How do you fight wars without triggering AFE?

[The Founder]

Getting to them is likely to be a problem until you have Jump Drives or Psi Jump Drives (which can come with their own problems) unless you conquer or ally your way closer. I'd say to just build up as strong as you can, do what you're going to do anyway, and keep an eye out. Like others have said, FEs are not guaranteed to awaken.

Actually, how about triggering the Unbidden?
A guardian awakening does not lead to a War in Heaven and the Crisis Fighter aFE is acting totally different from the normal awakening one.

 

[Darustet]

There is a guide (can't remember where) on how to defeat Awakened Empire no matter its fleet size. I've won against AE which had 1M point doomstack while my fleet was a mere quarter of that on insane ironman. You make up the lack of savescumming by pausing every few moments to check fleet movements.

First, you seperate your doomstack to smaller fleets that can still easily overcome any static defences. Second, you build several massive armies, each of which can take on any planet with full shields without bombing them down first. You position these around AE space, optimally so that when they jump in on AE system, the target planet is close to your jump-point.

Then, you take one of your fleets, draw the attention of AE doomstack to the said fleet and lure it as far away from coming invasion as possible. It actually helps if the AE controls a big territory. You don't need to risk your whole fleet, since once the enemy doomstack starts following a fleet, you can remove all but a few ships from the original fleet and move the rest to safety. AE continues to follow the original fleet. You can confirm that by clicking the AE doomstack and checking its move commands.

Now that the main threat is chasing a disposable bait, you attack simultaneously from all sides with our fleets, clear out any orbital defences and send your armies to do the dirty work. No need to waste time bombing anything. Don't let any fleet or army stand idle in enemy space, move them to safety as soon as they have no target to engage.

The AE doomstack might at any time change its target, which is why you need to use a lot of pause to check its movements. If they have acquired a new target, you remove all but a few ships from the said fleet and now you have a new bait. Continue as before. It's good to set a long and random route for your bait, so you don't need to micro it all the time. Make sure your bait stay away from any planets that are your possible targets. Helps a lot if you have warp, wormhole or jump drives at this point. Rinse and repeat until you have the warscore necessary.

Because warscore cost of planets scales depending on your enemy's relative power to you, AE planets are dirt cheap. Won something like 15-20 from the war, lost a few thousand fleet power against his fleet of 1M.