Space stations - why bother

In one of the campaign games, I built a chain of military bases chained down to one of their planets so I would have the range to get at them. They spent something like 3 ships trying to take out the furthest one before I got one of my ships down there to blast the remaining fighters. This was only 1/1/1 attack on the starbase though. It took it months to get back to full HP...

Influence starbases are indispensible though.

Note: One nice change in GC2 from 1 is that constructors are much cheaper. They used to take forever to get your first one out... That's probably why we don't have things like "Overlord Killer MkII" anymore.

(The new Reeducation Center galactic achevement is aggravating though to us people who like to try and win military conquests with influence.

I use economic bases. I try to find an area where there are several planets together, and i space out several economic starbases around them.

I put only the production increasing mods on them.

Like a boulder going down hill, this gains momentum, and you quickly realise you have a produxtion powerhouse sector that has +300% production, and that applies to military, social, "AND" research production. (Not "or", but "AND"... important to note)

I just had a massive war with the arceans and it took so long coz they had a beefed up military base which made all their ships awesome. I only wanted teo of thier planets near my terrritory but the war took about 75 turns and about 50 ships lost each and all because of thier military base. I had to build one nearby just to compete

Yeah, they take a lot of constructors, but then you can build those constructor fleets while your researching decent weapons/hulls, etc . Ive had no problem buffing some of my starbases up to fairly heavy attack defense ratios, good enough to hold off mid game enemy fleets long enough to get my own ships there to mop up.

i was in a war against a Yor and Drengin alliance i was backed into a corner real quick but than they pushed me back to my last safe haven, with four heavliy ship boosting military bases(gave me like 10 to all defense) my weak fighters went from getting slaughterd to doing the slaughtering . I held them off with 3 groups of small hull class ships when they were throwing medium and a few large class at me eventually i manged to build up my tech so i could compete with out needing to use the bounus my military base gave me and i managed to bribe a peace treaty out of the yor.

Econ bases = Very strong already, great boost to money and production

Influence bases = dont use them because i have so much influence anyways, mainly from conquering so many worlds and having ALL the wonders under my name

Military bases = very powerful already. A military starbase can boost ships in its influence range, it can increasae their speed, decrease enemy speed, give them some shielding and some extra damage (+1 beam/mass/missle damage per ship, even if they dont have any weapons of that kind). Medium sized enemy ships are pretty powerful... I conqured half of a huge galaxy without any civilization actually developing them. And six constructors arent really all that much...

Weapons and shields on a starbased can be put on ANY starbase (mining, military, etc), they are basic defense to prevent it from being killed by a lone enemy fighter, not to make it capable of winning against enemy fleets. A military starbase isnt there to win battles (its immobile, whats the point?), its there to make yours ships in the area are more powerful. It has no advantage in its own combat capacity over an economy starbase or some other kind of starbase (ie, battle stations etc can be installed on any kind of starbase and an econ starbase with the modules you described fares just as well against a fleet of enemy ships).

I use the same economy starbase strategy as mentioned earlier. I've found that three maxed out econ starbases near my capitals creates "omg" level of production. For instance, in the game I'm playing now, my capital has 832 military production, 332 social, and 586 research. Sure, my economy is drained with such high production, but with the freighter upgrades on my econ starbases, the problem isn't so big:) Besides, you need that kind of production to keep up on higher difficulty levels.

Influence starbases are "meh" to me. They take too much cash and time to build up just the influence part. And if you're going to build up the influence, you should build it's defenses, draining more resources. On top of that, even if you get an enemy colony to go into revolt, there's not gaurantee it's going to flip anytime soon=/ Military conquest=best influence.

Military starbases... well, to me, these are totally worthless. I usually play large to gigantic maps, and having one sector with a slight boost does nothing for me. IMO, the range needs to be upgradable or -something-.

Finally, I feel that you should be able to build constructor ships with more than one constructor pod. Like an advanced contruction pod, similiar to the advanced troop pod. Also, I feel you should be able to fleet up ships and starbases, but that would make the ships immobile. It doesn't even need a combat graphic, it'd simply boost the starbases defenses:)

A fully loaded starbase is pretty formidable. Sure they can be taken out by a late game fleet but it would not be a pushover.

Also, you can't fleet up a starbase but you can park a fleet on a starbase to guard it. Any fleet that could defeat the guarding fleet then have enough left to take out the base would have to be awesome

As to the constructors required, I have no problem cranking out constructors to get the modules. I'll admit it get tedious but there is no shortage of production capacity to get it done without hampering the ability to build plenty of warships.

