[Pooka]

Okay, try this. Don't bother trying to move, just give it the deconstruct and analyze order. If it works, you get all the tech on the ship, if not, you are no worse off but he's still down one ship.

In addition, no one has mentioned Combat sensors and ECM. Get them! Use them! If he doesn't have them, you can take out his dreads with a pea shooter. You will rarely miss, he will rarely hit.

Stealth (and scattering) armor give a defense bonus of 5, 10 or 15% depending on the level you have. Believe me, this adds up. To get the cloaking effect just click on the appropriate icon (a ship with a green ring around it). If he doesn't have sensors to see through this, you can waltz in as you please. Warning: all your ships in a sector must be cloaked to avoid combat. If even one is decloaked, all ships will be discovered for the purposes of combat. If he is just viewing from a distance (one sector or more away) he will only see the uncloaked ship.

Hmmm. A button. that's why I've been having problems with stealth armor. Indeed, I will start using stealth armor a lot more now. Thank you. I think I'll go mine all his back-end warp points and send stealth troop ships to seize his undefended planets. Is there any reason I could not do this? (Assuming he doesn't have weap-plats on 'em, of course.)