Nuggets

I've just read in the help files (included with the game, accessible from the Help menu) that if you have both CB towers and sensor towers, the CB will take precedence when it comes to targetting - so your artillery/missiles will shoot at enemy artillery/missiles first, before attacking other targets.

I'm not sure what happens in the case of a wide spectrum sensor, I assume that as it has CB functionality that the CB will still take precedence.

Anyway, this is a great reason to build CB towers early in the game - so your arty will attack enemy arty first and thus survive longer to attack other targets later.

I also read that your droids have an initial in-built sensor range of just 8 tiles (before upgrades). Even a basic mortar weapon on a droid has an initial range of 18 tiles. So if you assign indirect fire droids to a sensor (tower or droid) then they get to use much more of their weapon range, making them way more effective.

I'd always thought that researching stronger base structure materials would make my defence structures stronger.

I was wrong.

It's actually the research of stronger walls (though to Plasteel Mk3) that makes them stronger.

Base structure materials only applies to factories, HQ, repair/rearm, and things like that. You should still research a few though, because sooner or later enemy VTOLs will target your factories.

What happens if you start researching something your ally is already researching?

Does it:

1. Speed up the research, because you're both researching the same thing?
2. Have no effect other than to waste a load of your power / research points?

The correct answer is 2. So, always research something that your ally is not researching.