[God Emperor]

One other trick I get up to is to use my Explorer class ships to move into missile range of enemy planets and deploy missile satellites. Early on, no planetary based weapons can target the satellites at range 8+ so the ten satellites I deploy, just bomb the crap out of the planet unopposed. Try it and see what I mean. Its a little tedious but very effective.....and will work against human players who fail to defend their planets with ships...