Well I have Been playing this game for A week or so now and I feel that I got A good grasp of its workings .
Here are a few tips I find help me win games
Pirates : when playing with more than one enemy it is in your best interests to pay everyone's bounty up . the reason is that the A.I looks at the situation and decides how to most effeciently get the bounty off his head. if you were to from the beginning keep everyone but your bounty A positive number then you wont get your bounty increased.
I actually go games without my bounty ever going above 0 simply because there is someone better to pay his bounty .
A little goes A long way . Although you may be under attack it is in your best interests to often send some ships towards your enemy and go attacking his resources and factories
,of course he will attempt to defeat the invasion ,but with the way phasing about goes you can essentially just jump from one of his planets to the next with him in a vain attempt to pursue.
this tactic has numerous times ended an enemies attempt to invade my space and the A.I has often just up and left my system with his fleet and i assume started tog go home and defend himself.
Ship combat . Use the pause button people (unless you are in a M.P ,I hate waiting :} )
you can micromanage your fleet to much better effect than the computer will fight the battle,use your ships abilities YOURSELF do not have those auto enabled .
and the old rule still applies ,A ship with 1 hp left will still shoot at full strength , I say this because I often see the computer switch fire from a injured target onto a fresh one
Do not underestimate Defense Structures .People often post about how defense is weak. It is not intended to be a complete counter to A balanced attack ,if it were everyone would turtle.Instead think of defense as A Damage sink ,by that i mean something for the enemy to shoot at instead of the real threat.I have seen players phase into one of my systems and find it swarming with defense and upgraded lrm frigates.and turn around and run .A combo of carriers and Lrm is pretty much the way to go in MP.not to mention the obviousness of having capital ships
please add your advice here ,lets get some strategies listed for everyone