[Karibu]

I think that drones are usable only when you have sufficient production capacity. They take a lot of time to build and they need a carrier -> more micromanagement, but I have tested that fully developed drones take down any ship put against them. Of course, you need to have enough of them. I tested like this:

10 drones against 3 base ships. Drones won. Why? I put on them 2 warheads, engines, ECM and couple of shields. They soaked insane amount of fire before destroyed. They are superior when ship has no Talisman or it is not very experienced (ie. hits with every gun). Though, drones are not for novices to use.

Consider this: If planet can target max 10 targets at every combat turn (excluding PD), lets assume it destroys 10 drones at first salvo (assume that planet is full of platforms). Then drones come within range of PD which takes down 3 more. Furthermore next round planet takes 10 more and PD takes again 3 = 26 killed drones. But when the rest ram into planet making 1000 damage (or how much was that planet warhead damage?) and 10 -15 drones hitting planet will propably glass it (2 warhead in every drone).

So, fully developed and defended planet taken down without single ship loss, but loss of units only. I admit, I haven't tested this yet in practice, but Swarming tactics is the only way to use them and it is effective one too. The best advantage of a drone over fighter is that it can have full phased shields, which fighters can't have.