Slow ranking heavy PvPer. Just wrapped up Nanospheres, dunno what to research now. I'm putting the research somewhere safe for now.

EDIT:

My stats:
Size Class: Cruiser
Space: 284 / 285
Hull: 2002
Shield: 45
Energy: 155
Attack: 667
Defense: 185
Scan: 6
Cloak: 55
Cargo: 109 / 130

Battles 3730 (Veteran)
Player Kills 558
Deaths from Players 52
Non-Player Kills 24
Planets Found 110
Planets Occupied 13
Planets Captured 4
Missions Completed 128
Scans Performed 163
Successful Hacks 23
Successful Raids 13

Size Class Cruiser
Weapons Heavy Quantum Devastator x2, Dominion Cannon x4
Energy Quantum Capacitor - Mark IV, Omicron Injector
Sensors AI Supercomputer
Hull Merged Nanosphere Plating x5
Shields Harmonic Resonator
Cloaking none
Defenses Inertial Canceler - Mark III
Upkeep: 2.9M
Konqul: Attack +20%
Fixer: Hull +30%

SHIELDS! You need them for planet defence.

Meh, I'll hold 'em off with minefields. If they can get the pop down through defense they can probably invade, so minefields aren't that much worse.

SHIELDS DONT ARGUE JUST RESEARCH SHIELDS.

Defences cost energy. Minefields cost credits. Energy is more valuable than credits.

Also, if you have pure attack, population structures are worthless because if a planet has 100 pop, you're down in just 5 hits.

defense does not cost energy?
You confused me there.

If you have defense structures on a planet, then the attacker uses more energy to try and take the planet as each hit does less damage than it should.

If you have attack structures on a planet, then the attacker only needs to use a repair nanodrone, which they could buy in plentiful supply from the many traders on this forum.

Either way the invasion odds at the end are the same, but at least with defense structures they might run out of energy first, especially if you catch them and can use cloning pods to restore population.