Im no expert but i find that the following works wonders:

1) Get Enhanced or Upgraded Hulls on all of your ships. Doing so yields the maximum amount of module slots while also increasing Base Manpower by 50%.

2) Energy beats Kinetic in virtually every respect. Unfortunate but is sadly the case(see #4 as to why). It doesnt mean you cant go full Kinetic though since UE is the lone faction that can truly dominate with Kinetic Weapons(See #7 and #8)

3) Protector/Coordinator ships equipped with Kintetic Slugs and packed to the brim with Defense/Support Modules. Exception being the Heavy Weapon mount on the Coordinator/Cruiser where Id recommend Blast Area Effect Battery. Doing so places a giant bullseye on your Cruisers(which is what you want) while dishing tons of damage against small ships at the onset of battle. Reason for layout is that theyre meant to take damage and by outfitting them with Slugs allows them to counter enemy fleets equipped with Kintetic Torpedoes or Boarding Pods. They also shoot down enemy aircraft if theyre targeted by them and give your fleet the offensive balance that youll need.

4) Attacker/Hunter Class ships get Energy with EMP beam. EMP, all you need is 1, removes enemy shields while your lasers/beams shred through the enemy Hull during the duration the Shield is down. Antimatter variants ignore the Hull altogether which makes EMP the most broken offensive weapon in the game since the countermeasure is frankly worthless. This set-up allows you to quickly dispose of enemy fleets, thereby ensuring that you take minimal damage.

5) Carrier/Dreadnought class can either be a full on Aircraft Carrier or a Dreadnought Battleship. Although Ive gone many games decking out my Dreadnoughts in Lasers/Beams, Ive found that making them into Aircraft Carriers(exclusively Bombers) with 2-3 Slugs to be a prudent move. This prevents them from being at the mercy of enemy Aircraft(since Dreadnoughts target other Dreadnoughts first if theyre in their lane and the AI loves using them as Carriers) and more importantly countering enemy Boarding Pods. Its bad enough to lose ships to enemy pods but a Dreadnought really stings due to their cost. It also gives more balance to your fleet in terms of Kintetic to Energy, forcing the enemy to respect both.

6) Stick to one type of Weapon on your ships and enhance them with Support modules(Space permitting that is.... damn Riftborn Hunter class...). If Kinetic, slap on Kinetic Enhancer to boost damage. If Energy, utilize Plasma Enhancers. Strategic variants grant a bigger boost while also increasing a Ships chance to critically hit. Specializing classes can give the offensive variety your fleets need.

7) Assign a Hero to your fleets. A Hero can make a huge difference and can enhance your ships combat effectiveness to be a sheer nightmare. Such bonuses include boosts to damage and Weapons bypassing enemy defenses via Penetration.

8) Battle tactics can make or break a battle. An example is the Unlucky Arms tactic that sets Critical Hit chance to 0, forcing the enemy to fight through your ship's defenses. Another example is tied to United Empire's unique dominance in Kinetic Weapons. It requires that you change your base population into Sheredyn and finish its quest line to unlock a unique Sheredyn battle tactic. This tactic applies 50% Penetration to Projectile(aka Kintetic) weapons and is exclusive to your fleet(unlike other Penetration Battle tactics that affect both fleets). This along with certain Heroes can yield 100% Hull Penetration for Torpedoes and Kinetic Slugs.

9) Ships in lane 1(top) can only fire on lane 1 and 2 while ships in lane 3(bottom) can only fire on lane 3 and 2. Only lane 2(middle) can fire on all 3 lanes and any combat between lanes that are different from one another(ex: Top vs. Middle) occur at Long Range. Therefore note weapon module accuracy when outfitting your ships.

Based on what you have posted, youre doing just fine, although id recommend #6-8 to maximize a ships potential.

You get morale bonuses if you have more lanes than your opponent. + 5% damage and +10% accuracy for each lane. Also if you place all of your ships in 1 central lane they will be obliged to fire those in the opponent's central lane first. So what your opponent can do is that he can place all tanky ships in the central lane and place all attackers in sidelanes and you'll likely get destroyed by his attackers while drilling through his beef.

Orpheus24_7 wrote:

Barf wrote:

9) Ships in lane 1(top) can only fire on lane 1 and 2 while ships in lane 3(bottom) can only fire on lane 3 and 2. Only lane 2(middle) can fire on all 3 lanes and any combat between lanes that are different from one another(ex: Top vs. Middle) occur at Long Range. Therefore note weapon module accuracy when outfitting your ships.

I'm sorry if this is really stupid question, but why not cram all your ships into one lane regardless? This is how I completed the game on normal and it was a desparation "tactic" because when watching the replay of the battles, half my ships were literally just cruising not firing a shot while the other half was getting decimated. I really can't wrap my head around this system at all :(

If you cram all your ships into one, middle, lane, two things will happen.

1) You won't have the morale bonus, pretty straightforward, enemy technically owns two more lanes than you do.

2) Due to the shipbattle mechanics, starting from the second phase of the battle (I think it starts on the second phase), your ships will turn to broadside the enemy in the middle lane, leaving their rear open for the ships in the bottom lane to shoot without getting shot in return. This also happens to the ships in the upper lane, they get shot by ships in the middle lane, and cannot fire back, the firing arcs of broadside weapons is something like 90 degrees, the turret mounts 270 degrees.

Now if you were to put everything into the bottom lane, after dispatching everything in that lane, it would destroy the middle lane, and then not have a target since it is too far from the top lane.
You could say there isn't really a need to place something on the top lane, but if you don't, the top enemy flotilla will help out its middle flotilla against yours, AND have the morale bonus.

