front line sb's are armored and gunned up as much as possible. strike craft are always fighters since the sb's do not have anti-strike craft capabilities.
I prefer fully upgraded strike craft with mostly bombers, PJI, Repair bays and hanger bays. I put my fighters in the hanger bays. I want them to suffer if they try spamming carriers, vasari sb, or capitals at my front/rear line. Worst case they switch to fighters and actually have to engage the starbase to remove the PJI or kill the base. I like Meteor control (econ and research permitting) to handle the up and close.
Back to the main thread though. Advent starbases do a good job of pushing back enemy culture and pushing your own culture. I've been succussful at putting an Advent starbase on the rear line with culture spam upgrades to knock out enemy planets. There are still plenty of military upgrades to add to make the starbase formadible should you be attacked from your rear guard. Again, PJI (2-3 or more) are a must when setting up rear and forward starbases. It doesn't do much good to have a fully upgraded starbase that is easily skipped by jumping to the next planet unimpeded.
I actually think the non-combat upgrades (excluding choke points) are more important for TEC and Advent as starbases can be little more than a hickup if not setup correctly or the enemy is skilled at destroying them anyway. As stated above the trade port line extension is probably the most utilized outside of last ditch defense efforts. Vasari players appear to use Starbases as the main way of attacking enemy planets-> move small fleet and migrator to enemy world, construct starbase, destroy structures/fleet, bomb planet, rinse and repeat. Seriously, if Vasari is at your door step you better have Carrier Caps and/or carriers ready to deal with this.
