frustrating experiences with SEV

[Dogboy]

I'm experiencing a lot of bugs associated with the combat engine, and I'd appreciate it if some of the more experienced players could let me know if this is to be expected, and if there is anything I can do to improve the situation.

We're now on turn 60, and only recently have been having much actual combat. So, a huge investment of time and effort by all players. Meticulous plans, alliances, careful research and colonization strategies. The works.

A few turns ago I began an assault on an enemy empire, and the combat engine just seems to have gone haywire. First, I sent my main assault fleet to an unoccupied planet with a small armed satellite in orbit. My fleet moved up to the satellite and stopped, without firing. Eventually, a kamikaze fighter arrived, but not before one of my cruisers was severely damaged and another was damaged as well.

The next turn, I moved the fleet to an occupied enemy planet, and the ships flew past the planet, firing as they went by, and went after a lone armed ship that had retreated to the other side of the map. I figures that this might not be a bug, since I had the ships set to fire at maximum range (I think) and armed ships might be treated as a higher priority under that order.

I left the ships over the planet, and switched them to "capture planet", after re-ordering the target priority list to put planetary defenses (satellites, weapons platforms, defensive and offensive bases (still not clear on what defensive and offensive mean in this context so I listed both) followed by colonized planet, followed by other targets. This time, many of my armed ships (missile ships, beam ships) stayed back from the battle, while my carriers charged right at the planet. The planet had two small weapons platforms, which fired up at my carriers, damaging their armor. During the battle, I got a message indicating that ground combat had been initiated and I would get a report next turn. The two weapons platforms were still intact at the end of battle, so the fighters evidently didn't attack them.

This turn (the one following the ground combat message) I got no ground combat message, and every single combat report movie could not be loaded. Furthermore, my ships still haven't taken out the planet.

After all the careful planning and orchestration that went into fielding this massive assault fleet, I can't even take out a single lightly defended planet. It's disappointing to see all the time and effort my players and I have put into the first 60 turns be wiped out because the battle engine doesn't act rationally and combat reports sometimes can't even be opened.

Is this typical of the game? Any advice would be appreciated. We're on the brink of quitting the game if we can't figure out how to make the battles work.

Thanks!