Woo woo! 5 against 8 raiders and I won!

[Cassey]

Lost one of my crew, but took all 8 of them out, including those that ran.

This is a new phase in the game for me!  I have hope!!!

Probably obvious, but I'll state some key points:

1)  Really really obvious, but arm your troops in advance.  That is what the Equipment Racks are for.  Put them someplace obvious, like in the lunch room.  You can sell your excess and older weapons to traders as they fly buy - great way to earn money.  How is that for a switch?  Raids are now a money maker!

2)  Not so obvious until you have been killed because of them, but clear all those rocks out in your fields.  I have one door into my facility on the south west side of the building, and it butts into the mountains on the west, so they need to come around to try and get in through the door.  South of that, I've built a North-South sandbag structure long enough to hide all my troops.  I placed all the rocks in dump zone in front of the bags.

3)  Do NOT create layers of sandbags, your only going to use one.  More and they will use it.

4)  I burned through 3 turrets.  They bought me time to get everyone home and behind the sandbags.

5)  Don't let anyone sleep.  You need all the firepower you can get.

6)  Obviously, after you win, collect the better weapons and upgrade!

7)  Try not to give them anything to hide behind.  Fill in nooks and crannies in your compound so that the fight area forms a straight line.  Extend walls so they have no corners to hide behind.  Yeah, they will burn them.  Walls are a lot cheaper to build than turrets, let the barrier walls burn.  Related:  Make sure those walls are NOT in your Home Zone or your troops may run out to stop the fires (shouldn't once you have them in combat mode, but hey...)

  Have fun.  This game just got a lot cooler for me!

[Teiwaz]

When preparing defensive positions, it's often best to alternate between walls and sandbags. Position your troops behind the walls, and they'll lean out around the corner to shoot over the sandbags, which is greatly superior cover to just the sandbags alone.

Controlling range can also be important. You'll often run into groups of rifle-armed bandits who can standoff outside the range of your pistols and turrets. Build your defenses so that the line of sight to your turrets is shorter than the turret's range to prevent enemies form killing them from out of range. T-intersections are good for this.

Flanking is useful! Time your move order to just after the enemy shoots. Move from cover to cover between the enemy's shots. Advance with troops who aren't being actively targeted by enemies.

In the early game, don't worry about fortifying everything. Sandbags can be built quickly after the enemy lands but before they attack, allowing you to tell what direction they'll be coming from.

I'm not sure on this one, but I don't think sandbags help turrets. I've never seen enemies miss the turret due to the sandbags. But often they'll charge the turret and use the turret's bunker for cover, which is counterproductive. Sandbags around turrets are also dangerous for your troops, as the turret explodes when killed.

Plan an escape route. Cycle combatants off the front line as they become injured. Have fallback cover ready if your main line gets molotoved. Enemies can be lured out of cover by retreating from them: break line of sight, the enemies will advance, and then pop back around the corner to catch them in the open.

Check what your enemies are armed with. Plan your defense accordingly. Shoot raiders with molotovs and grenades first, before they get in range!

[willow512]

I found that putting your turret line behind your colonists keeps them out of the line of fire. Colonists will draw the fire instead. But colonists heal for free where a destroyed turret costs a lot of metal, and that's not counting the damage from the added explosion.

Withdraw any colonists that lose health to below 50%

If you have a builder who is not good at shooting, place him behind the turrets and have him repair any damage to the turrets. Colonists can repair turrets faster than raiders can damage them.

Use a front door. The raiders will invariably knock it down but it gives you some time to set up your gang.

It's a bit of a cheat, but if you're not in the mood to fight, have 2 mines placed so they will damage the space in front of the door but not the door itself. Blow them up when the raiders are all gathered in front of that door. This will kill every raider in the raid in one explosion without any but some superficial damage to your front door. I have a single mine in front of my front door at all times, if the power fails during a raid and my turrets are knocked offline weakening the raiders will even the odds.