Also, on the topic of defending colonies/homeworlds, I don't think I've found a single homeworld yet that had more than a couple orbitals defending them. I think the best I've seen was a couple colonies and a homeworld (from the same player) with 1 energy array, 1 missile array, and a few ships (I think it was 1 fighter, 1 destroyer, one cruiser, 1 battleship). I think I lost a total of 60 or 70 ships to that one. I found another player 1 energy array, 1 missile array, and a few fighters. Not sure if people think that's enough defense to protect them, or if they don't realize they can build more than one of each type of orbital defense or what. Personally, I have at least 15 energy arrays on each of my homeworlds...

Oh, and I've seen some with 1 or 2 minefields, which might be good early game or against a fleet that's just barely big enough to capture the homeworld. Later on against larger fleets, doesn't help much. Not sure if it makes a difference if the mines are on the defense and not at war with the attacker or not, can they be killed off in the first round before they attack?