As the title, says, I would like to open a discussion about people's favourite Strategies for playing this game :-)

Bolters seem useless, but they seem the best defense against missiles.

Bolters are far from useless. They aren't as good at point defense as the gatling for missiles, but they are pretty good against fighters. Worth it if that's all you can afford.

Definitely invest in Burst and range though.

Same with fighters. I don't bother upgrading usually until I can afford the bombers. Upgrade the bombers burst, and get all 4, even without any other upgrades, and they are pretty great weapons.

So after playing for a while and unlocking all the ships, I've been experimenting with different starting strategies, weapon configurations and fighting tactics.

First rule: range rules. Even though maneuvering is so slow as to be almost useless tactically, you can usually control your starting range by looking at the sector map prior to warping in. Lots of ships (Wanderers equipped with flak cannons, Celestials with ion cannons, etc) tend to be shorter range. Even though just about every ship in the game is faster than yours, you can often destroy them before they get in range.

Fighters/bombers help with this immensely. First, fighters effectively extend your range almost infinitely. Second, fighters themselves (when you get their numbers maximized, form a literal shield against every type of particle weapon. I think even beam weapons are blocked, but it seems like that might be a little buggy in the game. Sometimes they bypass fighters, sometimes they don't.

Starting weapons:
I've tried just about every combinations, and if you start with at least 850 scrap, you're good. Buy a plasma cannon to take down shields, and a projectile gun for hull damage. upgrade the range on the plasma ASAP to match or exceed the projectiles (Projectiles start at a whopping 1000 range. Plasma guns start at 800 and each +100 costs 8 +14 +20).

You won't have any point defense initially, but these two guns both have a decent chance of taking out incoming missiles from fighters.

Missiles, even the Nuke, are not very effective against any class of ship, as every ship has near maximized PD even early in the game. If you equip all your ships (later in the game) with missile weapons (missiles are slower, but guided and more accurate, rockets are unguided, but faster with a better chance of getting through PD), you can overwhelm and enemy's PD, but you're still only getting about 60% of your weapons' effectiveness typically.

Point Defense
PD in Battlevoid is a mixed bag. No one tech is better than another at everything. Early game, lasers are best against missiles, but have a slow rate of fire and can easily get overwhelmed by multiple (burst or many fighters) missiles. Basic bolters are practically useless, but with at least one upgrade to dmg, burst and accuracy (6+8+10) they become pretty effective against missiles, and quite good vs fighters. Gatling guns are the best against fighter without any upgrades, and multiple overlapping gatlings with a few upgrades are about the only hope against swarms of missiles or Schillae photons.

I usually start with lasers (one or two facing forward, depending on the ship) with bolters and gatlings along the 'broadside'. This allows some in battle strategy to optimize defense. With multiple ships you can position them to cover each other with a combination of all 3 point defenses for maximum effect.

Fighters/Bombers
I've tried them all. Mix and match, all of one, etc. Nothing is as effective as plasma bombers against enemy capital ships. Early game, I do as above. Once I get all my bomber squadrons to full strength (4 bombers, no other upgrades initially), I will often ditch the plasma guns on my capital ships and go with all projectile guns with maximized range (some of the Trolgar guns have ridiculous range for this!). I keep my capital ships as maximized range as I can, to clear enemy fighters so my bombers can get through, and supplement the damage my bombers are doing.

Build Strategy
I try to get my plasma guns range maximized first (or Plasma bombers). Then step up the damage, then range, of the projectile guns. Once you get the end game ships, only about half the hardpoints are used for PD, the rest are used for shield upgrades.

My favorite ship is the BSE Trademark. With 4 fighter bays, 3 main wepaons and 9(!!!) secondary hardpoints, this ship is very capable. Early game as noted above. I will usually get the plasma gun and projectile gun immediately. Buy at least one laser (this ship has one of the best laid out hardpoints) at the fwd center location that has ~270 degree firing arc. The side points I will put bolters (at the rear) and gatling guns (at the center side). This leaves 4 points for shield upgrades. When I get other ships later that cover the rear with their PD, I will scrap the rear bolters (or move them to the new ship ) and replace them with shield upgrades.

I will get all 4 bomber squadrons to 4 bombers (a total of 16 just with this ship) before I start adding ships to the fleet. Once I add my first ship (nothing beats the BSE Valiant) I will put 2 of those full strength fighter squadrons on the new ship, and replace them with a repair drone and shield recharge drone.

There are two thoughts here. Once I get a full fleet, I like to think of my carrier as a support vessel for the the other two (BSE Valiant class) ships. They are the 'tanks'. repair squadrons are nice because you can turn them on and off (shield recharge doesn't cost anything, so I always leave them on) and sometimes you want to save the scrap by docking the repair drones.

The other option is to keep the full strength bombers for maximum fire power, and replace weapon hardpoints with a shield and repair beam. The downside to this is can't turn them on/off and you can't control what ship they target. (or at least I haven't figured out how to).

Fighting
Use your fighters as shields!I like to warp in at maximum distance. Look at the direction and angle that you are warping in from. I will usually dock half or even all of my fighters before I warp in, unless I know I will be facing directly at the enemy fleet at maximum range. If you warp in and your fighters are undocked, they move forward a ways before turning to face the enemy. If you are fired on with mega plasma cannons or death rays before the fighters can get between, your fight may end very badly, and very quickly. Launching the fighters (I like to pause and issue the launch command) will immediately put them in a position to guard your flank and give your ships a precious few seconds to open fire and maneuver a little bit.

If I know I'm going to take damage early, I will try to warp in in such a way as to have my ships pointed in the direction I want them to be able to run away to max range, especially against the "Unknown enemy" final battle. Launch fighters and get out of range ASAP. Stay out of range and let your fighters do their thing.

So there you go. Have at!