Well that wouldn't be cheating - that'd be realism. Fat-cat politicians do sit at home and send young boys from the working classes out to fight and die while staying safe and warm at home or in a bunker. For an industrialist or merchant, this mode of engagement would be exactly right.
It just means you have to counter-attack to make them stop. But the home planet is invulnerable, you say? No problem - make losing a fleet-controlled drone ship cost faction points (whether or not the ship is factioned). Not as many as a player death - just a fraction. Then as you shred wave upon wave of drones and invest the enemy's base, fend off a few player sallies, they are constantly losing FP.
At negative FP, it's only a matter of waiting for the next faction turn to complete and the home base will no longer be invulnerable because the faction can't afford any stations/planets/territory and all are auto-revoked. Viola - victory against the craven aggressor!