I would like to see a new in game option to “glass” a planet to keep the enemy from colonizing it. I play as the Vasari and fight defensive actions with carrier battlegroups while my main fleet is away in any of the four other systems. I tend to play on huge random maps which means i can only maintain a small defensive force.
You
do realize that you’re, in the great words of Anonymous, “not doin’ it right,” correct?
If this is truly a non-front-line system, your best bet is always to turn all it’s tactical slots into Hangars, fill them with Fighters, and keep a small, mobile anti-frigate force (Scout Frigates, interestingly enough) for fast-reaction into the rear when you have a Siege Incursion. Against roving incursion fleets of frigates, this method will chew them up in horrible, painful ways, very likely before they can actually clear out of the system in hit-and-run. If they do, they can either jump deeper into your controlled territory (where you have more Fighter bays and, thus, 200% damage against them) or out, where you really don’t care.
There’s a rather nice colour-coded ship damage/armour chart that was posted to threads earlier I keep handy for just such occasions.. Really, though, the best bits to know by heart are “Fighters and Scouts trump Sieges” and “Flack trumps disturbing amounts of Fighters, Bombers, and — strangely — LRM Frigates.” The rest is very intuitive.
Oh, yes, and before I close, I’d like to point out that, especially in large maps, glassing planets you could be getting tax income from and tampering with the metal/crystal market with is suicidal. Glassing your expanding front would be butchering your resource base and you’ll get ground out in short order. That’s no way to canalize your enemy to places you want them.
