~Hades
Moons- When fleet is destroyed during an attack d/f(debris field) is formed, with enough d/f there is a % chance of a moon forming (if moon is formed the debris remains) A building known as Phlanax can be built on moons, allowing you to see peoples fleet movements (will go more indepth when people get moons)
The only way to protect you fleet's movement is to have a moon involved in the activity, either you attacking from a moon, or attacking a moon. (making the safest way to f/s be moon to moon)
ACS- With acs depot lv 2 you can initiate acs attack, allowing you and one member of your alliance to use both your fleets in an attack against an opponent. with acs lv 3 a third person can join in and so on, having an ACS depot also allows people to ACS defend you, helping people with f/s times as well as to protect you when u are being attacked....
Death stars do kick butt, however i believe 300 Lunargaurdians will beat a deathstar (RIP) with 0 loss, every fleet can be taken down, u just need the right combination using rapid fire.
Rapid fire- If a ship has 4 rapid fire over rocket launchers, and 3 on light fighters, and your opponent has both. your ship type will attack the rocket launchers first, ignoring the L/F until all rockets are gone, it also has the chance of hitting 4x in one round, but hitting L/f only 3x per round, red numbers indicate other ships that have rapid fire over that ship type.
Defences- in honesty the most costeffective defence you can get is to bulk buy Light lasers, however it is always benifitial to have different types because of the RF effects.
All ships and defences can destroy all ships and defences, however 1000 rocket launchers wont kill a RIP whereas 1000 plasma cannons will, so again depends on Rapid fire and strenght of defence.
to look at ship or defence statistics, click the picture of it in while in the build que (same can be done to buildings and research for additional information)
Colonies- colony sizes are random, however people believe slots 14, 2, 4 & 5 have a better chance for high fields. It is adviasable to abandon a planet that has under 300fields, the reason being it will run out of space and to progress further you will have to abandon a colony you have built up.(exception, you cannot abandon you main (roughly 180 fields)