COMMANDERS
Each fleet of ships you create needs a commander. The skills that commander has can increase the damage you do and also the decrease the damage you take..

Every 3 hours you can recruit a free COMMON commander.
(Can be more often, depending on the level of your Command Center)

Common Commanders
Spell Commanders
Super Commanders
Legendary Commanders

 To Recruit a commander Click:

MILITARY > COMMANDER > RECRUIT

 MILITARY COMMANDER RECRUIT
Each commander has specific skill strengths. So you need to evaluate each in order to put them to their best use.
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The rating scale goes from BEST to worst: S, A, B, C, D (S - is for special, consider it elite)
S = +30% bonus to effectivness
A = +10% bonus to effectivness
B =   0% Bonus to effectivness
C = -10% penalty to effectivness
D = -30% penalty to effectivness

SHIP RATINGS:
-Frigates:C
-Cruisers:B
-Battlecrsrs:D

First you should evaluate which ship sizes he is best to command.

I would only put Cruisers under his command

WEAPON RATINGS:
-Ballistic: C
-Laser: D
-Missile: B
-Fighters: A
-Planetary: C

Next evaluate which weapons the ships you put under his command should


He gets a 10% bonus for fighters
Lastly, Make note of the 4 stats at the top. These scores will grow as your commander levels.
The others do not.
(but you can add GEMs to your (not common) commanders to enhance their skills)
-Accuracy: 10 (affects if you hit or miss)
-Dodge: 6 (affects if enemy hits or misses)
-Speed: 5 (affects who gets to shoot first. Think of it more like Agility)
-Electronics: 11 (affects both making your ships harder to hit and reducing the enemys attempts to do the same)

You can collect a lot of commanders fairly quickly. So here is how I choose to evalute them.

-Is any hull size rated B or better?
-Is any weapon rated B or better?
-Is Accuracy plus Dodge greater than 10?

I need all three of these or I dismiss the commander.
Since a B rating gives NO bonuses, I am thinking of requiring an A rating in either ship or weapon.
COMPARING COMMANDERS:


-S: +30
-A: +10
-B:    0
-C: -10
-D: -30

These numbers reflect the precent bonus or penalty for using the ship or weapon.

To decide if one is stronger than another I created this baseline test
(Please let me know if you have a more accurate system. crawkev@yahoo.com)

Assign these point values to each rating and then add up the BEST hull and the BEST weapons values. Then add the Accuracy and Dodge numbers. Speed and Electronics are important, but could skew the raw combat numbers.

In my example above, My commander evaluate as:
-CRUISER (B) + FIGHTERS (A) + ACCURACY + DODGE = 0 + 10 + 10 + 6 = 26

So now evaluate any other commanders and if your score is higher, you should assign the other commander over this one.

For the fleet this commander will oversee,
I would fill it with ONLY Cruisers, that have ALL fighters.
WEAPON RANGES:

Ballistic: 1-2
Laser: 2-5
Missiles: 5-8
Fighter: 6-10


-Fighters: A (Range 6-10)
-Missiles: B (Range 5-8)

Don't forget to consider the firing ranges of the weapons you will use.

Planetary Weapons: Only for attacking spacebase defenses.

I am not against using two weapon types on a ship design.
For the example commander used above

So both weapons share some range where they can fire.
If you do include two range exclusive weapons, then the game AI will range for one of them, and next turn range for the other (Assuming theres a cooldown in effect for the first weapon) this is not recommended for maximizing damage done.
SHIP MOVEMENT RATES:
A fleet moves as fast as its SLOWEST ship.
Try not to put ships with different movement rates in the same fleet.

ATTACKING MIN or MAX RANGE:
As you create or Modify your fleet, you can select how it attacks

-MIN RANGE: (Your fleet will move in close to enemy before firing)
The advantage of this is that your Accuracy and Electronics will be MORE effective.
Better chance to hit the enemy, also damage may be greater (some weaken over distance)

-MAX RANGE: (Your fleet will move as far away from the enemy before firing)
You may be able to stay out of range of enemy weapons. NO DAMAGE, IS GOOD DAMAGE!

-Closest Target
-Commander
-Max Attack Power
-Min Attack Power
-Max Durability
-Min Durability
-Defensive Buildings

I assume this list helps you decide which enemy ships to focus on.
A fleet is considered destroyed when its commander dies.

The advantage to these choices are:
-ATTACK POWER: You can choose to focus on his deadliest or weakest ships first
-DURABILITY: You can choose to focus on his best defended ships or worst.
-DEF BUILDINGS: You can shoot at enemy base defenses instead of enemy ships first.