Which Command Stations to use?

[RecursivelyEnumerable]

Hi all,

I was wondering how you guys choose which Command Stations to construct on captured planets.

My dominant strategy in AIW Classic was to build only Military and sometimes Warp Jammer Stations, usually getting the resources I need by upgrading Harvesters to Mark III and buying/capturing Zenith energy collectors. This didn't work for me in AIWII; constructing all the defenses offered by a millie was usually infeasible, and my economy kept tanking despite Metal Generation tech upgrades.

What I've settled on doing at the moment is building Logistical Command Stations everywhere by default, sometimes replacing them with Economicals in very secure locations. I find Loggies are pretty good; they essentially specialize in slowing down enemy units, which they do pretty well, but they also make a significant amount of metal.

How do you do it? What do you think about my strategy? I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions on this matter.

[RocketAssistedPuffin]

I would imagine you know about the Command Augmenters, but if you don't, they add Turrets to every Station, Military getting 2x the amount.

There's some changes in the next update that boosts defenses a bit, and alters the default balance multipliers for Strikecraft (an ongoing experiment) - means you won't be overrun as much by AI waves.

[Democracy? Democracy!]

Personally I use military stations on every planet with a few exceptions.



 All of these planets except for 4 are military stations. Reason being they can hold down the fort most effectively. I find logistics are a bit weak when facing either infinite range waves (snipers and sentinel gunboats) or blitzkrieg strikes (raiders and raptors). As the military stations keep grinding out AI waves independently from my fleets, they level up and make themselves harder to kill.

Why do I do all military?  So I can secure captureables more comfortably. I don't want to loose the major data center that reduces aip by 80, or an intra galactic coordinator that boosts the amount of strikecraft I can bring to bear. Did you have the (dis)pleasure of encountering

Spoiler for Hiden:

wormhole invasions yet? If you don't know what those are, basically the ai for free, gets to choose any planet except your home world to open up an exo galactic wormhole to pour thousands of ships directly onto your planet. Said wormhole invasions tend to target economic stations. So when i do have wormhole invasions running about, I don't have to worry to much if it lands on a military station.

Now the main concern of doing this is the energy and metal costs. Energy is a big concern due to how much energy mass turrets use, especially the beam cannons. That's why I choose to get early economic stations next to my home world, as well as choosing to spawn in a choke point, less areas to defend. Once that energy runs out, I spend 3k science for an energy upgrade, which basically doubles the amount of energy I get. At that point, I also captured 2 Z. Power Gens. So after reaching 2k energy, I hit 3 million in one fell swoop.

For metal, it's just a matter of being patient in the early game really. Wait for metal to build up, counter AI waves as they come, then take the next planet. Eventually, even without to many economic stations, I'll hit critical mass and be able to build without concerns regarding metal spending. Even more so once i capture the Z. Matter Converter.

Logistics I never use. Transport ships are pretty fast on their own so no need for their speed buff, they aren't powerful enough to defend planets without fleet support unlike Military station, and they don't make as much energy as an economic station. Don't get me wrong, logistics has it's uses, it's just to me, they are kinda in the middle ground between defense and economy. But it's worse than either specialized command station.

TL;DR 90% military stations to defend, 10% economy to meet energy demand.