Since I play as evil usually i always find that i'm building the exact same ships. The AI's that I fight always use shield but various weapons, but usually beam weapons, so I find myself ALWAYS using missiles and sometimes mass drivers. I forgot which but one of the two that i use they make minimal armor for. They usually stack their ships with so much shields that i do almost no or completely no damage to them and always lack on everything else. Does each AI have a certain strategy on how to build ships that they go with every game? I havn't fought many evil races yet as their AIs usually suck and get decimated to the point where they are of no threat by the time i kill the races that DOW me so i dont know what they use.