Economy bases are wild stuff. I found a star that had two high-class planets around it. One had three 100% mfc bonus tiles, and the other had a 700% tile (crazy!). With a couple economy bases around them, I was turning out massive ships that went 5 sectors at a time and dealt 150 damage every turn. I went Federation gov't, maxed out production and was still making 700bc a turn with 80% approval, and simply rolled over the Altarians and the Drath, saving my pals the Korx in the process.

Should you really get more than one of the same bonus from a starbase? seems a little overkill and like a bug...

I usually build three trade starbases around a central planet (that I route all my trade through). Once they are pumped up, they were allowing me to operate at 100% industrial spending, 70% approval, and 850 bc profit a turn. It was a pain to build them up, but the money was certainly nice.

You can use Influence starbases to increase your borders around your planets to both give yourself some breathing room as well as to influence/take over planets.

Economic starbases are invaluable. If your economy is running full-tilt at 100% capacity and you still have cash left over, built the +% production modules at your economic bases. You'll be able to make your colonies consume more amounts of that surplus in exchange for higher production. If you're short of money, build the trading post modules instead.

Military bases are the best for when you're at a military disadvantage. Their main usage is not to attack or defend, but is their Ship Assist modules. If you opponent tries to bum rush your territory (or invasion point) with those 6L atk - 2L def heavy fighters, and you have a ship that's got at least 1 atk/1 def, just adding the Protective Fields module and the anti-laser ship-assist module will make your ship 1 atk/ 4L-1M-1G def. Your crappy little ships will become all but invincible within the starbase's sphere.

I find military starbases useful if I'm going for an influence win. Mainly just to beef up my border defense forces so the AI can't get through to them. Then I stick with influence and economy starbases. (Everyone doesn't play Ghengis Khan yah know). And that's what's great about this game, you don't have to play wargame everytime you play it. There are other forms of strategy for taking over the world/galaxy besides warring. In fact I challenge anyone to take over the entire galaxy without ever sending in military troups to take over a planet.

I think the value of military starbases depends on the map size.

On the smaller maps (Medium or lower) they are totally indispensable. You can literally take down entire enemy fleets with very basic fighters. When playing medium sized maps, I like to start my military starbase early and build it up along with my economy ones.

I keep a fleet of low powered ships in defense, refitting defenses/weapons as and when I am attacked.

Then, once I have a full complement of weapon/armour techs (even fairly low level ones) and some decent miniaturisation, I put 1 of each on a small hull ship. It may naturally only have 1 Beam, 1 Missile, 1 Mass Driver, 1 ECM, 1 Shield and 1 Armour rating, but in a fleet, inside my starbase area, it has around 20 in each category.... more than enough to guarantee both offensive and defensive wins.

That's more for fun though than actually for trying to win.... I tend to like to play this size map for a long time and reap the benefits of it.

On bigger maps, I agree, Military starbases lose some of their effectiveness except for last line defensive strategies (not that I have ever had to use them except against pirates)

Hi!

On bigger maps, I agree, Military starbases lose some of their effectiveness except for last line defensive strategies (not that I have ever had to use them except against pirates)

... or the first line of attack strategy. I used them this way hree times in my current game, each time to take enemy's big production planets. 8-10 constructors at speed 9 has built it, 2 fleets of 4 medium ships destroyed defening ships and bases, following transports took their defenseless planets. Each time enemy lost dozens of ships, with NO losses on my side.

IMO those bonuses from military starbases are too strong, at least until late game.
BR, iztok

I usually have a starbase of each kind near each of my clusters of planets. I then follow my trade routes with overlapping economy tiles. I also use influence bases to maintain or increase my ring of influence. The benefits that I get from these starbases is better than no benefit at all. If I make say an additional 25credits from my economy bases and I am better able to defend and attack within my military bases, Then I see this as a worthwhile endeavor. Besides, Constructors dont cost you maintenace, so you can keep a bunch of them stocked away in case you need a influence base real quick. The one thing I hate more than losing a planet from an attack is losing one because the occupants over-threw my butt.

You can use mil star bases for offensive purposes on any map.

Got your eye on an enemy planet? Enemy got the upper hand technologicaly? never mind the mil star base is the answer.

You need to have a small fleet of constructors biult up so you can move in construct the mil starbase so that its sphere of influence falls over the target planet, use the starbase to boost the required attack/defence attributes of your fleet and then move in for the kill. The key is to have better movement then your enemy so you can then intercept any fleets sent against the starbase.

