Hi!

Could anyone explain how battles exactly work? 

1) Do battle plans counter each other in any way like cards in ES1? What doesa star in the extended preparations window exactly mean? It was told that Short counters Medium, Medium - Long and Long - Short. How does that work? Is it about weapon type or battle plan? Absolutely confused around this part :).

2) What does range efficiency mean? 0%=no fire and 50%=halved accuracy (damage)?

3) Are boardside ships more vulnerable to shots? Is there any advantage in broadside positioning - especially given that it prevents some of weapons from shooting?

4) Do heavy armoured/shielded ships protect the others somehow?

5) Is there any kind of laser/kinetic barrage that stops missiles?

6) Do engines increase speed in battle so that kinetic weapons could begin shooting earlier?

1) Do battle plans counter each other in any way like cards in ES1? What doesa star in the extended preparations window exactly mean? It was told that Short counters Medium, Medium - Long and Long - Short. How does that work? Is it about weapon type or battle plan? Absolutely confused around this part :).

--"Long beats short because most long range weapons will become inactive in battle during the MID and SHORT faze. Or the long range weapon become inaccurate in MID faze.

You can see this youself when your in the ship building tab when selecting weapons you can see the ranges and if they are , Weak, Average or Optimal.

Same applies for the other ranges. I have no idea if there are dedicated Optimal Mid ranged weapons, and if they are it's late game. But I would imagine They are inactive in CLOSE faze, Avarage in LONG faze and Optimal in MID faze."

2) What does range efficiency mean? 0%=no fire and 50%=halved accuracy (damage)?

--"Where do you see range efficiency? Does my above answer help with this qestion?"

3) Are boardside ships more vulnerable to shots? Is there any advantage in broadside positioning - especially given that it prevents some of weapons from shooting?

*EDIT*

--"No idea about the vulnerability. I did notice weapons don't fire if they are on the other side of the ship. and I really don't see the point of having a double sided weapon slot if they are not going to be used :\  *EDIT* Okay! So, You CAN get flanked from both sides. Two AI flotillas can engage you! so Picking broadside would be okay but picking interlock would get you FLANKED in this case the double sided weapon mod would come in handy.  Each enemy AI flotilla can choose their own battle plan! Beware!

I saw no advantage when using it other then what the battle plan states. The AI is most likely going to pick the most compatible weapon plan, so if you have a flotilla that specializes in taking out short range flotillas (80-100% close range compatibility) then pick the sniper battle plan as you get a 'star' for countering it since close range weapons are inactive in the LONG faze. Just be sure you can destroy all the enemy ships in that faze otherwise you'll be sitting ducks if all you have is long ranged weapons. Make sure you have a mix of all the ranges in your Flotilla. Or at least LOTS of long range with some med range."

4) Do heavy armoured/shielded ships protect the others somehow?

--"You know, I've been pondering this myself. I see shields 'react' when fired apon with projectiles but we'll never know. Dev please help with this question..."

5) Is there any kind of laser/kinetic barrage that stops missiles?

--"Here's the only thing I've noticed. Missiles do get stopped or blown up in combat. I see some type of flank fire once the missiles get to a certain range and then the flank fire stops after the missiles get past that point.

DURING THAT POINT I'am guessing the game rolls or calculates something if the missiles pass that point or get blown up. If they pass they hit a ship. 

The % of the missile getting hit equals to the amount of ships firing this flank fire. IE the more ships you have in your flotilla, the less of a chance that a missile will pass. You know, depending how many missiles they are.  4 missiles coming to hit an ARC ship from the energy religious scum's flotilla (1 ship) most likely all missiles hit however if there are 2-4 ships then maybe only 2 go threw maybe all.

But after that I only see projectile defense helping lessen the damage from a missile hit, but that's all I know."

6) Do engines increase speed in battle so that kinetic weapons could begin shooting earlier?

--"This is also something the Dev needs to help with. But I'am guess NO, it only helps with the galaxy movement. And HP in combat.

I never noticed a change when I upped all my engines to yellow lvl 2 engines from white lvl 1 engines I saw no change in combat whatsoever other then having more HP."