Defence of colonies

[laz (OP)]

Hello there

Reached a point in my game were I have several colonised worlds in neighbouring star systems. Some are beginning to reach the point that they require a certain level of protection or ground forces to be present or unrest begins to rise in the population. I'm wondering what kind of defensive strategies are out there for defending your civilizations borders?

What kind of strategies do people employ to defend their star systems?

What kind of defences do you have on your colonies. Ground based missile bases? A defensive fleet? I know certain weapons can't pass through an atmosphere so I guess you are limited to certain types of weapons for planet based stuff.

Come to think of it i've never actually designed or employed PDC/ground base before so im curious what sort of design philosophies people have employed in their games

[Beersatron]

If you have enough of a mineral income to feed the necessary maintenance fee and place 5 maintenance facilities on the planet then what I normally go for is a squad (4) of FACs. 1 sensor FAC and 3 box-launcher armed FACs.

This normally provides more than enough PPV and gives you ablight force to chase down new contacts.

Later, I ship in a missile PDC to beef up defenses.

End game is to find a suitable nodal system that has abundant resources and population to support a proper fleet base that services my largest ships and acts as a local response to neighbouring systems.

[UnLimiTeD]

For Actual defense, Quick reaction forces do well, as said above.
Against enemy missile strikes, small raiding forces, etc, a PDC with AMMs might be a good choice, it defends you from missiles while your atmosphere protects you from beams.
A little short range punch versus Mesons is never a bad choice, though.

For keeping the populace at peace, look at the PPV, Planetary Protection Value.
More and bigger weapons is good, so a PDC with some huge honky Missile Launchers helps keeping the peace.

The other way to go would be to suppress riots with Ground forces, Garrisons are cheap and do the job. For real defensive power against ground attacks, though, I would prefer mobile Infantry Divisions housed in PDC Bunkers.

It always depends on what you want to defend, and if it actually needs to.

[Brian Neumann]

I like to ship in a division of engineer brigades (4) or two, they then assemble a couple of light prefab pdc's with anti-missile launchers, a small pdc with one meson turret, and a final one with the longer ranged sensors to spot incomming ships.  If it is an important system then I try to base a couple of squadrons of FAC's (8-10) for longer ranged protection and power projection.

The key to this is the pdc's need to be very small.  One or two modules max, with very little armour.  This makes them fairly cheap to build and that means that they are also very quick to assemble (10% of the build cost).  I can usually emplace all of the above in about two years, four if I only have 4 brigades working on the project.

Brian

[laz (OP)]

A small fighter force. Nearby reactionary force. small PDC's for defence. I guess thats all fairly cost effective idea's. Wonder if planetary shield tech is an add on for the future?

I'm a bit confused how PDC's work. I know you design them in the same way you design ships (only you change the tab at the top so its not a ship design) but what actual properties do they have that differ from ship designs?

Do engineers build them or can construction factories build them as well?

What exactly do they represent? Are they literally military bases or are they also bunkers from orbital bombardment and invasion as well? Do they operate in ground invasions like a Briany Castle does in the Battletech Universe (star league era fortresses built into mountains that were mean't to hold out against an invading force for up to 2 years?) Need to find the thread that describes their function in more detail as its a part of the game i've not really made much use of yet.

[UnLimiTeD]

They act like a ship on the ground.
They do not need maintenance, but can't use ECM and Shields.
They come with 4 free levels of armor.

You can use PDCs for most tasks that an Orbital Weapon Platform could do aswell, like maintenance, Hangars, and the like.

You can make Missile Launcher Designs "PDC only", which halves their reload time.
To protect troops from planetary Bombardment, effectively a Bunker, you need to include PDC Barracks in the design.

They can be prebuilt by Factories and set up by Engineers.
I'm not sure if they can be fully build by factories aswell.

[sloanjh]

I'm not sure if they can be fully build by factories aswell.

Yes they (PDC) can.  This is the typical way to build them on your home world - simply build them.  Pre-fab'ing is for shipping them to a world without much industy.

By the way, saying they can be built "by engineers" is technically correct but overly restrictive.  Pref-fab'ed PDC require industrial capacity to assemble.  It doesn't matter where the capacity comes from - it can come from engineers, or from normal industry, or from both.  It's just another task in the industry queue.

John

[waresky]

Hello.

Ive change whole my Naval doctrine.
am use Particle spinal mount Destroyer mount-Squadroon
inside squadroon am put 2 Escort Cruiser (Anti-Missile-Missile capability)
Same speed for all ships,fastest possible

now ive understand (in very thoughest battle) who Anti-Ship missile r absolutely useless..(yes..after 2 years r this my think) and BEAM are absolutely vicious weapons.
Obviously..a VERY Strongh Anti-Missile Missile point def system weapons in a same Squadroon.

Destroyers Squadroon are cheap,easy to build,and deploy and maintain.
Hope r interesting tactics.

For my campaign,actually,r victorious tactic

[Maltay]

Yes they (PDC) can.  This is the typical way to build them on your home world - simply build them.  Pre-fab'ing is for shipping them to a world without much industy.

By the way, saying they can be built "by engineers" is technically correct but overly restrictive.  Pref-fab'ed PDC require industrial capacity to assemble.  It doesn't matter where the capacity comes from - it can come from engineers, or from normal industry, or from both.  It's just another task in the industry queue.

John

How much industrial capacity does an Engineer Brigade offer?  Is there any mechanism among star ship components to pre-fabricate deep space satellites and later construct them in a manner similar to PDCs or OWPs when using an Engineer Brigade?

[Steve Walmsley]

Yes they (PDC) can.  This is the typical way to build them on your home world - simply build them.  Pre-fab'ing is for shipping them to a world without much industy.

By the way, saying they can be built "by engineers" is technically correct but overly restrictive.  Pref-fab'ed PDC require industrial capacity to assemble.  It doesn't matter where the capacity comes from - it can come from engineers, or from normal industry, or from both.  It's just another task in the industry queue.

How much industrial capacity does an Engineer Brigade offer?  Is there any mechanism among star ship components to pre-fabricate deep space satellites and later construct them in a manner similar to PDCs or OWPs when using an Engineer Brigade?

An Engineer Brigade is equal to a construction factory. You can effectively prefab ships by building all the components first with construction factories but you will still need a shipyard to build them. If you only need a sensor capability for your satellite, you could design a large buoy using the missile design window, build it with ordnance factories and deploy it using a large missile launcher.

Steve