In one of the campaign games, I built a chain of military bases chained down to one of their planets so I would have the range to get at them. They spent something like 3 ships trying to take out the furthest one before I got one of my ships down there to blast the remaining fighters. This was only 1/1/1 attack on the starbase though. It took it months to get back to full HP...

Influence starbases are indispensible though.

Note: One nice change in GC2 from 1 is that constructors are much cheaper. They used to take forever to get your first one out... That's probably why we don't have things like "Overlord Killer MkII" anymore.

I use economic bases. I try to find an area where there are several planets together, and i space out several economic starbases around them.

I put only the production increasing mods on them.

Like a boulder going down hill, this gains momentum, and you quickly realise you have a produxtion powerhouse sector that has +300% production, and that applies to military, social, "AND" research production. (Not "or", but "AND"... important to note)

Yeah, they take a lot of constructors, but then you can build those constructor fleets while your researching decent weapons/hulls, etc . Ive had no problem buffing some of my starbases up to fairly heavy attack defense ratios, good enough to hold off mid game enemy fleets long enough to get my own ships there to mop up.

Econ bases = Very strong already, great boost to money and production

Influence bases = dont use them because i have so much influence anyways, mainly from conquering so many worlds and having ALL the wonders under my name

Military bases = very powerful already. A military starbase can boost ships in its influence range, it can increasae their speed, decrease enemy speed, give them some shielding and some extra damage (+1 beam/mass/missle damage per ship, even if they dont have any weapons of that kind). Medium sized enemy ships are pretty powerful... I conqured half of a huge galaxy without any civilization actually developing them. And six constructors arent really all that much...

Weapons and shields on a starbased can be put on ANY starbase (mining, military, etc), they are basic defense to prevent it from being killed by a lone enemy fighter, not to make it capable of winning against enemy fleets. A military starbase isnt there to win battles (its immobile, whats the point?), its there to make yours ships in the area are more powerful. It has no advantage in its own combat capacity over an economy starbase or some other kind of starbase (ie, battle stations etc can be installed on any kind of starbase and an econ starbase with the modules you described fares just as well against a fleet of enemy ships).

A fully loaded starbase is pretty formidable. Sure they can be taken out by a late game fleet but it would not be a pushover.

Also, you can't fleet up a starbase but you can park a fleet on a starbase to guard it. Any fleet that could defeat the guarding fleet then have enough left to take out the base would have to be awesome

As to the constructors required, I have no problem cranking out constructors to get the modules. I'll admit it get tedious but there is no shortage of production capacity to get it done without hampering the ability to build plenty of warships.

Should you really get more than one of the same bonus from a starbase? seems a little overkill and like a bug...

You can use Influence starbases to increase your borders around your planets to both give yourself some breathing room as well as to influence/take over planets.

Economic starbases are invaluable. If your economy is running full-tilt at 100% capacity and you still have cash left over, built the +% production modules at your economic bases. You'll be able to make your colonies consume more amounts of that surplus in exchange for higher production. If you're short of money, build the trading post modules instead.

Military bases are the best for when you're at a military disadvantage. Their main usage is not to attack or defend, but is their Ship Assist modules. If you opponent tries to bum rush your territory (or invasion point) with those 6L atk - 2L def heavy fighters, and you have a ship that's got at least 1 atk/1 def, just adding the Protective Fields module and the anti-laser ship-assist module will make your ship 1 atk/ 4L-1M-1G def. Your crappy little ships will become all but invincible within the starbase's sphere.

I think the value of military starbases depends on the map size.

On the smaller maps (Medium or lower) they are totally indispensable. You can literally take down entire enemy fleets with very basic fighters. When playing medium sized maps, I like to start my military starbase early and build it up along with my economy ones.

I keep a fleet of low powered ships in defense, refitting defenses/weapons as and when I am attacked.

Then, once I have a full complement of weapon/armour techs (even fairly low level ones) and some decent miniaturisation, I put 1 of each on a small hull ship. It may naturally only have 1 Beam, 1 Missile, 1 Mass Driver, 1 ECM, 1 Shield and 1 Armour rating, but in a fleet, inside my starbase area, it has around 20 in each category.... more than enough to guarantee both offensive and defensive wins.

That's more for fun though than actually for trying to win.... I tend to like to play this size map for a long time and reap the benefits of it.

On bigger maps, I agree, Military starbases lose some of their effectiveness except for last line defensive strategies (not that I have ever had to use them except against pirates)

I usually have a starbase of each kind near each of my clusters of planets. I then follow my trade routes with overlapping economy tiles. I also use influence bases to maintain or increase my ring of influence. The benefits that I get from these starbases is better than no benefit at all. If I make say an additional 25credits from my economy bases and I am better able to defend and attack within my military bases, Then I see this as a worthwhile endeavor. Besides, Constructors dont cost you maintenace, so you can keep a bunch of them stocked away in case you need a influence base real quick. The one thing I hate more than losing a planet from an attack is losing one because the occupants over-threw my butt.

When attacking, I tend to think that once I have the planet, that starbase has gone to waste (with the inordinate sums of money I spent building it in the first place as I probably long maxed out my free ones)..... add to that the idea that if you have built 9 or more constructors, you could have just made 9 or more attacking ships and done the job anyway.

Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for every tactic and I'm sure your idea there has it's place... but I havent had a need for it yet.

The thing is that the starbase you biult to take the planet will now defend the planet against the inevitable counter attacks.

Inevitable counter attacks? Hmm.... I think this might be a difference in strategies here but the way I play tends to assure that if I am taking an AI's planets, I have already locked down his potential for counterattacks. The forward military starbase would be wasted for me once I had captured the planet.

9 constuctors? you will need no more than 4 to give you allmost total invicibility within its sphere of influence.

I was just quoting the guy above. But now I am starting to think that you and I are playing a different game here.... 4 constructors can make your fleets invincible? A 4 constructor starbase, which probably cost me over 1000 to build due to all my economy starbases, is really not going to provide such massive additional firepower over bringing along 2 extra ships. I love starbases.... but this seems too expensive and too fruitless to be worth worrying about.

Thing is fleets have logistics restrictions, so, those 2 extra ships won't fit into a maxed out logistics fleet, so they are wasted. Whereas a military base will continue to add into that maxed out logistics fleet, thus, providing a much larger and stronger force overall. Those 2 extra ships aren't going to do you much good if/when you lose that entire fleet now are they?

All I can say is if you don't see the value of a military starbase then you really haven't used it properly. Giving a +3 or more to each defensive category along with multiple + to offensive categories isn't anything to sneeze about.

thing is if youve run out of ships to support it - the starbases are sitting ducks - I wouldve thought a military starbase wouldve been a formidable thing for ships to try and destroy like they used to be in MOO2.

You're not building them up properly then. It doesn't take much and starbases (any kind) are nearly invulnerable unless the AI brings it. Same goes for the AI, if you let them build it up enough you're going to lose a lot of ships trying to take it out.

Battlestations 1 is your first upgrade. Devastation beam alone is +7 beam attack. Various other attacks are +5 to start. +5 defense in every category. It won't take much and you'll have a very, very powerful starbase that can defend itself well if attacked. And this can be done on *any* starbase. I outfit every resource starbase and any starbase on the borders (influence and economy) with at least battlestations 1, devastation beam and at least one main defensive module. Once the AI has large hull ships they become more vulnerable to be sure, but for well more then half the game the AI can't touch your starbases. The ship assist modules are for the military starbases only.