How defense should I have before starting Ship? (spoilers)

[L. Ron Hubby]

Got a very good run, 5 colonists (all psychopaths), few years in, just finished ship research.

I have 5 auto cannon, 2 Uranium, and a few of the little turets as distractions. Several lines of walls, blocking some other enterances, one open funnel to my turrets.

I usually fight 10-13 enemies, all with decent guns.

What should I be prepared for in thos 15 days?
How much of a resource like steel should I expect to have (repairs and rebuilds)
Minimum number of turrets?
Suggestions please :D

[TotallyAverageGamer]

More is better

[AlexMBrennan]

When I did the base defence I had 12 colonists, 40 wargs, 8 autocannons, and got 2-3 80x raider raids a day.

You will go through a ton of mortar shells, and bullets, and traps and should probably stockpile all the steel you can get (iirc I had 6k steel, and ran out halfway through)

[McFuzz]

If your gate is wide and open, you are going to go through more turret repairs than a small, cramped killbox would:

-Centipedes hang back just outside of turret range. Remember to set up EMP mines for copious mechanoid raids
-Bandits and outlanders can spawn with doomsday and triple rocket launchers which can snipe your turrets.

Also note:
-The uranium turrets are gonna shoot more than 40 times a day, meaning you'll need a couple hundred extra uranium.
-Putting every pawn on construction helps. Have 300-400 food bars so that you don't need to cook during the raids.
-I would stockpile shock and insanity lances, and an orbital bombardment or two
-Potentially, set up two different squads in sleeping patterns. You probably want to have them all fight at the same time anyway, but this will prevent the entire colony going on a rage spree after longer raids.

[MagnusGrey]

If you can wait till right after a party or marrige, the moral boost is a huge boon for the launch.

[TotallyAverageGamer]

You need at least 200 uranium on standby for those turrets. I keep 120 in storage PER turret

[Qiox]

Should also have multiple bionic arms, legs and eyes on hand to replace any parts that get blown off.

[L. Ron Hubby]

Thanks for the tips!

[AquaX]

More guns, lock out your entire colony w/ triple walls of high hp material. Then create a chockpoint. When a good chunk of your guns can point and easily kill things.

[Grek]

keep you colony wealth as low as possible

[L. Ron Hubby]

Grek, I have heard that my colony wealth influences the raids I get. I have quite a few grand sculptures (jade, silver, a gold one)and almost everything I have is Master/excellent. Should I just destroy them before I start the ship? (not like they matter much).

[TotallyAverageGamer]

Originally posted by L. Ron Hubby:

Grek, I have heard that my colony wealth influences the raids I get. I have quite a few grand sculptures (jade, silver, a gold one)and almost everything I have is Master/excellent. Should I just destroy them before I start the ship? (not like they matter much).

I just move to a different tile, I build like 10k stone bricks and ship those off, then I send over a bunch of steel, and uranium etc. I just build the bare bones for a base in another tile and abandon the old one