Defense Guide 2.0 (Early + Late Game)

[basilisk101]

You realize how old this guide is, right?

[LesCrow]

You realize how old this guide is, right?

He's still sporting it today, i actually saw the link on his signature about 10-20 minutes before i posted and unless ae logic was different up until about a week to helion, the guide was always wrong. People are still going to see it as newbs who want to learn tend to come to the help center, so he should either update it with correct info or do something about it so he doesn't mislead beginners.

[basilisk101]

unless ae logic was different up until about a week to helion, the guide was always wrong.

You obviously haven't played the game as long as the rest of us

Back in the day, this was the best advice you could hope for. Everybody used these kinds of defences because they were considered the best, and nobody knew better.

He's still sporting it today, i actually saw the link on his signature about 10-20 minutes before i posted

So you're judging it based by what's on his posts' signature? Seriously?

Let's take a look at your post then... according to your forum profile, you quit Gamma, but according to your signature, you play in STRIP.

Also according to your profile, you play stx in H, but your signature says you're in RUIN. It hardly seems like you're in any position to crucify someone because their signature is outdated or misinformative.

[Twin Blade]

I'm in the process of making a new one. Though for new servers, just learning the basics of this guide even if you were to skim it is quite helpful.

Most people WANT to know by what level they should have defenses at, so thats why it was posted such as. The guide I believe was written in 07 or 08 and it was my first year of actually playing AE. Overall, the ideas incorporated into the guide were mostly the ones that I saw other players using. (Mainly GOON)

[LesCrow]

He's still sporting it today, i actually saw the link on his signature about 10-20 minutes before i posted

So you're judging it based by what's on his posts' signature? Seriously?

Let's take a look at your post then... according to your forum profile, you quit Gamma, but according to your signature, you play in STRIP.

Also according to your profile, you play stx in H, but your signature says you're in RUIN. It hardly seems like you're in any position to crucify someone because their signature is outdated or misinformative.

Your absolutely right, but then again he is passing out information that is going to affect the way people play ae and hoping that they read it while i fill those things because i feel like it and don't really care whether people see them or not, so im allowed to write smack. Unless his intention is to mislead people he has to pay attention to the authenticity and accuracy of what he writes.



I did not intend to write crap, things just got mixed up as time passed so i'll take my own advice and fix my info

[User63027562]

How are guild fleets treated if they are in orbit for defense support?

Do base defenses also defend guild ships?

[xJudicatorx]

A few things I'd like to address about this.

Barracks
These are the weakest defenses, you generally do not want these if your a high level, you should basically just skip this defense totally because its generally not worth it to use up valubal time in order to build these up and then just tear them down to build a better one.
Generally for lv 0-5

There is a use for barracks. Since they build almost instantly, you can put one up if someone is about to scout tap your new base. Obviously, this is for emergencies only, in general you should go straight to missile turrets.

Plasma Turrets
These are better defenses for the newly founded player, once you reach these you should tear down any other defense structure and build up some of these. These are generally good defenses against ships like destroyers and corves, so a couple of these can sport their well being for a lil while. Paired up with the Missiel Turrets you can calm down and start teching up for ships.
Generally for lv 15-20

Plasma turrets are nearly worthless. Unless you already have 3 levels of missile turrets(15/15), it is more cost effective to build more missile turrets than to add plasma turrets.

Ion Turrets
Once you reach these types of turrets, just tear every other defense down like you did with plasma. These might be a little costly for you at first, but they are well worth for the defense at your level. Put on a couple of these at your base and if you are attacked you will see the results that I am talking about.
Generally for lv 15-25

The use of these with fighters should be mentioned. If you have a lot of unshielded units on your base(fighters for defense, freshly produced frigates, etc.) these make fighter drops much less efficient even on into the middle stages of the game.

