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Good stuff, I mean really good stuff here. Thought I'd add more:
Forts have high firepower compared to their research cost, and have wonderful range. However, they are very costly in terms of energy and resources. Forts make poor border defenses because their firepower messes with border aggression leading to the AI eventually sending an overwhelming mass of non-wave units to take out the fort. They benefit REALLY well from higher MK levels in terms of damage. They also benefit from slowing down the enemy.
Since forts spread their damage across multiple units automatically, they make poor lone defenders because while they damage a lot, they don't kill necessarily quickly unless they get help.
Forts are good targets for micromanagement if you like everything about them except their energy. If you have 5 up, you don't to keep all 5 powered at once. You can turn some of them off, and rotate which ones are on power depending on where the enemy is.
For my personal use, I use forts as "core defenders", meaning I place them on worlds that border my own homeworld. That's just me though. I like it because:
-They can stay low power for most of the game
-They aren't used every hour, so they don't get damaged and replaced too frequently.
-They stomp any raider groups who'll try to slip in and sneakily attack your homeworld (you gotta remember to turn the forts on though)
-Prevents border aggression problems
-Buys you precious time in case your own fleet is far away so not on hand to help out, allowing your homeworld to make reinforcements itself to defend with.
As for military com stations, here is my take:
Military stations translocate enemies. In my experience, MK I can hold off 25 enemies away forever, MK II can hold off 50, and MK III can hold off 100. In a extended fight (longer then minute) the higher stations will keep flinging units, so you may have a MK III fling over 200 units away during a battle. This effect is devastating against small groups of AI, and an MK II or III station can hold off moderate border agression on its own. Against large waves, the effect is noticeable, but not decisive.
Military stations also boost friendly firepower, including units and turrets (but not forts, golem. Fallen Spire craft are capped at 1.2x damage). If your world has quite a few turrets, or if you routinely use your fleets to help this planet in defense, then military stations are the best in aiding the fighting directly. A 50% increase in damage correlates to the firepower of a unit going 50% higher in tech, so a MK II missile turret unboosted becomes a MK III turret in damage after the boost.
If you like these benefits, get the higher mk verisons. They do everything the MK I does, but with higher range and ability. They also off SIGNIFICANT increases in resources if you don't use econ stations, and I find that resource boost critical as to why I unlock them early on.
