Hello all, Bloodman123726 here. I've been playing this game steadily since I've purchased it and have been really enjoying it. I just wish to disclose now that as of the time of writing this guide, I've sunk 60 hours into this game and have won three games under my belt. One including playing as Humanity and all of these were on Normal difficulty.

This'll mean it'll more likely suited towards newer players or simply players who may be struggling in the aspect of combat in this game. Do take everything written here with a grain of salt as this guide is purely opinionated and not factual. What may be super succesful for me may prove otherwise in certain situations that could possibly arise in your game/s.

For the first real chapter on military tactics, it'll be split into three categories. Fleet defenses, Orbital defenses and ground defenses.

Fleet defenses:

It comes as instinct to build up a large fleet which consists as your iron gauntlet against the harsh and numerous dangers of the galaxy. But what this really does is leave your empire exposed in times of war. Your fleet may easily cut through the defenses because of their sheer numbers, but this'll also mean the same back at your home empire for your enemy or possible enemies with little resistance and especially the thought that you will have to re-direct your entire fleet in a wild goose chase to counter the enemy fleet in your terrority which will likely have blockaded your star system and starved a couple million or so colonists before taking them down.

This can be problematic, especially in early to mid game where agricultural research is still to be made. But can just as easily be fixed with a simple process.

You'll need to co-ordinate multiple fleets. Yes, you can have an "alpha" fleet which consists of your largest and most powerful ships, but it's just as equally wise to have even a small resistance fleet stationed at the borders of your empire. This'll stop those pesky scouts which can suddenly jump to your system's and blockade them all by themselves. And if your daring enemies do assault your fleet defenses, you'll have them backed up by orbital defenses.

It'd be a good idea to have at least a minimum of 3-4 heavy cruisers stationed at these said borders backed up by small destroyers or missle carrying ships to launch volleys to the invading fleet. This'll mean your heavy cruisers can tank the invading force as your missles sit comfortably behind the cruisers or in the killzone of your orbital defenses. This especially becomes apparent when Heavy Railguns have been researched, you can retreat back into these killzone and pick off the enemy as they must do a suicidal charge into your fleet and orbital defenses.

Even if you're in the early game, a considerable amount of cheap destroyers fitted with nuclear/fission missles will do the job equally the same with weak or no armour at all. They will work well against fleets with low shielding technology and small fleets consisting of usually 5-7 ships. But they shouldn't be relied on, they're especially fragile, their missles can be shot down if not fired in swarms at a single taget and will quickly succumb if not backed up by orbital defenses or have taken down a majority of the enemy fleet before reaching them.

Side note: These cheap missle destroyers are especially useful at killing off Star Harpies or scaring minor and major factions into believing you have a very, very strong military. They can only get stronger late-game with anti-matter torpedo's and missles.

Orbital Defenses:

Fleet bases and star bases are behemonths. whilst contradictory to the research told in the game, are entirely possible of neutralizing entire fleets invading a colony by even themselves. This chance is only driven up higher with a backing plantetary defense and a second star base or fleet base.

They're able to tank up damage that'd crush multiple heavy cruisers and sometimes even more whilst easily being able to dish it back out. Able to carry multiple fighter planes, large numbers of PD's for those pesky missles and Turbolasers or better.

They should always be a priority to have built, maintained and upgraded. They compliment in any situation they're thrown into and halt the invading fleets to face them as the planetary defenses can take free shots.

But, how do you effectively build them? There's exactly no real way to specify these as they fit into almost all combat roles any ship can have, apart from siege and heavy weaponry. This means they're most effective at soaking up damage with heavy shielding/armour and annihilating incoming missles and fighters. This is because of their huge numbers of medium ports and light ports ontop of multiple sets of fighter planes.

Placing multiple shield regenerating components ontop of force fields can render them almost indestructible whilst able to intercept any incoming torpedos, missles, assault shuttles and fighter planes. Especially with rapid fire Turbolasers. And to top this off, you should have a hefty planetary defense to make up for their lack of firepower, complimenting each other very nicely.

And about planetary defenses, they should have the main focus of dealing out the huge damage with either heavy railguns or alike for the reasons explained above. However, if in doubt, attaching a set of PD Turbolasers with rapid fire can change the battle as the planet will be able to intercept similarly to the described orbital platforms.

Ground Defenses:

These are pretty straight forward and serve more as a last ditch effort. They'll persist the invaders by lowering their chances to succesfully invade a planet, especially with casualities. Tanks and its upgrades are the best at doing this in terms of raw power to unit, but special units like Marauders and Space Marines can be just as, or even more, useful and powerful. They're much more cheaper to make and can have 3 defense power with the right research done. Making you able to mass them for cheaper prices and matching a Mech with only two Marauders or Space Marines.

In the end, you should think of ground defenses as a last ditch to be able to send reinforcements to the invading forces.

I'll be continuing this section soon, please do tell how I could improve the guide or give your personal opinions in the comments. Thanks!