Deflection Shields
These are ok deefenses if you pair it up with disrupter turrets. These can stop smaller ships in their tracks if their the only defense you have on your base. They can also stop big shields like battleships, though they can't stop a nicely teched dread and on their own they definetly cannot stop a titan.
Generally for lv 25-30

Planetary Shield
One of the best defenses, by themselves they can stop fighter drops, they can also stop a single dread, perhaps 2 or 3 if you have good tech. (That would also include Fighters in hangers) If your pshield is nicely teched it should also be able to stop a titan if you have fleet and CC's on your planet(s).
Generally for all lv's past 30

The only use of shields is to regenerate your higher turrets. A single HC can defeat them without taking any losses if they are not paired with something that actually deals damage. They are most effective at forcing frigate fleets to bring a large number of units rather than only a handful.

10,000+ Fighters
150+ Cruisers
5+ Battle Ships (Or substitute with a dread)
10/10 Disrupter
5/5 Pshield
5/5 Pring
10+ Command Centers

That is an obscene amount of CC's - would be much more effective to build an additional level of rings and skip the CC's entirely. Probably also too many fighters once armor levels get to about 28, people will drop your fleet away just for the debris.

Overall, I think you could have put more thought into this.

[SilverKnight]

Generally CC in large numbers on one base is only for one point ---- attempting a base liberation.

With that in mind, you would be pushing the CC to much higher than 10 and adding in a Tactical Commander. With normal endgame laser tech + 20 CC and a level 10 Tactical your fighters rip a new anal cavity in occupation Heavy Cruisers. With Normal endgame Plasma tech, your HB dish out obscene punishment on occupation fleets shy of Titans/Levis. And your HC pwn Levis.

When the tactical situation of being occupied by a large force is no longer true, the CC no longer are worth taking up space.

That's when you reduce from 20 CC to 5 or maybe even zero, obviating 2 MLPs (or 4 Terraforms) and at least 1 anti-matter plant.

that 20 space + 20 energy can easily be translated into production capacity with additional Metal refineries, nanites, Androids, etc.

[deckra]

I build CC on outpost bases to lvl 13. Since i'm not an occ heavy person, that generally leaves me to around 26 max occs to 39 max occs on those alone. I can distribute the rest of the CCs as needed for occs, but that number fluctuates from base to base besides the outpost bases.

I do this only because outpost bases will have little use in overall protection (long travel times) and because they have a huge tendency to be occupied permanently.

I would recommend getting someone to do a complete rewrite of this, using base econ vs level for defenses. Then have level as a general guide along with age of server in addition to the base econ.

[Gorgrak]

This guide has some little bits of information but nothing strongly cohesive. It's all a ramble of what each player plays like with their style of setting their defenses and it doesn't break down the defense issue entirely.

I haven't seen anyone post a breakdown of how tech levels affect the defense items.

I haven't seen anyone really breakdown how and why you would want to get rid of lower defense items for the prings and pshields combo in the end, just estimations.

I haven't seen anything that breaks things down in laments terms.

I would like to see a guide that breaks things down IN DETAIL and give examples of defensive items vs offense with tech levels included for both sides. I would like to see some hard line examples showing a fleet of like 1K of each ship type vs 5/5 prings 5/5 pshield makeup and see what the outcome would be for what the outcome would be for 1k FT, 1k CR, 1k BS, etc. What would 1k of each ship type do against that kind of defense?

[Nagel]

Even though the results would be pointless, why don't you baw less and do it your self?

[Brogren]

I saw plasma turrets and stopped reading.

[bigb]

wow Its guides like this that give scrubs the wrong Idea about AE. "Defense is the most important aspect of the astro empires game." keep saying that to yourself when I crash my fleet into your base.

The best defense is a good offense. If you have more fleet and a higher lvl than most of your neighbors, then odds are they won't attack you. I have been attacked once on Lyra and it was for a loss after I dropped guild to start farming the scrubs I had joined.

I'm sitting on 5 DT 1k FT on about 110-120 eco bases with about 4LD TR a base. I could hit myself and make nasty credits.

If you call simming defenses playing AE then have fun for the next year while I debri simmers.

[Royalvii]

Nice guide. Got a question though. If you had to make a fleet for defensive purposes only what would it be?

[Wlerin]

Nice guide. Got a question though. If you had to make a fleet for defensive purposes only what would it be?

It is impossible to answer this question correctly, as the assumptions on which it is based are false.

TL;DR: Mu.