View source for AI War:Wormhole Defense

<big>'''How Do I Barricade A Wormhole?'''</big>

'''Q:''' It would be really nice if I could prevent enemies from coming through a wormhole and then just spreading all over my planet. What can I do? 

'''A:''' An effective perimeter inside your wormhole can take several forms. Since you can't just spam units across all wormholes, you'll probably want to mix and match all of these techniques -- on the higher difficulties, you'll HAVE to. Here are three techniques out of the many possible strategies:

'''''Minefields''''': You can build a minefield inside your wormhole. Since you have a limited number of mines, you might need to move them from planet to planet. If just one planet is being hit repeatedly, you might want to build mine layers to automatically do your rebuilding for you. Be careful with where you place your mines -- try to anticipate enemy targets, and build dense clusters of mines between them and those specific targets.  Hold Shift, plus Ctrl or Alt, and then drag to quickly lay down a large minefield without giving yourself tendonitis.

'''''Turret Emplacements''''': Turrets are the best way to defend most wormholes.  You can easily build them in batches of 5 by just holding Ctrl when you click to place them (or you can drag-build them like mines, or any other placed ship).  Turrets all have extremely large range, so it is often a good idea to place them a bit away from the wormhole itself (that prevents shorter-range enemy ships from even hurting them).  The best distance from the wormhole is at about 50% of the total range of the turret, usually.

'''''Tractor Beams''''': Each Mark I Tractor Beam will automatically grab and hold up to 10 enemy ships. So if most of the enemy waves have had 60 units or less, build at least 6 tractor beams around that wormhole and nothing will get through. Pair this with turrets or a standing force of mobile ships, and most waves of enemies are likely to meet a quick end. You don't have nearly enough tractor beams to do this on all your planets, though, so pick key wormholes to do this at.

'''''Attack-Move Stance''''': If you hold the Alt key and then right-click a destination, and your ships will enter and stay in the attack-move stance (signified with a yellow border on far zoom) until given new orders. If you station a group of ships beside a wormhole, and place them all in attack-move stance, they will automatically pursue and destroy anything that makes it through. 

'''''Free-Roaming Defender Stance''''': If you hold the V key and then right-click a destination, and your ships will enter and stay in the free-roaming defender stance (signified with a pink border on far zoom) until given new orders. If you station a group of ships beside a wormhole, or anywhere else on the planet, and place them all in free-roaming stance, they will automatically pursue and destroy anything on the planet, even if it would otherwise escape their range.  Most expert players prefer this stance over Attack-Move for defensive purposes.

'''''Counter-Negative-Energy Turrets''''': If there are lots of [[AI War - Astro Trains|Astro Trains]] coming through your wormhole, your turrets won't last long.  [[AI War - Counter-Negative-Energy Turrets|Counter-Negative-Energy Turrets]] provide great protection against them.

[[AI_War:Fleet_Command]]