The Star Forge - Stellaris Arc Furnace ep 01 - Naysmith Plays

Welcome back to Naysmith Gaming (plays Stellaris)
Yeah, I can see what people want. So, this is going to have a lot of Stellaris in the near future.
I'm playing as individualist machines with the Arc Furnace origin. I just wanted to live in peace, researching and gathering resources, but no. The more imperial empires to my galactic north aren't going to allow that. So, instead of getting to upgrade my furnace, I've got to militarize. Fine. I'll do it.
The Authoritarian empire close to me thought they could crush me. By the numbers, my fleet was horribly weak until I managed to get it into the 20 ships range. But that bastion I made... 1.9k power at its height, and a huge shield for them to batter against. I handily won a war that by all rights I should have completely lost.
To that end, just how powerful have you found defenses in whatever games you play? I've heard that the best defense is a good offense, but here it was the opposite.
Thanks for watching!
Naysmith, signing out.