Battles |
How come when I enter a planet to take it over, I get the enemy fleet coming straight on except for one measly ship that runs the opposite direction, which ends up causing the end of the battle before I get the chance to land troops? Other than the obvious of getting a really fast ship to hunt him down, what can be done about this?

Its a Non-combat ship.
There are several possible reasons why a ship will run away.
1. It is a non-combat ship so while the rest of the fleet attacks it runs away.
2. Its weapons are destroyed.
3. It has no supplies or ammo.
Edit: if a ship has no supplies its speed is reduced to 1. So in your case this is not the problem.
To find out which, just click the ship and have a look at it.
Note: after the battle times out...you could just go to the sector view and place your ships next to the planet or simply continue attacking until your ships reach the planet...its up to you.
Only the Awkward question; only the Foolish ask twice

I like to build fighters
I like to build fighters that are really fast and while the AI handles the main battle, I take charge of the fighters and chase the runners down. 




well you can cheat (in
well you can cheat (in sequential turns) by moveing your troop ships next to the planet in the sector view after the combat, and attacking again...
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an se5a is a ww1 fighter, it is also a car.