Author Topic: PDC defences  (Read 2219 times)

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Offline Detros (OP)

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PDC defences
« on: June 20, 2017, 08:48:39 AM »
Are you often putting down PDC defences at various places around the system? Just few 30cm lasers at Luna? Shorter ranged beams at asteroids near JPs (with asteroid rotation off)? Bunch of missile silos at the biggest colony? Or are you using just ships?
 

Offline littleWolf

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Re: PDC defences
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2017, 12:08:34 PM »
no use PDC at all..   Only Military fleets. 

never in all the games enemies did not invade in a system with habitable colonies. As a rule, all wars are fought too far away from the inhabited places.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2017, 02:31:39 AM by littleWolf »
 

Iranon

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Re: PDC defences
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2017, 01:18:51 PM »
Very basic meson PDCs, mostly for the PPV.
Later on, hangar PDCs to mothball ships no longer fit for fleet use but too valuable to scrap.

Either type tends to be on major colonies; I usually prefer building up my fleet to scattering immobile assets all over the place.
 

Offline Michael Sandy

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Re: PDC defences
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2017, 04:25:03 PM »
I built a bunch of PDCs for my colonies to reduce unrest.  Just some anti-missile launchers (anti-missiles themselves to be developed and installed later).  But I plan on building a 15,000 ton capacity hangar at every extra-solar colony.

My higher priority for defenses is to get a sensor buoy network on every jump point.

Strategically, other than missile defenses capable of stopping a quick raid, my colony defense priority is to get information about an attacker as fast as possible, so the PDC CVs will have various scout fighters based on it.  I have squadrons with a thermal sensor fighter, an EM sensor fighter, an anti-capital ship active sensor and an anti-missile active sensor and a tanker fighter.

Maintenance costs is a major concern in my decisions over colony defenses.  If I don't have a specific reason for defenses for a particular colony, their defenses are what won't cost maintenance.
 

Offline MagusXIX

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Re: PDC defences
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2017, 04:41:09 PM »
I use PDCs rather extensively. I don't play against the AI, though, and they're not as useful against it. Against another player (or yourself) they're absolutely vital.

I always put a garrison in my PDCs. Always. The smallest ones may only be a single garrison battalion, but it's there anyway so that the enemy can't just drop a company of marines on my outposts uncontested. That said, I usually build them in 3 sizes - 1 Battalion, 1 Brigade, and 1 Division.

The Battalion sized PDCs usually come with room for a single battalion, a missile-defense system of your choice, and an anti-ship system of your choice. Alternatively, you could use boat bays or hangars and have some fighters for a variety of roles. They exist solely to defend lonely outposts, whether that's a mining colony or a deep space tracking outpost, so don't beef them up to the point where they become worth more than the assets they are protecting.

The Brigade sized PDCs I use to defend very valuable colonies that don't quite warrant an entire division. Usually these go on valuable automated mines, or smaller mining colonies with valuable minerals. It's the same concept as the smaller design, only beefed up across the board. The price increase needs to be justified by the value of whatever it's protecting, so be careful not to make these ones too big, either.

Division sized PDCs are for my most vital, core worlds. Put enough barracks on it for an entire division and then add on your anti-ship, anti-missile, and fighter capabilities as required (or as you can afford.) These are for defending the core worlds, so the only time "overkill" is a concern is if you're operating under a budget (time or materials.)


Usually I pair them up with a system defense task group that can scratch those hard-to-reach places in the solar system.
 

Offline Barkhorn

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Re: PDC defences
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2017, 07:39:54 PM »
I like using PDC's to handle all my anti-ship active sensor needs for system defense.  This way, my defensive fleets can skimp on active sensors, meaning more tonnage can go towards weapons.

So my PDC's consist of gigantic, powerful active sensors in varying resolutions, hopefully providing coverage of the whole system, and if I'm using missile FAC's for system defense, magazines and hangars.
 

Offline Garfunkel

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Re: PDC defences
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2017, 08:19:34 PM »
Avoiding maintenance costs becomes quite important as your empire grows and spreads, so I do use PDCs for that reason. Building, transporting and assembling them can be a hassle but you only have to do it once. Sol gets really built up with them as I always play conventional starts so there is plenty of time to construct them at multiple locations. Elsewhere they defend colonies without requiring fleet assets.

I tend to build very small but specialized PDCs. There's the big sensor type, the tiny missile defence one and the anti-shipping one, plus later on hangars for fighter/FAC squadrons.