Battleship Combat

Here we have the battleship
What it lacks on speed and movement it makes up for firepower, defenses, armor, and hit points (HP) to boot.  Arguably better then the dreadnought because it has the better weapon, defense, and tech load-outs.
These are perhaps the most popular big capital ship as they have an enormous advantage in firepower and defense. This is one of my favorites. However, at the cost of all this offense and defense is a lack of speed and turning. You're flying a boat, so expect it to a like one. You won't be kiting in these.
These are meant for head-to-head combat, so get in there and mix it up.
Proper formations and ship movements are essential to keep the more agile ships from getting into your blind spots.
Don't EVER fly one of these without at least one close range weapon.
It's equal to a death sentence unless you think you can get into web formation and nail them by spreading out. That is your only defense against rush blitzes.
However, if they spread out each smaller one and attach onto each ship like a leech you might be in serious trouble. Then you have some very fancy finger work to do trying to target each ship.
I'll say it one more time, the bigger the ship the more carefully you have to plan how to use it. They are slow so you are not going to be running or kiting anything.
One effective strategy I like to call "dropping" can be used to compensate for the battleship's lack of speed when pursuing NPC ships that have long range weapons. Select the ship in the lower-right corner of your fleet formantion icon, and make it stop or travel in the opposite direction of the fleeing NPC ships. This ship is almost always targeted by the NPC ships, and they will usually turn around right into the range of the rest of your battleships when you perform this manuver, quickly destroying them. However, you have to be cautious with this strategy, as higher level NPC fleets often have ships eqquiped with disintegration rays, and this can bring them into range with your other battleships if you are not careful.
As far as load-outs, it's not as flexible as the smaller ships. As mentioned earlier, you're in a boat, so you won't be going very fast. You need a well rounded mix. I've seen some pretty nice load-outs which are below:
*Full (5) Pulse Laser- Tech: Mass Lightening, Backscatter Refractor, Cooling Coils, and Particle Lens.
*Hybrid 1: 4 Pulse Laser, 1 Graviton Bomb- Tech: Mass Lightening, Backscatter Refractor, Cooling Coils, and Particle Lens.
*Hybrid 2: 3 Pulse Laser, 2 Graviton Bomb- Tech: Mass Lightening, Backscatter Refractor, Cooling Coils, and Particle Lens.
This can be a very good setup for burning down single ships very quickly. The danger of full laser is still that minimum range, however it's not that big of an issue. With Graviton Bombs you have close range weapons with a decent range, 600, which is nothing to sniff at.
*Balance 1: 3 Pulse Laser, 2 Antimatter Torpedo- Tech: Mass Lightening, Backscatter Refractor, Shaped Charge, Impeller Nodes
*Balance 2: 2 Pulse Laser, 2 Antimatter Torpedo, 1 Graviton Bomb- Tech: Mass Lightening, Backscatter Refractor, Shaped Charge, Impeller Nodes
*Balance 3: 3 Antimatter Torpedo, 2 Graviton Bomb- Tech: Mass Lightening, Backscatter Refractor, Shaped Charge, Guidance Module
This features a balance with single target damage-per-second (DPS) for smaller ships and grouped fleets. Torpedoes are a very common weapon found on nearly every ship type.
The last is a torpedo boat. This is a unique setup that can work very well and decimate opponents that are grouped up. If anything tries to close in, your Graviton Bombs will fry them. Extremely effective in the hands of a skilled pilot.
*Full Rail: 5 Railgun- Tech: Mass Lightening, Mass Amplifier, Linear Accelerator, Assessor Module
*Hybrid 1: 3 Strike Cannon, 2 Railgun- Tech: Mass Lightening, Mass Amplifier, Linear Accelerator, Assessor Module
*Hybrid 2: 3 Railgun, 2 Particle Blaster- Tech: Mass Lightening, Mass Amplifier, Linear Accelerator, Assessor Module
Similar to a full laser setup for single target DPS burn. However, the railguns have less of a minimum range than the pulse lasers, so its less of a concern than with the laser ship. You do sometimes have to worry about the more mobile ships dodging the projectiles. 
If using the strike cannon-railgun comb,o it gives you a bit more flexibility for both minimum and long range. Also the railgun and particle blaster can give you great DPS, but you'll need to get close to use the more powerful particles. 
If you're facing other capital ships, this can work well.
