[LintMan]

Well, I'm no expert myself, but I'll give it a shot...

1. Are you doing tactical or strategic combat? You say tactical, but it's a bit confusing, because isn't tactical the mode where you control moving/firing the ships yourself? Do you have it set on auto?

If you're doing single player, control your ships directly yourself. Overall, you can do a lot better this way. The AI isn't very smart tactically, so you do things like wait for the enemy ships to move into range, then fire on them and move out of their range, etc.

2. Don't know - I haven't tried the subverter yet, but I suspect that you would have to pay maintenance. I think the big Fleet list screen that shows all the ships, mines, fleets, etc has a button to make it show the maintenance costs for the ships, so you should be able to check this out directly.

3. Against a crystalline race, I would emphasize shields tech (armor isn't worth much against shard cannons) and armor-bypassing weapons (to get past the heavy crystal armor) to counteract their strong points. Against an organic race, I'd also go for armor-bypassing weapons to get around the strong organic armor.

If you play Psychic, the subverter tactic might be the way to go. Another tactic would be to go for boarding parties, coupled with engine and shield damager weapons, and steal their ships that way.