[Cheeze]

Definitely excellent advice about missile ships. One of their major drawbacks regarding planets is the lack of control you have as a player for those weapons in strategic combat. If allowed to target a planet, every missile on every missile ship will likely launch at the target. And that makes controlling the damage difficult.

And watch out for the 'damage until all weapons gone' option as well. It is possible that the enemy weapons platform may survive until the very end, causing your ships to inflict heavy damage on a planet you were set on preserving as intact as possible.