Intercepting fleets

Phase Jump Inhibitors can do a fair number to slow them down long enough for a fleet to deal with them, and it wouldn't hurt to have them at more than just frontline planets.

Outside of your own territory though, the best you can do is just start killing off planets until they come and fight.

Station LRM frigates or Kodiaks with the Intercept ability. Both will help pick off fleets.

Bombers tend to do a number on transiting forces... though not large enough of a one, sometimes -- you need PJI's for maximum effect.

That said, the AI generaly doesn't bother with "bypassing" a system...

The TEC cap ship with Ion Cannon is great for preventing a single ship from jumping out. This won't do much to stop an entire fleet, but it lets you pick off a cap ship with ease.

Did you have colonies on these worlds that he was blitzing past? I've never seen siege frigates pass a chance to nuke anything, whether it's a dead asteroid or a planet.

PJI's don't do enough to stop them bypassing systems, especially heavy cruisers which have a ton of health + intercept, they can just run through to your back systems and kill orbitals

And no haven't really found a counter other than mass hangar defences at every world and seperate fleets of LRMs/carriers but the best option is just to go on the offensive, it's next to impossible to stop harassment without splitting up your fleets many times and then unless you harass yourself then he's already got the advantage.

Try using hangars filled with Fighters(not Bombers!). Fighter weaponry is 2x stronger against the light armor on Siege Frigates, so Fighters can kill them twice as fast as Bombers.

The problem was that it was a map that I set up with few planets. The chokepoints were the star, asteroid belts and nebulas, so the Ion Cannon wouldn't have worked everywhere.

When the enemy jumps in, he more or less immediately was able to move forward, while my fleet slowly reacted and turned. By the time it was chasing the enemy fleet, they were already at the border of the gravity well. And with gamespeed on 'slow', they were also able to jump at once.

It's a bit strange that we have movement limited to phase lanes, creating chokepoints - and then can't use these chokepoints properly to blockade enemy movement.

With the Advent, use 5 hangers fully kitted with 2 repair stations and 2 fixed defense. Also use several carrier cruisers in your key systems. Usually with about 12 bomber squadrons and another 8 fighter squadrons in each key system will wipe out even the heaviest attacks or give you enough time to respond if it is a truly massive fleet. The PJI is very helpful in this situation and will allow you to take out another 5-10 frigates when they try to run.

Nice thing about hangers, if you lose a hanger the fighters stay around for a while after.

Make sure you take control of the battle. Keep the fighters on the light armor ships and the bombers on the heavy ones. They tend to lose their focus after they stop the first ship or 2. Plus you need to move them away from flak frigates, the repair stations will fix fighters so you can always pull them back if you need to.

Hanger Defense are great and should readily deal with this sort of harrassment. A regular fleet does struggle and that is why once I get a capital ship fleet going I try to get at least one carrier included. The speed and responsiveness of the bombers and fighters is great, espcially for the Advent. Also, don't underestimate the value of building your planetery shelters to give the yourself enough time to react, whether with hangers or a portion of your fleet.

Pirates do the same thing.

I encountered a pirate fleet heading toward my worlds in a neutral system I was about to colonize. The pirate fleet was running for the phase jump when, as soon as I created the new colony, they turned on a dime to attack my new colony.

the problem here is that your planets need defenses

if you "know" which planets are on a posible bypassed route make sure u have 2 or 3 hangars there

some gunz wont do bad either

this wil especialy pay of when u are fighting a TEC, since the rebel spawn tech can be pretty anoying (mostly more destructive then the TEC fleet itself, if not prepared)

well, since you said you have fleets stationed in those systems, what i do is to put the fleet engagement to hold position and place right where the enemy jumps in. of course, the downside to this is that it pretty much only works if you know where the enemy is jumping in from. also, put a repair platform far enough to cover your defending fleet.

i've gotten my cap ships some decent xp this way when trying to concentrate on other areas of my empire while the ai was sending scouts and light frigs in other systems.

Right - you CANNOT set up or use choke points, so don't even try. It's simply not the game dynamic they were trying to create, strangely enough.

You have been given advice on using fighters, however on a recent thread I discussed my experience in trying to use fighters, including going advent (with carrier), obtaining and upgrading hangers, etc. They won't stop the siege frigates from getting to your planets, nuking them, and then leaving, so don't go that route.

Someone else here suggested planetary defenses, however that's incorrect too. Planetary defenses are just weak - that's obvious. A developer stated on this forum that this was by design - he said moderate defenses were just enough to stopping a few thin pirate raids, but that's it.

I think the game dynamic they've forced you into is to be mega-offensive with your ships. Just be super-mobile - think of yourself as a migrating type of society that is always on the move. Don't build defenses - carry colony ships with you to plop down new colonies as they take out your old ones. Build your own siege frigates to bomb him as he bombs you, etc. Doesn't suit me, personally, but if you want to stick with the game, you can try it and see if you like it.

Fully filled tactical slots can make a world of difference, in the very least giving you enough time to get a fleet to the planet. Also, you can move your fighters to where they should come out of the phase lane at to at least annoy them. The fighters can keep up with whatever ship tries to make a run through the system, and should do some damage before they jump out.

I find this really annoying too. The computer would send a scout through my systems and even with my entire fleet shooting it, it still manages to get away past the planetary defenses and all that jazz.

Really need to do something about it

Not sure I agree with this. Playing as the Advent I've defended worlds against 3 cap ships and dozens of light frigates with little more than a full complement of upgraded hangers. 15 squadrons of bombers will make short work of a capital ship.

I agree with mnikkel. I usually reserve all slots for front line planets for hangars or turrets. fully upgraded tec gauss cannons set properly, or the advent hangars crewed with three wings will chew through small groups of ships.

Two hangars won't do it on front line planets, it's just not enough firepower.

I see. So basically, while the gun / missile platforms are weak (and too static), hangars and carriers should do a better job at defending planets?

Of course the best defence is a strong offence, but I'm a turtler and builder by nature. Guess I'll just have to adapt my defensive strategies a bit.

i tried cannons, did not like them. range is not good enough. too easy to avoid for enemy. Fighters hangars filled with bombers are the best defense from what i noticed because they cover all the map and instead of spreading few cannons here and there, all of them always work. Couple cap ships with few cruisers can easily defend planet that covered like that. Just need to make sure you have upgraded health of the planet and did all upgrades to give yourself time to wipe the enemy before they kill your planet.

The problem with orbital guns is their limited range keeps you from concentrating their firepower if you're trying to protect the surface of a planet. IMO they work much better for protecting civilian or other tactical structures that you can clump together in a small area. Basically I use hangers with bombers to attack capital ships and planetary assault ships as they enter the system to make sure they don't take my planet. I cluster the hangers close on the opposite side of the planet from incoming phase lanes then surround them with orbital guns with overlapping fields of fire to keep them alive as long as possible.

If you're playing the computer, you can usually just set up the guns to do a massive amount of damage clumped up together. Still, I usually go for bombers, they upgrade with the rest of the ships. A fully upgraded TEC bomber squad is just nasty. Fifteen of them makes it incredibly risky to enter the area.

If you're going up against another human being, definitely need to go all bombers.

With Vasari, you can use 10 tactical slots for the stabilizer, and have a single defense fleet to move around. That's probably the best defense around.