Ship Design Advice for Crystal

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I thought defense bonuses didn't stack.....?

Then again, it could just be my using of SEIVG 1.61 that can be confusing at times.

It is hard (read: impossible) to fully control it when assigning fleets, yes, but if you're playing Classic turns and tactical combat it can be done, you just have to add all ships to the Combat Group in the right order.

However, you could have a fleet with a custom strategy that includes "Break Formation for Warships" to move lots of ships at the same time, but keep them out of formation in battle. They'd fight as an unorganised mob, but if you make the Cover Defenders slightly faster than the Offensive Warships, it might still work.

Then again, the religious enemy could be using very fast ships with batteries of WMGs, Plasma Missiles/CSMs and assorted other long-range weaponry.....