I was just curious if anybody had some insight into what I should be looking at for defense per acre for a republic. I'm new to trying a casher strategy and wasn't sure what to look towards.

Click SCORES. Try not to appear land fat in relation to the countries near your rank.

As a rep you are going to be spied a lot so you need to be an unusually unattractive target. Spend a decent number of turns building cs (early game) or cashing (mid-late game).

Try indy start and slowly convert them to casher game play approaching mid game.

Thanks for all the advice! I started quite early with the casher, probably too early as I am already going that route, lol.

buy as much res/bus tech as possible. When you get hit you only lose 2% of the tech. Build lots of CS's. You lose an even lower percentage of those. With your higher republic explore rate you'll soon make up for the hits. Also, try to get some weapons tech to at least make up for the 10% that you lose as a republic

This

just don't be land fat

One of the best things you can do is have good defensive allies =)
A good rule of thumbs is to have at least 50% of your networth be military... dipping below that makes you look fat...

I also think it's important to pump your spy effectiveness a bit. Most folk won't hit you if they can't get a good read on your military.