Battlestations and citadels - how do people use them?

[kmunoz]

As it asks on the tin: how do people use these units? I'm not really finding a place to fit them into my game flow, except as extra turrets. I know there've been discussions about trying to make them a bit more distinctive, but they've been around long enough in their current form that there must be something they do that is worthwhile as it stands. I've seen some suggestions on mantis and here for how to change them up a bit, but here I'm really interested in knowing how they work *right now.*

[I-KP]

While we're here, Battlestations and Citadels that have Engineers on their build roster never seem to construct them. Support Factories do. (Support Factories are amazingly good with their fleets of Combat Engineers. I find these to be of much greater value than Battlestations and Citadels.)

The unique selling point, as far as I understand it, is that Battlestations and Citadels can build turrets on worlds not owned. Aside from BSs and Cs never building their Engineers to assist in such construction, I've never really found that ability to be all that useful. It's not a terrible ability, and I'd much rather they retain it than lose it, but it does feel like BSs and Cs aren't especially valuable and I'd never go for one of those if getting a new fleet is possible (or a Support Factory).

[Asteroid]

I always use them in the offensive and I find that they often make all the difference between being able to tackle a planet or not. They're especially powerful when they have sniper or spider turrets which you can quietly build on the side with a bunch of combat engineers assisting. It's a huge amount of firepower that can reach everywhere on the battlefield. Once I build those I start creeping/leapfrogging forward with shorter-range turrets which I build right in the middle of my other ships.

You can also effectively defend a system with them early game when the base turret selection for stations is pretty bad, which could allow you to build an early economic station somewhere while still having powerful defenses.

The AI hates them however and tends to focus fire them, which makes them hard to keep alive (could be used as a distraction though). They were nerfed a few versions ago so their turrets would stop building if they're crippled, so perhaps this has made them too weak. Haven't played much since that change.

[Pat]

It's helps defend your values too, like when you have a single Zenith Power Generator because the frakkin Trader hasn't visited for 6 hours..

I always use them in the offensive

Oh, I have to try beachheading again, might be more efficient than throwing a big ball of metal everytime