Gridding

From TradeWars Documentation Wiki

The Grid and Gridding is important to the game. A grid is a map of your fighters throughout the universe that gives you incoming reports on when a player or alien enters your sectors. The grid will also act as a defensive screen against ether probes. The more fighters deployed, the farther away from your base the ether probes will be stopped. This makes it more difficult to find your base.

Usually 1 fighter is left per sector but some players leave more. Keep in mind that it usually takes more than one fighter to kill a sector fighter. So leaving one fighter per sector will keep your opponent spending more than you if they want to hold that sector. If you are not colonizing or pair port trading, explore and extend your grid and keep gridding and go back and buy more fighters if you run low at a class 0 port or the star dock. It is basically marking your territory and usually defensive or toll fighters are used. Beware if you choose to use toll fighters, it might seem less aggressive to your opponent, yet they could pay the toll and then lay mines, either armid or limpets that will be a rude surprise if you warp to your toll fighter later. Gridding can work like RADAR if used properly.