Strike craft combat involves, above all else, speed, maneuverability, light but potent firepower, and constant motion.

Strike craft, defined roughly as either Fighter- or Corvette-class ships, are built to annoy, peck, and swarm. Instead of armor or lots of Health, strike craft have speed, making them difficult, if not impossible, for frigates or Capital ships to target.

When battling other strike craft, fighters and corvettes are in their element. In these duels, your default formation should be the aptly named Claw formation. This concave "X" arrangement allows your strike craft to sweep back and forth past targets and change directions quickly while still in formation. The staggered distances of the ships in Claw formation make targeting quickly moving vessels more accurate.

Strike craft should always be set to Aggressive Tactics unless you specifically don't want them running off after every enemy they see. This setting not only makes them more assertive in engaging approaching enemies, but also allows them to pick new targets when specifically assigned targets have been destroyed.

Build your strike craft groups large enough to outnumber most opponents. In strike craft battles, it's often the number of guns involved, not the power of those guns, that matters. A larger force of weaker fighters will usually defeat a stronger but smaller one.

Two squads of strike craft are better than one. Multiple squads targeted on the same ship can lay down a more constant stream of fire by alternating in their passing patterns.

Even with strike craft, focusing your fire on one target gives you an advantage. Picking one target tells the entire group to fire exclusively at that target until it's destroyed. This is the most efficient way to quickly rub out large wings of strike craft.

Focused fire finishes enemies quickly so you don't have lots of enemies swarming around, barely alive but still firing. For those really into micromanagement, choosing the target on which to focus makes a big difference. You want a ship to be fired on for as long as possible. So, when a squad of strike craft is headed directly at your squad, target the ship farthest away in the formation. If, on the other hand, the squad is flying away from you, target the closest ship, it will be in range for all of your guns.

Strike craft have a distinct advantage over all larger and slower ships. Capital ships generally can't keep up with the constantly moving chaos of strike craft. They do, however, have the raw firepower to vaporize a strike team in seconds.

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