Ascendency

Here are a some ideas and ship designs for Ascendency.
Planets:
Planets are useful for a couple of things.
Research
Production
defense
Build them accordingly.

Early in the game it might be usefull to have a couple of general purpose planets

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Heres how to make a planet unconcurable.

1.Fill all of the orbital squares up.
Do not use either type of orbital shield.
Do not put ships there unless they are being refited or constructed. 

2.To fill up orbital squares use: shipyards, orbital docks, cloakers (my favorite, they cost alot to research but are easy to build),orbital whoppers, missile bases. You can tell if a structure is acceptable for this purpose if it does not create a highlighted ring around the planet. Under construction/refit or already built objects will suffice. 

3.Next build loads of orital weapons for the upcomming bloodbath. 

4.Wait. Since the planet has no orbital protection (shields or ships)the computer will keep trying to invade, but it will not be successful, because it will have no place to put the invading ships. 

5.Send the enemy straight to heck with the orbital weapons.