/qRemove your space forces from the area - leave it open for him to take. On the bait-world, leave a large ground force, to make it a pain to take. Put in turbolaser batteries and ion cannons, just for fun. If he does want that planet, and isn't any Thrawn, he'll pounce. Wait for him to get to the bait planet, and then jump one force into the border system he took to get there. Take it back, then hold it. Assuming that he's taken the space over the bait-world, but not the ground, you can safely launch a strike force - not from the border, but somewhere else - onto him; prioritise destroying weapon systems. Forget about engines and armor - he's got nowhere to run. If he beats that back, he'll have had quite a few losses, as well as disabled weapons - just mop him up with the border force, if that's the case. At worst, you've lost one strike force, while he's lost a lot more - hopefully a nasty lot of ground forces, and ships to Ion and Turbolaser batteries. Here's where one can hope that there's more to individual battles then "Go here, AI takes over, hope to win". Not to mention, he'll be distracted... so you can always "sneak" another force in somewhere else./q A different way would, as you said leave the space of the planet alone but what i would do along with the ion cannons and so forth if i would station dozons of detachment ships on the planet surface, split them into groups and every so offten attack the transports and ships in space to lower my ground casualties.