So that is true for planets too, then? This strikes me as kind of a strange design choice. I understand that 125 dreadnoughts are required to beat the 400mu planet in a single round, but even if you accept losses, that's still a LOT of dreadnoughts to defeat a planet. It also implies that defeating a planet with lesser ships is effectively impossible. And this is an UNDEFENDED planet.

What are your expectations, as the game designers, about what is required to attack and defeat a planet? If an "undefended" 400mu planet, which takes about 4 hours to create, can beat a fleet of up to about 15 dreadnoughts (if my math is right), what sorts of fleets are you expecting players to amass? For one thing, this makes orbital defenses seem almost pointless. Why would you bother with orbital lasers when the planet alone has that much damage potential? It also makes me wonder what role smaller fleets have in the game. A fleet of 10 destroyers, for example, apparently cannot accomplish any sort of planetary attack, so what are they for? You certainly don't need them for defense if your 400mu colony that you just created a couple hours ago can hold off 15 dreadnoughts. Is there really only a small window of a few minutes after colony ship deployment that you have any hope of conquering it? Again, it takes about 4 hours for a terran or water planet to get to 300 - 400mu.