I've won this on normal with a variety of ships, but in general I've found that with many ships you have absolutely no chance without a lot of luck. If you start off with a ship that doesn't have shields (or only has the Zoltan energy shield) and end up facing an enemy with beam weapons early on, you're going to get fried, and you'll have to start over. The game is fun, but it feels a little too random in that respect. Also, it eats through a wicked amount of batteries, it takes more power than Civ V. This stinks if you plan on using this as a fun game to play on your laptop while traveling.
