i got attack by a Bahammonth, wasnt easy, and wasnt fun. Mother [censored] are hard to kill.

Their was one I did with 6 raiders in power armor, if I wasn't there my turrets would have needed repairs and my settlers would have been dead.

Only had attacks by single, badly armed enemies.

I'd like to see a frontal assault on Sanctuary (over the bridge). 8 heavy mg, 4 heavy laser, 2 missile & 2 shotgun turrets. 2 flamer & 3 tesla traps with a few (read: every spare one that I find) frag mines lining the opposite bank.

The small island to the left of the bridge has been named Turret Island after placing 6 turrets on there too.

You can't target the nuke itself, but if you shoot the arm that carries it, will get a nice big BOOM. That's really the only way to deal with them... well, that or run like hell.

As for the attacks, they are random and while defense rating is factored into the equation somehow, it will not prevent all attacks. My Starlight has like 80 defense rating for 40 resources... so I didn't really design my defense, just dropped turrets randomly. It came under attack from a rather large group of well armed raiders, I'd say 15 or 20... and because my defense were so shoddy, they were rendered ineffective. Fortunately, me and my 14 settlers were able to repel them... but with a loss of all our generators and water purifiers.

I know some people find them annoying, but I love to see the notification flash up on my screen. To be in there and hear the opening gun fire, then the siren sounds - if you haven't, build a siren, REALLY adds ambiance to the whole affair. Grenades and molotovs flying. People running around screaming on fire. You and your settlers rush to the front, lead flying. Some of my favorite fights have come from settlement defense.

Haven't had tough fights in Settlements yet, just a mini ghoul rush and occasional raider. What's fun for me is when all my turrets suddenly come alive it's like "now you get to be on the other side of a surprise turret!" It's like cross fires everywhere and the dakka sound....

As to suiciders... I tend to just kill them with shots to the chest, that way I get a mini nuke for loot.

In 60 hours of playing, I've only ever gotten a single raider attack. That was my Sanctuary settlement that was mass producing water and had a slightly lower defense rating than it's combined water and food output. That said, having a 200 defense rating be sufficiently 'substandard' as to invite attack is a bit odd. The dozen or so raiders that showed up didn't even make it 'onto' the bridge.