So I see here are many tips that are Probably better then mine however I shall still make a Post since they have way to Much text and numbers in it bbasically this is supposed to be a short tips.

Basics: 

Range-remember it dont send your fleet with a tactic for long range if your Weapons are only effective at short range.

Have a variety of ships in your fleet not just the same all over again. Yeah sure killing your ennemies with 100 rocket ships instanly is cool but what if a fllet with anti-rocket comes in?

more exspensive is not = more Power the weapons might be stronger or better but having to build a ship 10+ Turns and then that getting deystroyed because of an enemy ship with weaker but ten times as much ships or a counter ship is not good

maybe specialize your ships to your enemy.

even Players and Ai are Fan of a specific Layout for their ships and you can counter it by doing the counter to everything(energy weapons->shield<-projectile weapons<-Armor<-energy weapons and so on)

specialize ships for a purpose strong ships for deystroying weak ships with personell as support for invading, weak ships for light defense and so on

Barf wrote:

Im no expert but i find that the following works wonders:

1) Get Enhanced or Upgraded Hulls on all of your ships. Doing so yields the maximum amount of module slots while also increasing Base Manpower by 50%.

2) Energy beats Kinetic in virtually every respect. Unfortunate but is sadly the case(see #4 as to why). It doesnt mean you cant go full Kinetic though since UE is the lone faction that can truly dominate with Kinetic Weapons(See #7 and #8)

3) Protector/Coordinator ships equipped with Kintetic Slugs and packed to the brim with Defense/Support Modules. Exception being the Heavy Weapon mount on the Coordinator/Cruiser where Id recommend Blast Area Effect Battery. Doing so places a giant bullseye on your Cruisers(which is what you want) while dishing tons of damage against small ships at the onset of battle. Reason for layout is that theyre meant to take damage and by outfitting them with Slugs allows them to counter enemy fleets equipped with Kintetic Torpedoes or Boarding Pods. They also shoot down enemy aircraft if theyre targeted by them and give your fleet the offensive balance that youll need.

4) Attacker/Hunter Class ships get Energy with EMP beam. EMP, all you need is 1, removes enemy shields while your lasers/beams shred through the enemy Hull during the duration the Shield is down. Antimatter variants ignore the Hull altogether which makes EMP the most broken offensive weapon in the game since the countermeasure is frankly worthless. This set-up allows you to quickly dispose of enemy fleets, thereby ensuring that you take minimal damage.

5) Carrier/Dreadnought class can either be a full on Aircraft Carrier or a Dreadnought Battleship. Although Ive gone many games decking out my Dreadnoughts in Lasers/Beams, Ive found that making them into Aircraft Carriers(exclusively Bombers) with 2-3 Slugs to be a prudent move. This prevents them from being at the mercy of enemy Aircraft(since Dreadnoughts target other Dreadnoughts first if theyre in their lane and the AI loves using them as Carriers) and more importantly countering enemy Boarding Pods. Its bad enough to lose ships to enemy pods but a Dreadnought really stings due to their cost. It also gives more balance to your fleet in terms of Kintetic to Energy, forcing the enemy to respect both.

6) Stick to one type of Weapon on your ships and enhance them with Support modules(Space permitting that is.... damn Riftborn Hunter class...). If Kinetic, slap on Kinetic Enhancer to boost damage. If Energy, utilize Plasma Enhancers. Strategic variants grant a bigger boost while also increasing a Ships chance to critically hit. Specializing classes can give the offensive variety your fleets need.

7) Assign a Hero to your fleets. A Hero can make a huge difference and can enhance your ships combat effectiveness to be a sheer nightmare. Such bonuses include boosts to damage and Weapons bypassing enemy defenses via Penetration.

8) Battle tactics can make or break a battle. An example is the Unlucky Arms tactic that sets Critical Hit chance to 0, forcing the enemy to fight through your ship's defenses. Another example is tied to United Empire's unique dominance in Kinetic Weapons. It requires that you change your base population into Sheredyn and finish its quest line to unlock a unique Sheredyn battle tactic. This tactic applies 50% Penetration to Projectile(aka Kintetic) weapons and is exclusive to your fleet(unlike other Penetration Battle tactics that affect both fleets). This along with certain Heroes can yield 100% Hull Penetration for Torpedoes and Kinetic Slugs.

9) Ships in lane 1(top) can only fire on lane 1 and 2 while ships in lane 3(bottom) can only fire on lane 3 and 2. Only lane 2(middle) can fire on all 3 lanes and any combat between lanes that are different from one another(ex: Top vs. Middle) occur at Long Range. Therefore note weapon module accuracy when outfitting your ships.

Based on what you have posted, youre doing just fine, although id recommend #6-8 to maximize a ships potential.

If I decide to remove slugs off of my ships, wouldn't that put me at a disadvantage? leaving me vulnerable to damage from missiles and bombers/fighters?

DeoxyribonucleicAcid wrote:

If I decide to remove slugs off of my ships, wouldn't that put me at a disadvantage? leaving me vulnerable to damage from missiles and bombers/fighters?

of course it would, but all depends of the numbers. How thick is your armor/shields, how strong their missiles and bomber/fighters. Maybe the first barrage of your missles will kill their carrier, and due to game mechanics all figthers(bombers) will draw the battle. They wont fight without their carrier. 

Anyway the most effective formation in that case - one tank with armor and FLAC cannons per lane to take hits, and other ships without slugs. , but more other weapons for max. damage