Is there value in trying to manage an actual battle? By default, ships come to a stop when attacking. It seems like you could potentially try to flank or some such, but it's not clear to me that the manuevers add much to your combat capacity.
Then add in the fact you've got a bunch of other things going on and I'm wondering if the battles are really just "fluff" so to speak, in that they're fun to watch, but in a real game you don't have that luxury. You put together a fleet of complementary ships, then fire them at a planet, and largely forget about them. Well, check up I suppose and click the retreat button if things are going badly.
For instance, capital ships have abilities you can choose to use rather than auto-use, but I just can't see any way to micromanage at that level and still control the 4X part of the game. And I'm just playing the small maps. In the midst of a battle, I'll have 2 or 3 planets tell me something is built, research is done, maybe a pirate warning, I need to queue up a ship, trade with the black market, etc.
I can see how I'd actually try and run a battle, but I thought I'd see if there are folks that are managing battles directly, and if so, how do you avoid the rest of your empire stagnating while you do it?
