((From what I've read, Hephaestus has a anti-orbit defense system. Apparently it should keep enemy battleships and cruisers at bay. I thought the laser grid could take out smaller ships, but apparently not. Defense forces should focus on keeping the AO system online, otherwise the ships can get in closer to drop off heavier equipment and larger amounts of infantry.))
((Yes, they can. The laser batteries can shoot down just about anything, even nuclear missiles. But there will be quite a few droppods incoming, so even if we nuke the landing party as the drop we won't get them all. Defending the batteries is indeed important, but because we need to cover a whole damn planet we can't just reinforce them all. Steve will take care of some ground defenses for the batteries, but the one battery near our base (and any extra ones we build with RU) we need to defend ourselves. And a problem is: static defenses in one place can't defend somewhere else, which is why I'd prefer something like Predator drones to act as mobile artillery, instead of placing lots of stationary stuff all over the planet. They can land wherever they want, so our defense plan is as such: place some mines at the landing sites where our AA is the weakest (UWM knows where we are weakest, so they might try to land there). Use AA and nukes to take out as many incoming pods as we can. However, we actively (as in, with player characters) defend only this base, and the batteries covering us (so they can't drop in reinforcements on our heads).
I think it'll be better to defend 'close to home' so to speak, because as pointed out
((On a side-note, taking a hill covered in artillery emplacements with just infantry is hard as shit. Unless you have grenades. Lots of grenades.))
((Or unless your infantry's handheld weapons outrange artillery. Or unless they can punch clean through the hill.))
So if they have stuff like LESHO rifles, then it'll devolve into an artillery fight. And we would probably win that, but take quite some damage in the process. However, if we try to wait until they are a bit closer, then their long-range firepower won't be nearly as effective.
But yeah, if I were the UWM commander, then I'd drop in force in something like 2-3 places, and focus on creating a safe LZ for getting in heavy equipment. But building artillery, lasers and bunkers everywhere they could possibly land is too expensive, and moving our troops to where they land would leave them rather exposed and vulnerable (e.g. exposed to orbital bombardment). And since this base is the 'central core' of the planet anyways, we just need to defend this place to come out on top. And they can't destroy it all, they want their stuff intact (and they think this is worker rebellion, so if all goes well by the time they know they're in over their head we've beaten them, after which we quickly move in and take their ships with a boarding action).
((Remember when they were fighting that one Something de Bergerac guy, in that big armor stuff? When they used advanced tactics to disable the Something of War? Seems like something you would remember, RC.))
((Yeah, no. There's a difference between being trained for certain situations (when faced with 1 battlesuit, do X, if you have that weapon, do Y, if Avatar, use technique Z) and tactical insight (take that building on the hill. It's surrounded by small houses, like a favela. Avoid civilian casualties, but beware of radicals hiding among them). You can train them in certain techniques and fighting styles, but effective commanding takes creative insight, something sods are notoriously bad with.))