[Taqwus]

Yup. A ship can have a lot of defense bonuses (up to +50% from fleet experience, up to +50% from ship experience, plus +10% and +15% from stealth and scattering armor, plus +60% from ECM, plus +5% cultural once that's fixed, plus some percentage I don't remember from certain racial facilities, plus racial bonus). And if the other side lacks the Talisman or enough offensive bonuses to hit, well... yes, it'll be one-sided, especially if the high-offense side also got a range advantage and no speed disadvantage (so he can maintain maximum range and thus the other guy's difficulty to hit).

That's one way to design a planetary assault transport that can waltz up to a planet w/ 16Mtons of weapons platforms without backup, and without losing more than a tiny fraction of its shields. *shrug*


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-- The thing that goes bump in the night