What difficulty to try?

[Tridus]

there's a level 1 planet with a level IV ion cannon right next to my homeworld, will try to see if I can capture it for defense against upcoming hordes.

If it's on your defensive line that might be worthwhile, but generally I think people don't go in much for capturing ion cannons anymore.  Depends on how easy it is in a given case, I suppose

Have fun storming the castle!

I'm also still a relatively new player (in that I don't play very often), but I've had a lot of fun capturing Ion Cannons and throwing down a millitary command station next to it. Particularly a mark IV one, because most AI ships simply can't survive a blast from it and with the millitary station teleporting them away when they try to attack it, the thing becomes deadly.

Obviously there's some stuff that can ignore that and it's not an impenetrable defense, but its pretty funny watching waves run in and get teleported around constantly while being picked off by the Ion Cannon. You can also thow a forcefield in to help defend it, as neither the insta kill or the teleporting shot effect are affected.

[zoutzakje]

I always wondered if the EMP guardians purposely seek out important targets (large fleets, worlds with advanced factories etc...) or just go straight for a random human world.
When I see one appear at a a wormhole I always assume the worst and pull back half of my fleet to avoid being wiped out, the other half usually handles the guardian.
They never seem to come alone though...

for as far as I know, EMP guardians only attack when you trigger them. For example, you're attacking a world with an EMP guardian, but your fleet gets destroyed or you have to retreat for whatever reason. Then it's possible you alerted the EMP guardian into leaving it's post, causing it to stalk a wormhole leading into one of your planets (threat). Then it just waits for an opportunity to attack. This is why I always check what kind of enemies there are on the planet before I attack. Destroying EMP guardians is one of my highest priorities and I always make sure they're dead before I retreat or get wiped out. Haven't had any trouble with them for a very long time now.
They don't seem to be joining in exo's either, so that's lucky.

[madcow]

I'm up to 2 hours of ingame time (which probably took at least twice as long considering how often I like pausing). I've explored one side of my map completely, and have found nothing really worth taking there, beyond one system that had both an ARS and an armored golem on it. Grabbed the station (got spire gravity ships), and just activated the golem. There's no real reason to keep the system, so I'm probably just going to order a full retreat once I strip mine all the asteroids for some penetrators and not sure what low-level spireships I'll make. Incidentally on that planet there was some sort of AI-reinforcement increaser, which my ships automatically blew up, making me eat 10-AI progress, oh well - life goes on.

I'm thinking maybe of starting my own "after action" report to update my newbish gameplay if people are interested!

Edit: I'm playing on hard golems, medium spire, but I haven't seen any of these alleged super waves yet. So clearly its nothing for me to be worried about later on.

[zoutzakje]

Feel free to post an After Action Report (AAR), it's always interesting to see what strategies other people use. More experienced players occasionally drop by and give advice to you. Plus it could be useful for new players as well. Reading AAR's can give people ideas of what to try or not to try.

And if you're playing with golems hard, you WILL get to see exo waves soon. You're only 2 hours ingame yet and I don't know how high your AIP is. The higher your AIP, the faster these exo waves will build up and the bigger they get.
Don't worry about it to much though. If you're playing a 7/7 game, your first few exo's shouldn't be to much trouble to deal with. Just make sure your homeworld is well protected before the wave hits (you get plenty of time when the wave warning arrives).