it goes there as well. Due to the waves incoming, it's also a nice place for a botnet golem.
Also, this allows me to fully utilize my fleet for offensive operations elsewhere in the galaxy and not having to run back every time the AI starts one of their shenanigans.

[Shrugging Khan]

Strategically, I divide my total available turrets by the number of planets in need of them, then just spread them evenly all over the place. When I need more, I unlock some. This way, I have a uniform defence at every planet, the strengths and weaknesses of which are readily apparent by observing how other planets with the same setup deal with various incursions.

Tactically, I keep everything closely together so as to conentrate firepower, sacrificing the local resource in exchange for not bothering with wormhole defence or incurring AIP by having to kill warp gates in order to close down wormholes.

So, say that I have five planets. Every system gets two hardened and two unhardened FFs, 20 turrets of every type including Basic mkIIs and mkIIIs, 24 sniper turrets, 10 lightning and flak turrets and a counter-sniper turret just in case.

As AIP increases, I unlock more turret types in response to the AIs ship selection. But this whole FF/Turret setup is really just meant to repel small-scale attacks and harmless waves; heavy assaults will usually be ground down by roaming patrols, Dyson Gatlings, Golem-Generated Zombies, Human Resistance Fighters, or hastily-produced militias. I don't really put the main fleet on defensive duty unless I actually lose a frontier world or two.

[Ktoff]

Another helpful point (especially in view of K's image above) is that I find symmetrical placement around wormholes counterproductive even if its pretty:

When AI ships enter your planet they usually have a preferred direction (e.g. the station or another wormhole leading to a core world). When you place the turrets in the direction of the anticipated movement, they can cover the enemy ships for a longer time. Especially turrets placed "behind" the wormhole, will otherwise be out of range pretty quickly.

edit: how the *%& did I get into this old thread?!

[Kahuna]

Check out these.
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11937.msg128188.html#msg128188
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11391.msg116662.html#msg116662

[Lancefighter]

I believe chris once said "take the number of turrets you expect to need, and multiply that number by 5".

Nowadays I dont really place less than 25 of each turret type on a planet..