One obscure trick is the "click-spam" exploit.  If there are obstructions (other frigates, structures, asteroid rocks, etc) between a unit and its destination, rapidly giving move orders just as it's passing by the obstruction will actually improve its pathing considerably.  Bigger units will even push smaller units out of their way when using the click-spam trick.  This is a life-saver with capital ships if something gets in their way.

Personally, I'm not a fan of focus firing capital ships first.  It works well enough if there are no enemy units that can heal nearby, but the moment there are hoshikos or overseers the fiend capital ships just become too good of a damage sink.  I'm more of a fan of knocking out the enemy's damage-dealing units quickly to shut down their firepower, and then cleaning up the capital ship once its supporting units are dead or it's trying to retreat.  If you have overwhelming firepower and can bring down the capital ship quickly, it's a great target, but if you can't make it stick play it safe and take down those frigates.

The only targets I would say merit special priority are construction frigates (don't let the enemy build any defenses; these things are really fragile, just take them out right away) and Stikulus Subverters, which are downright nasty.

one more thing how do you use the vasari phase stabilizers i put my ship on it and it didnt go to the other phase point and the front like is there.does it only work with lil ships cruisers no cap ships???

i have diplomacy v1.21 got the economy and all that good works but i decided to turtle because my cap ships are only 3 and low levels the strongest was 4 it was a carrier and i pile them on the outer edges but they attack with a level 6 cap ship radiance and all hell breaks loose and brings in 5 more caps and other ships that i dont know and one of my enforcers switched sides i dont know why im like what the heck-pls help.[e digicons]:'([/e] beefore i know it they blow up my starbase and within 2 phase jumps away to my homeworld with a fleet that outnumber be 4 to 1 and plus the cap ships thats 4 of them*took me an hour to learn the game just to get triple teamed and getting slaughtered .

does the cap ships fit on the phase jump things cant remember the name ???

i didnt get the subverters because they dont have weapons??are they that good.

one more question finally beat 1 ai but the other 1 is heavily fortified on its homeworld with lots of metal and cash i outnumber it  in capital ships but it has a starbase  i think 2 caps and a few daestra and subjucators and light frigates why is my kostura not attacking anything in the homeworld its the only thing left kinda pinned it down 1 planet and i got the most of it -i tried attacking but destroys my whole fleet and ai has a repair platform and a thing that regenerates antimater- most of my caps ar level 6 and up with the evacuator being at 10 how do i beat this thing. i killed the other ai when my cannon blew up its tactical structures and phase node on the back but cant do it on this one-its heavy defended with homing mines the works-suggestions.i got a kortul as well at level 8-if i make those subveters can it disable the starbase????

bummer i should have attacked but instead went after the strongest 1 and bfore i know it the enemy ai has more credits  than i do.at least the enemy ai is stuck on his homeworld unable to attack.can i use the media hubs then i have 1 built thats close 2 phasejumps away can it overthrow it then i win.lol.yes or nope-my mistake was moving my entire fleet over 1 enemy since i got it all bottled up on 3 planets now it has 1 but the starbase is close to the gravity well as soon as you end your phasejump its right there in front of you its cap ship is 4 minutes into joining the battle -and i still lose my entire fleet how about having 2 kostura will it make a difference - i thought the kostura suppose to nail the planet not the structures.

Heh, well, I stand corrected on that one.  Good to know, though if you've got a substantial number of combat units and can get them safely in range of a structure you may as well just blast it.

Then take your time and experiment a bit.  When I first got the Entrenchment expansion pack, I reloaded my assaults against starbases repeatedly to try different approaches and get a sense of what works and how well.  Because of this, I have a very good idea of how many forces are necessary to take down different kinds of starbases, and what kinds of casualties / delay that will entail.

Yes, though you'll usually need 2-3 for every one the enemy has.  Actually "turning" a planet with culture, particularly if they have a capital ship and culture stations of their own present, is very difficult.  If you have them trapped on a single planet, though, this is a totally valid response.

When making an offensive jump, follow this checklist:

1) Look before you leap:  scout the target gravity well so you know what defenses are waiting there.  Ensure you're ready to fight them or are capable of retreating.  It's always a good idea to carry 8-12 scouts with your fleet just so you can sacrifice them for this purpose, plus then you have minesweepers.  If you don't have scouts, flak frigates are your best alternative since they're inexpensive and more likely to survive than other unit types due to their incredible toughness.

2) Position Accordingly:  If you line up your units, you have some control over where they will appear in the target gravity well.  You can almost always avoid minefields and starbases in this manner.  If you can't avoid the defenses entirely, be sure to move out of their range immediately after jumping in.

3) Ensure all your units are present and synced:  You don't want your units to trickle in one at a time, so ensure your units are all synced with the right behaviors and are ready to jump simultaneously.

4) If you cannot avoid minefields, send a clearing force:  3 scouts and 5 flak frigates (give or take) is my typical clearing force.  Warp them in and they'll almost instantly kill every mine in a radius around them.  Within seconds they'll have punched a considerable hole in the minefield, giving the rest of your fleet and entry point.

Kosturas only affect structures, damaging and disabling them.  However, they also open a phase stabilizer gateway.  This allows you to jump directly to the target world from anywhere that has a phase stabilizer.  Once you have a kostura, you can literally invade any world you like.  That's not significant in your current situation, unfortunately, so the kostura is more limited.

The TEC Novalith bombards planets (3500 per shot) and largely disables the economy of the planet afterwards.  The Advent Deliverance Engine increases the fighting power of friendly units in the gravity well and creates friendly culture there (making it the only superweapon that can be used defensively).

Yes kosutra disables SB but only for ridiciously low amount of time 5- 10 sec

Just tested it again (via the dev.exe), using about 10 planets or so with a Kostura on each one. Had them recharge and point towards the one enemy planet with a starbase, sent a ton of scout frigates in to take damage, and then had all of the Kosturas fire at once. Given the distances, this would mean a Kostura shell would hit the planet every 5-10 seconds or so.

I watched the starbase closely once the shells started arriving (it had all weapon upgrades). It never stopped firing, and my ships never stopped taking damage, not even for a second. I don't think the Kostura cannon disables starbases, not even for 5 seconds.

I can upload a savegame with everything in place, just before I ordered the Kosturas to start firing, if you want to look at it yourself without having to waste time on the setup. The Kostura does not affect starbases at all, it seems.

i tried full assault but the casualties downed my invasion fleet to 1 level 10 cap battlefield  heavily damagedwith the enemy ai still  having 5 daestra no frigates no starbase missing both a hostility and the communion platforms and repair damaged-sent in a second wave of new level 1  10 caps and a full fleet of support ships -i won but my losses was bad

i should have split my fleet and attack both ai .newbie mistake.soooo whats easier for me to use tec or advent  -this is my third week playing-im intrigued about the domination effect of that rapture battlecruiser and the tec novalith and kol and nova carrier-any thoughts??/  

let me try that approach -if this works thanks.any thoughts on whats a good next race tec or advent.

ok let me try tec thanks again for advice