How does a 5K Star Hold lose to a 2.8K fleet?
I have positive energy, so the Star Hold shouldn't be decommissioned, but this keeps happening.
For example: I've locked in a species and they can't spread any more. At both possible points of passage that I own, I've place heavily upgraded Star Holds with Disruption Field, Target Uplink and 4 Hangar Bays, not to mention defense platforms, making my Star Hold reach 5K in military might.
With low income, the species can't put together all that mighty of a fleet, but they still somehow manage to put together a 2.8K fleet, and then declare war on me to finally be able to expand.
What I expect to happen next is for their fleet to fail to breach my defenses. But they actually manage to destroy the Star Hold.
How do I stop this from ever happening again once and for all? If I have a superior economy, more means, and more people, I expect that putting all my chips on one star system would have me win in that one star system. How does a fleet at barely over half the strength beat a Star Hold?
How does a 5K Star Hold loose to a 2.8K fleet?
Most of the rating is due to the armor of the base, and the amount of time it takes to destroy it. However, all this armor doesn't protect the platforms or the fighters.
The usual fight goes like this:
- The Star Hold launches fighters, but they quickly get killed because they have barely any armor;
- The attacker destroys the platforms one by one
- The Star Hold is now idle and can't move, so the attacker can attack it without any danger
- After some time, the Star Hold is finally destroyed
Just like the Medieval fortresses, those bases can hold out for some time. But they will surrender if the relief force never arrives. All they do is buy time to gather this relief force.
So keep your fleet nearby and jump to the system as soon as he attacks, and you have a good chance to catch and destroy his fleet.
If I had to guess (and without better details on the exact loadout of your defensive structures, and the composition of the enemy fleet, I do have to guess)... I'd say whatever the enemy is bringing to the fight counters what you are using enough to cancel out a few thousand worth of strength difference.
First: what weapon type(s) are you using? Are you layering your damage types? If you've mostly got missiles, they might be shredded by point defence. Kinetic is hampered by high armor, and energy is weaker against shields.
Second: what size weapons are you using? Large weapon placement have lower tracking which means they cancel out less of their target's evasion. A small species you are keeping contained would likely have more smaller ships with high evasion.
So if, for example, you are mostly using strike craft and missiles in large slots; and the enemy comes in with a nimble fleet of corvettes and destroyers with sufficient point defence, they can avoid most of your superior damage and chip away at your stations.