Trying to get a good starting build

[Tyladhras]

I generally seem to struggle in the first half hour of a game when early AI raiding parties hit my homeworld and blow up my extractors before I've really gotten anywhere.  Does anyone have any ideas for quickly setting up a pretty solid defence within the first 10 minutes or so?

[Spikey00]

Depends on your tactics.

I usually build one tractor turret on each wormhole for starters and then work it from there with mobile forces set on FRD.  I usually tech straight for bombers, and thus building MK3s, along with quick starships.  Groups of five basic turrets over each wormhole also help a bit, but early game I'm mainly focusing on expanding, using that extra crystal to build forcefields over my quick expansions, and then start to develop my fleet and defenses afterward.

[Tyladhras]

Cool.  As a rule of thumb I either turtle completely or not at all in most strategy games so I either spend all my starting resources on turrets (cause I'm paranoid) or I have no defences what-so-ever.  Although maybe just the tractor beams could be a good compromise.  Thanks.

[Vinraith]

I tend to turtle up a bit more than Spikey, but try not to get too excessive since obviously early waves are pretty small. Typically I'll build five tractor turrets and five of some attack turret (often MLRS) just to keep things contained, then go to producing ships.

[Spikey00]

Well, the main idea for my quick pushing again is to a) increase economy quickly and easily because there won't be too many AI ships initially unless you let them reinforce, b) place the new command station near your home planet wormhole, then place a forcefield so that it both functions as protection and to block AI ships from traveling to your home planet.  This will allow you to focus more on mobile forces that you should use to defend the new colonies so that you gain even greater firepower when you attack again.

The one tractor beam is to mainly trap border aggression from making a mess of your harvesters.

[Vinraith]

Well, the main idea for my quick pushing again is to a) increase economy quickly and easily because there won't be too many AI ships initially unless you let them reinforce, b) place the new command station near your home planet wormhole, then place a forcefield so that it both functions as protection and to block AI ships from traveling to your home planet.  This will allow you to focus more on mobile forces that you should use to defend the new colonies so that you gain even greater firepower when you attack again.

The one tractor beam is to mainly trap border aggression from making a mess of your harvesters.

And that's perfectly sound, it just involves a somewhat more frantic/aggressive start than I'm comfortable with.  The point about covering entry wormholes from the other side is an important one to make, that trick is one of the best ways to secure your home system early on and does tend to turn a good offense into the best defense.

[Spikey00]

Heh, yeah.  But it also depends on your starting ship too--if you have teleportation units, then defense is definitely going to be more easier.  If you have incredible units such as spy planes, then you can just border up your planet with defenses and destroy the command stations of all planets around you with ease before you mass-capture.

There are a lot of starting techniques, but I'm as you say, way more offensive than defense. 

[Vinraith]

Heh, yeah.  But it also depends on your starting ship too--if you have teleportation units, then defense is definitely going to be more easier.  If you have incredible units such as spy planes, then you can just border up your planet with defenses and destroy the command stations of all planets around you with ease before you mass-capture.

There are a lot of starting techniques, but I'm as you say, way more offensive than defense. 

Yeah, one of the great things about this game is how dramatically differently it can play depending on what you start with, what the AI starts with, and your initial setup conditions. I should probably be more adaptive to that than I generally am, but then I'm only on my fourth game.

[Tyladhras]

Well, off to a much better start this time.  I only lost one extractor (as opposed to most of them) after they swarmed one particular wormhole.

Some really good ideas in there guys.  Thanks very much.  I'm going to have a lot of fun playing around with this stuff.

[HellishFiend]

Harvester exo-forcefields are a good choice if you find yourself losing extractors a lot. Often it just depends on what kind of ships the AI is using, so you dont need to feel like you fail at defense just because your extractors keep getting attacked. There are a lot of creative ways you can defend, so the best thing to do might be just to pause it and take a look at your options based on what the AI is using against you.

[Tyladhras]

Yeah, I had a look at the force fields.  I don't generally like the idea of spending continuous resources on maybe losing an extractor when I can potentially stop the AI getting to them altogether.  They're a nice idea but they don't strike me as hugely efficient.

[HellishFiend]

I agree. In fact I've never used harvester exo force fields. However, I can see their strategic use in scenarios where it would be more knowledge and resource efficient to use them instead of the necessary amount of turrets and/or ships to accomplish the same thing (preventing the destruction of your extractors).

[Lancefighter]

Now, if they micromanaged themselves and only were on if there were enemies in the system........

[Spikey00]

Now, if they micromanaged themselves and only were on if there were enemies in the system........

That would definitely be helpful, but to be honest I don't really mind the harvesters getting shot up, maybe because I'm a masochist or probably because of the constant resource cost.

[Tyladhras]

Maybe something to put in the next patch - would certainly make them a viable option.