Proj Hybrid 1: 3 Railgun, 2 Antimatter Torpedo- Tech: Mass Lightening, Mass Amplifier, Shaped Charge, Guidance Module
*Proj Hybrid 2: 2 Strike Cannon, 2 Antimatter Torpedo, 1 Particle Blaster- Tech: Mass Lightening, Mass Amplifier, Shaped Charge, Guidance Module
*Proj Hybrid 3: 3 Antimatter Torpedo, 2 Particle Blaster- Tech: Mass Lightening, Mass Amplifier, Shaped Charge, Guidance Module
DPS + AOE in this combo, similar to the laser combo. Small fry dodging projectiles is a concern, but not overly much. The torpedoes should help with that. Strike cannons plus torpedoes focuses on more of a ranged fight, but you have close protection for backup. 
The torpedo boat is similar to the beam one, only using projectiles.
===Defenses===
The heavy capital ships are designed with shields and armor in mind. 
Their massive HP gives a huge boost to shields and they have a very nice bonus to armor. You can add active defenses, but this is debated. 
Along with dreadnoughts, they have the most defenses of any ships.
*Full Shield: Phase Shield, Concussive Shield Shield, Energy Shield, Kinetic Shield
*Full Armor: Neutronium Armor, Deflector Armor, Dispersion Armor, Plastisteel Armor
*Universal: Phase Shield, Deflector Armor, Dispersion Armor, Plastisteel Armor
*Anti-Beams: Phase Shield, Energy Shield, Distortion Web, Dispersion Armor
*Anti-Projectile: Kinetic Shield, Concussive Shield, Deflector Armor, Plastisteel Armor
*Anti-Energy: Phase Shield, Energy Shield, Neutronium Armor, and Dispersion Armor
*Anti-Force: Phase Shield, Concussive Shield, Neutronium Armor, and Deflector Armor
*Anti-Explosive: Phase Shield, Kinetic Shield, Neutronium Armor, and Plastisteel Armor
Lots of options here. You can do well rounded defenses or stack it for superior protection against certain damage. Quite often the full shield, full armor, and universal work very well.
With FULL SHIELDS you have massive amount of stacking shield protection. 458 to all damage protection (45% total) This would essentially net you about 900,000 HP worth of shields against any single type damage.
Full armor forgoes any shields and uses the power of pure armor to negate a massive percentage of damage. You'll have an impressive 1307 armor, which equates to about a constant 60% damage reduction from all sources. Example: Against a capital ship with full pulse lasers, this 60% reduction equates to 321,000 dmg per minute negated with 214,000 remaining using base damage. With 900K hp, it would take a over 4 minutes of full sustained damage to take out 1 ship.
Now you might think this isn't much, however against certain weapons this makes them extremely effective. 
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IMPORTANT NOTE
Armor is essentially useless against weapons with penetration. 2/3 sets of weapons have penetration on them. The only weapons without innate penetration are: Pulse Laser, Strike Cannon, and Graviton Bomb. Interestingly enough, pulse lasers and strike cannons are the two most common weapons used in the game.
To illustrate the difference between the two, lets look at two different sustained damages against (5) Pulse Laser V.
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HP / Shields:
294K / 240K - 1 min
294K / 240K - 2 min
294K / 240K - 3 min
24K / 20K - 5 seconds
Ship destroyed 3m 5s
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Armor:
214,000 - 1 min
214,000 - 2 min
214,000 - 3 min
214,000 - 4 min
44K - 13 sec
Ship destroyed 4m 13s
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However, combining these two is simply the best single target damage protection you can get. The shield will absorb 45% of the incoming damage. That leaves 55% damage left, however your armor reduces that by 60%. This results in you only receiving 22% of the total damage.
Here again using 5 Pulse Laser V as an example:
Using Phase Shield, Energy Shield, Neutronium Arm, and Dispersion Armor
Armor / Shield Combo 60% / 45%
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HP / Shields:
117K / 240K - 1m
117K / 240K - 2m
117K / 240K - 3m
160K / 200K - 4m (shields down for 10 sec)
117K / 240K - 5m
117K / 240K - 6m
117K / 240K - 7m
80k / 160K - 45 sec
Ship destroyed: 7m 45s
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So plan accordingly. 
If you are going up against someone using energy based weapons, the above combo can be your best friend. Torpedoes will do a bit more damage due to penetration on armor.