[Saxon]

If you go for the SJ napalm run (a good strategy) check for mines first, or at least keep them in mind. Just as you can use them to nicely guard planets, so can he!

I don’t know how to keep your ships close to your planet and would love to hear if anyone else knows. However, I can suggest that you look at your balance of PDC to weapons. You state that you don’t think he has missiles, so can you redesign your ships to something more appropriate? When I started, I used too much PDC and would find that it was either wasted space or overkill. It also cut down my offensive power, which cost me a few battles.

Sure, you don’t want to shape your ships to match his, only to find he has changed, but if he has sunk a lot of research into something, he will have a tough time quickly switching over to something equally dangerous. You do need to try and come up with something that will counter his ships, even if it is effective for only one generation.

Of course, this is advice for after the battle, so it is not much use now.