[Slynky]

- what were some of the more popular ship designs?
Seemed like people stuck with PPB and APB (when they could get them)

- did you often sacrifice engines to get other components on ships?
Yes, all the time (just about). Of course, some ships HAD to be that way (stellar and repair for example)

- were attacking Bases and Planets as difficult as originally thought?
I didn't run into too many cases of that in my combat. It could have been tested VERY well had someone gotten into my space as I had over a 1,000 platforms. Tesco hit 2 planets once that had around 10 platforms and a base (and lots of pop) and though he must have hit it 60 - 75 times, it survived by the time I killed his fleet.

- did the game just come down to whoever could build the bigger swarm?
Possibly but training was absolute requirement. I kept a mix of ships but the people I fought stuck to mostly one ship config. One thing was different in combat...getting first shot (at the defending side of a hole) wasn't as killer as in regular games. If a fleet of 100 ships came through and your 100 ships got to fire first, it seems you rarely could kill more than 10. So, having a big wad defending a hole wasn't something to be as scared of.

- I'm guessing that mines, sats and other units played a bigger role?
Mines seemed to me to be a pretty big issued much further into the game. Sats, on the otherhand, were minimumly useful. After all, even in a regular game, sats have a HARD time hitting trained ships/fleets (fully decked out in full defensive components). Add the defensive value of a frigate and it gets even worse!

- Was ship suppy a big issue?
Not to me. The QR took care of that. Before that, it was just a matter of Resupply depots.

- If used again, would you recommend any tweaks?
One thing for me...Stealth/Scattering (80Kt) was too expensive to use. Add 2 big engines and a sail (40Kt more) and you can see after even adding an MC 3 (expensive!)(20Kt), there was no more room for anything else.