A defense guide by StarForce

The word "defense" in OGame often reminds about turtles when players hear it. Some consider it them as "my safety", while others say that it is evil.
But, anyways, defense is required. In my opinion, you don't have to build too much, but you should have enough to make fleeters consider you as an "untasty" target.

People discuss what is ideal defense. The answer is so simple that it is difficult: there is none. It is a kind of philosophy already - all strategies have their advantages but they are not perfect. The same applies for fleet composition. When you think of building a good defense, consider the following:
1. Your rank (points and TOP position).
2. How much you are going to spend on it, and may be one kind of resource is more important for you so you will not spend much of it.
3. What are goals of your defense?

If you want to be a turtle-miner, then you are probably going to have one planet with a very heavy defense, and your colonies will have the required minimum. Anyways, remember, there is always someone who has enough Deathstars to tear you apart, if there is profit. Since they don't comsume any significant amounts of duet, the attacker loses nothing if he decides to send them. When you have 500+ Plasma Turrets, you can leave 1 Deathstar of your own to help the defense.

A perfect defense is that does more damage to any fleet (destroyers and DS are not taken into consideration) than the attacker will capture from the planet.

I personelly prefer having twice the minimum required to surely protect cargoes and daily production of my colonies, and on my main base I keep enough to protect daily imperial production and cargoes. Remember: ABM are necessary! Even if you have a mega-giant defense and a few dozens of Interplanetary missiles will not do any noticeable damage to your defensive networks. When you don't have ABM, the attacker will hurt your defense even if you are online, and if you have them, he will think twice.

Now I would like to describe each type of defensive unit.

Rocket Launcher. A good and popular unit. This is because of it requires only metal to be built, and many players lack crystal in speed universes. Has a 80% chance to kill a probe when you have similar techs, so no one is going to use them if you have "fodder". But generally... it is weak. It is good when you have heavy defense only. And loads of Light Fighters can easily tear your defense apart, because RL will not do 30% damage to an LF. Can't damage Deathstar.
Cost: 2.000 Metal.

Light Laser. I don't personally like this unit. However, it is rather good, as people generally think. It needs crystal for being built, it has the same structural integrity and, in my opinion, isn't really different from RL, but... Destroyers have a large rapidfire against them. Since they are the only mobile ships that can't be killed by one Plasma shot, they are used commonly against defense. But if you like this unit, feel free to use it. Can't damage Deathstar.
Cost: 1.500 Metal, 500 Crystal.

Heavy Laser. Every defense should include this, no matter what you choose as fodder: RL, LL or a mix. They do 250 damage and a Light Fighter has 400 basic hull. That means it has an excellent chance to kill it, therefore, presence of Heavy Lasers well-defends you from an enemy attacking with LF. I'd say to have one of this for every 5 LL or RL you have. Can't damage Deathstar.
Cost: 6.000 Metal, 2.000 Crystal.

Gauss Cannon. The first heavy defense unit you get. Does 1.100 damage, so it is able to destroy a cruiser in one shot. When you have these, flights become harder. A strong player can send a pack of Battlecruisers to destroy your defense (if you don't have Plasma Turrets yet). but due to their small cargo hold they need support of cargo ships. A large cargo will not survive a hit of a GC. I suggest 2 of these for every 5 HL you have. 146 take down a Deathstar.
Cost: 20.000 Metal, 15.000 Crystal, 2.000 Deuterium.

Ion Cannons. In my opinion, the worst defense unit ingame. Low damage, immense metal-to-crystal ratio. High shields (500), but they quickly die in battles against heavy fleet. Can damage Deathstar only if it's shields were downed by Gauss Cannons.
Cost: 2.000 Metal, 6.000 Crystal.

Plasma Turret. This is it. The most powerful unit generally in the game, if not to take Deathstars, of course. There is no rapidfire against Plasma Turrets as such! 3.000 damage is enough to have a destruction chance against almost any unit, but destroyers are not to be downed by a single shot. Have 1 of it for every HL you've got. Fleeters are generally afraid of PT. 36 kill a Deathstar.
Cost: 50.000 Metal, 50.000 Crystal, 30.000 Deuterium.

Small and Large Shield Domes. Build these one every planets. LF can't damage the Large Dome no matter how many of them are shooting. These can save your resources, because if the attacking fleet doesn't have a very big advantage, one more round will be required.
Cost: 10.000 Metal, 10.000 Crystal and 50.000 Metal, 50.000 Crystal, respectively.

So, here is an example of defense composition.
1.000 RL
1.000 LL
400 HL
150 Gauss
75 PT
And domes.

Yours faithfully,
StarForce.

You're saying 36 plasmas will kill a deathstar, so if I attack someone with 4 deathstars and he has 100 plasmas on his planet, will I lose any deathstar?

If he has 144 (36*4) you will lose all DS

Heavy fighters and cruisers also cant bring down a large shield dome

No heavy fighters and cruisers can definitely do it, I have done it before and also speedsim doesn't usually lie.

Light fighters are the only ships that cannot break a large shield dome however many you send.

wtf i attacked a LSD with 100 cruisers and drew -.-

It wasn't only a large shield dome was it? Other defenses on the planet may have forced a draw. Or perhaps the defenders techs were quite a lot higher than yours which could have made the difference.

i think that might have been it, this was agessss ago lol, but since then if i see a planet with a LSD i only send BS's haha better to be safe

StarForce wrote:

If he has 144 (36*4) you will lose all DS

But if he has 108(36*3) and I attack with 4 deathstars will I lose 3 of them or will it end in a draw or something.

Speedsim

Figure out.

No, you need 36 PT for one DS anyways

Heavy fighters and cruisers CAN damage the LSD (they can't damage a Deathstar, anyways).
HF - 120 damage
Cruiser - 400 Damage

LSD - 10.000 shield/100 = damage under 100 per shot is not making damage

I notice that many turtle plants keep one or two RIP's in dock.

Does the increase in defence outweigh the risk that someone will attack just for the debris from the RIP's?

I don't even have gravi yet! - but ideas for the future.

If you have a truly giant defense, a few rips will be crushed unnoticed by attacker's Deathstars. If you don't have such a big defense, they will be teared apart by dessies