Anyone got any advice?  It seems like i'm constantly getting my butt kicked... even by the basic ships.

Move around. That's the best I can tell you. Also grab a shield.

A shield eh? Haven't even unlocked that yet.

Guess it's just a case of not being advanced enough and needing to buy tools.  Having a hell of a time keeping my ally ship alive too.

Ah well.  Good to know anyway.

You have to tell you allies to attack your enemies they normally win but wait a while inbetween each time u seend your ally cause right after it costs the most.

I was military all the way, just over power them with more troops

unlock more health and energy. Also having the mini-laser defense thing is useful.

Basically this is a fight between me and the Grox. I swoop in fire a few missiles as the big one, the small ones start chasing and i fly a bit around to get some distance, shoot a few more missiles at the main and and it dies. From there I just fly backwards but let go of the gas enough to keep the small ones out of their laser range but within my torpedo range. It's really cheap and really easy, feels like cheating. That's what I do when I dont have my shield up.