//We obliterate them because they are unrealistically hobbled. Hegemony ships, as a spacefaring “race,” should have nukes and warp drive; I have trouble imagining how they could reach other stars without them. Give an enemy just one of those and the battles will be much more difficult; add in EMPs and Pshocks, not to mention comparable beam arcs and strengths, and even a small Karelian fleet could overwhelm us. Indeed, an Axe with just a tractor and heavy Gatlings nearly destroyed Viper several shifts ago. So, to make Hegemony battles even a little challenging, the only other choice is to mass them.

//Personally, I’d like to see at least some battles planned around, say, nuke-enabled enemies also capable of 100% impulse speed. I expect we would not still have a kill rate in the massacre range.