AI War:Wormhole Defense
How Do I Barricade A Wormhole?
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.
'Tractor Beams: Each Mark I Tractor Beam will automatically grab and hold up to 5 enemy ships. So if most of the enemy waves have had 60 units or less, build at least 12 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.
Counter-Negative-Energy Turrets: If there are lots of Astro Trains coming through your wormhole, your turrets won't last long. Counter-Negative-Energy Turrets provide great protection against them.