Defences vs HP

There would be a break-even point on HP vs defense, one that w/o the game on hand to look into it's unknown to me.

-HP work on every attack against you in equal fashion, but doesn't regenerate at all during battle.
-Defense works 100% vs it's intended type and a portion (25%?) vs types it doesn't. It also gets replenished after a round in battle. Defense however isn't that static number like HP, but a random number UP to the amount of defense on the ship.

Without the numbers on hand, I'd say that HP are more important on smaller ships and defense on larger ships. HP added to smaller ships have a larger gain in % of HP. Defense on larger ships allows them to overcome fleets of smaller ships easier and the battle gets easier and easier as it commences as the larger ship takes out the gnats.

The math for defenses is pretty well spelled out at the galciv wiki. Studying that might help you assess your situation better.

You also have to look at the size of the components and their cost. The highest level defences give a lot for very little hull space.

Your opponents will also need to be looked at tomake this determination. That is, if you can take zero damage in a battle with some defence then having additional hit points won't be necessary. On the other hand if your opponents have a very high attack that you can't defelct then maybe more hit points are the way to go.

I use a mix myself, though some civs have better HP boosting modules than other. Currently, the Iconians beat all with their "Organic Hull Plating" (they even get a +100% repair bonus with one of their techs). Its strengths are, its cheaper than any like module, and it provides plenty of hit points per point of space. Its only flaw is, it does not resize so its a little big on every hull size but huge.

On a side note, HP boosters work well as an early form of defense. As long as they are used with good weapons (to kill opponents quickly), the ship should survive (if built well).

Thanks for the advices and for reminding me of the wiki, i was about to make another post about how the fleet combat works but thanks to the wiki i don need to.

I know a balance is important i just wanted to hear a couple of opnions, i always like to have lotsof hp so i always get xithanium hull plating and micro repair bots, but i will have to start putting more defenses on my ships.

Researching (or trading for) the techs will add a percentage HP bonus to all ships - similar to Xanthium hull plating - even if you don't install the module; well worth doing in my opinion. I prefer defensive modules if they fit but the HP modules take less space so you can often squeeze one in where nothing else will fit.