During this phase, Kinetic weapons are most accurate.

Phase 4 - Melee: This is the last damage phase of the battle.

Phase 3 - Medium Range: In this firing phase, beam weapons are most accurate.

Kinetic weapons have their worst accuracy. The first missile salvo will be fired on turn 2 of this phase. Missiles are the most accurate during this phase.

Phase 2 - Long Range: The first combat phase.

No actual damage is done to either side's ships, and no battle action is taken this phase.

Phase 1 - Arrival: This introductory phase provides time for players to choose their battle actions before their ships open fire.

The sequence of phases has varying effects on weapon accuracy and thus damage output: for example missiles are most effective in the Long Range phase. Missiles fire once every three turns and hit two turns later. Each turn beams and kinetics fire one salvo, which hits on the same turn. A Battle Action(or card), may be used during each of these three phases.Д®ach weapon phase consists of four turns (or rounds),В that determine when weapon salvos are fired. Only the middle three phases (2, 3, 4) involve active weapons fire. Of these phases, 1 and 5 simply display the condition of each fleet. Also keep in mind that since the Unfallen do not have spheres of influence surrounding their systems, their systems are immune to the Pacific Conversion in return, preventing the influence radius of your systems from having any real impact.There are 5 phases in each battle.

The only real counters to this tactic are really the two diplomatic extremes: go all-in with them and form an alliance which would grant some minor benefits to your entwined systems, or declare war and force them out and destroy the vines.

If facing enemy Unfallen empires, be mindful of this. Some simple web searches describe Unfallen players taking over entire civilizations in just a few turns in this way. Combined with the Unfallen's default ideology, Pacifism, and the tier 4 empire technology SLC (Supra-Light Content) Systems, this can make the Unfallen pretty powerful and a very real threat of taking over entire civilizations mid to late game without firing a shot.Д®ssentially, by being able to force peace with a nearby empire, and spreading vines/influence into those systems under relatively 'safe' conditions, the Unfallen can then spend influence to take control of those entwined systems. Spreading vines can also be weaponized in a sneaky, yet frightening way. With enough CP available, this can allow the Unfallen to spread vines to neighboring systems extremely quickly, allowing them to spread their influence into one system per turn per Vineship fleet. There's a variety of benefits that the Unfallen, and to a degree their allies, can take advantage of in entwined systems, but the most important one for this particular question is that this spreads the Unfallen's influence into that system.Д®ach Vineship will take so many turns to spread vines into a system, but this can be sped up to take as little as 1 turn by combining multiple Vineships into a fleet. Vineships include a module that allows the ship to spend turns spreading vines to the current system from a near-by system that has already been entwined with vines. Reflecting this particular mechanic, the typical colony ship has been replaced with Vineships. In order to colonize, assimilate, occupy, or own a system, the Unfallen must spread vines from system to system in a connected web which originates from their home system. But, the Unfallen do still have a system influence mechanism: spreading vines. The planetary systems of the Unfallen do not have system influence radius at all, turning influence into a pure currency with no other effects for them. Influence affects everyone's system influence radius except the Unfallen's. This is a supplemental answer, as the existing one is great.

Endless space 2 ships not firing