Starbases can make any fleet neer invicible, and seeing the AI has no real effective counter to this, I think they need to be nerfed or some weapon created that can counter mil starbases. Useing the above strategy it allmostt immpossible to lose as the enemy will echaust itself by entering intro battles in the sphere of your mil star base that is cant hope to win.

When attacking, I tend to think that once I have the planet, that starbase has gone to waste (with the inordinate sums of money I spent building it in the first place as I probably long maxed out my free ones)..... add to that the idea that if you have built 9 or more constructors, you could have just made 9 or more attacking ships and done the job anyway.

Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for every tactic and I'm sure your idea there has it's place... but I havent had a need for it yet.

The thing is that the starbase you biult to take the planet will now defend the planet against the inevitable counter attacks.
IIf you have biult the appropriate combat bonuses onto the starbase a very small fleet will basicaly totaly deystroy muliple fleets much more powerfull than yours were it not for the starbase modifiers. The enemy will exhaust itself trying to retake the conquered planet.

9 constuctors? you will need no more than 4 to give you allmost total invicibility within its sphere of influence.

The thing is that the starbase you biult to take the planet will now defend the planet against the inevitable counter attacks.

Inevitable counter attacks? Hmm.... I think this might be a difference in strategies here but the way I play tends to assure that if I am taking an AI's planets, I have already locked down his potential for counterattacks. The forward military starbase would be wasted for me once I had captured the planet.

9 constuctors? you will need no more than 4 to give you allmost total invicibility within its sphere of influence.

I was just quoting the guy above. But now I am starting to think that you and I are playing a different game here.... 4 constructors can make your fleets invincible? A 4 constructor starbase, which probably cost me over 1000 to build due to all my economy starbases, is really not going to provide such massive additional firepower over bringing along 2 extra ships. I love starbases.... but this seems too expensive and too fruitless to be worth worrying about.

some good responses overall guys thx

Ive learnt alot about starbases that I didnt know - specially military ones which were the ones I thought werent worth it

clearly I was using them wrong thinking of them more as defesive castles that would blaze up on incoming fleets, but they appear to be more support for fleet type structures (from the comments) so Ive changed my strategies for using them - interesting tip about putting ships on guard - last time my ships sat there while the base got obliterated

thing is if youve run out of ships to support it - the starbases are sitting ducks - I wouldve thought a military starbase wouldve been a formidable thing for ships to try and destroy like they used to be in MOO2.

cheers for the replys

Thing is fleets have logistics restrictions, so, those 2 extra ships won't fit into a maxed out logistics fleet, so they are wasted. Whereas a military base will continue to add into that maxed out logistics fleet, thus, providing a much larger and stronger force overall. Those 2 extra ships aren't going to do you much good if/when you lose that entire fleet now are they?

Thing is fleets have logistics restrictions, so, those 2 extra ships won't fit into a maxed out logistics fleet, so they are wasted. Whereas a military base will continue to add into that maxed out logistics fleet, thus, providing a much larger and stronger force overall. Those 2 extra ships aren't going to do you much good if/when you lose that entire fleet now are they?

But if I build even 4 constructors, why wouldn't I just build 4 ships and create a new fleet.... then if I lose one of my fleets, the other one will win.

You're not convincing me on the benefits of a 4 constructor built up starbase for the sake of taking one planet..... not yet anyway!!

All I can say is if you don't see the value of a military starbase then you really haven't used it properly. Giving a +3 or more to each defensive category along with multiple + to offensive categories isn't anything to sneeze about.

thing is if youve run out of ships to support it - the starbases are sitting ducks - I wouldve thought a military starbase wouldve been a formidable thing for ships to try and destroy like they used to be in MOO2.

You're not building them up properly then. It doesn't take much and starbases (any kind) are nearly invulnerable unless the AI brings it. Same goes for the AI, if you let them build it up enough you're going to lose a lot of ships trying to take it out.

Battlestations 1 is your first upgrade. Devastation beam alone is +7 beam attack. Various other attacks are +5 to start. +5 defense in every category. It won't take much and you'll have a very, very powerful starbase that can defend itself well if attacked. And this can be done on *any* starbase. I outfit every resource starbase and any starbase on the borders (influence and economy) with at least battlestations 1, devastation beam and at least one main defensive module. Once the AI has large hull ships they become more vulnerable to be sure, but for well more then half the game the AI can't touch your starbases. The ship assist modules are for the military starbases only.