Managing shipyards

[Zeebie (OP)]

How many shipyards do you tend to have running at a given time?  I have three naval yards running right now, building my three combat classes.  But I need to build some support ships like colliers too, and more jump scouts might be nice... How do you manage things? Lots of different yards sitting around? Retooling constantly? Something else?

[Redshirt]

Seriously, if you can get a tug boat over there, you can just haul them away from the planet and claim them for your own.

[SteelChicken]

I tend to dedicate my shipyards to a given class.
3 commercial shipyards
1 doing freighters and colony ships (yard does both)
1 doing terraformers
1 doing sorium miners (or other misc, like salvagers, oilers)

Navy
carrier class
missile cruiser class
point defense class
scout class
FAC class
maybe one other class like for coilers or something, I might re-tool this one as needed

I try not to retool often, not because of minerals but because of delays.

[Erik L]

I do similar to SteelChicken. My homeworld has the bulk of the ship building capacity. If I colonize other planets in the system, they may or may not get a yard, it all depends on my needs. If they do, it's most likely they get a light unit yard, escort or destroyer type.

When I expand far enough to have subsectors, the sector capitals get yards. Then my fleets become sector fleets rather than empire-wide fleets, the exception being logistics and surveying fleets. The sector capitals get sufficient yard capacity to build one squadron minimum at one time. The only time I consider moving a yard is if I capture one.