I liked using the radar dishes. I could use the Z key and zoom in and see most all of them.
Once several got hooked throughout the map, it was hard to see through all the beams to the other side.
I wasn't paying attention and left one of the dishes in place, red and blue hooked up and crept in. So turning them after taking an island might be one thing to do.
Most of the dishes on the other half of the map, were turned to where I could not connect to them. I think the armor is still needed. I recieved armor as a power-up, green got the nukes.
EDIT//
I don't really want to put trunkports in...
...yeah, but if the islands were a tad larger, not that they need to be mind you, but if they were you could place trunk ports for the armor. I think parking a few might get them blown up before use, the trunk ports spawn them every so often.
However it may just be that you need to progress to other islands in order to get to the dishes you need to connect to the outer islands. Which that is a challange to do and makes it fun as the other sides can creep in behind you if you are not watching. It kept me moving for sure.