What are military bases for?

No you can not directly attack anything with them. However, at the farthest that I have gotten before winning in the game the stats of the military starbase were like:
26 26 26 (B / M / MD)
15 15 15 (BD / MD / MDD)

As well as:
+5 to your ships attacks in the starbases sphere of influence.
+1 speed to your ships " "
+10 defense to your ships " "

Add that up to a medium ships with pulse lasers and mass drivers that are possibly second generation so you have at best a 4 to 6 in either category with minimal defenses you get a pretty damn good set of odds on your side when an other than good intent civ tries to take you out or... if your like me, just before you go and take them out set up a couple in their area with a mass constructor attack! (yes I know, they cannot attack but boy, when you build a military starbase in their area they get pissed and try to take it out instead of taking you on.)

Good hunting, until we meet that is.
W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

Greetings,

Like said before (and I'll add a little)
1 - They add bonus to your ships in its "shpere of influence"
2 - Some ships can't go far from your empire, you can "chain" bases from influence zones to influences zones to go deep into another player space.
3 - They seem to draw a little bit the enemy fleets to attack them instead of hitting your ships or planets. In 2 games, the enemy AI decided to hit my military starbases and it bought me some time.
4 - They count toward your military might. More you have military might, less a race is about to declare war upon you.

Voila! I think I coverred it much.

Thank you

Thanks.
But I guess you need to research something before they give benefitial effects to nearby ships?

Add modules to starbases by sending more constructors to them.

All starbases can have modules that increase their own attack/defense values (necessary if the starbase itself is attacked), but only military starbases can have modules that aid other ships.

Without adding modules, most starbases don't do anything at all. Basic mining starbases give a +5 bonus to the appropriate stat, but adding more mining modules can increase that.

You do have to research certain techs before you can build specific modules.

Well thanks for the tips/help guys

I got to agree with Surelle. Those military star bases are a saviour sometimes. I usually put them so they ecompass one of my planets. It really helps in defending with all those bonuses.