Late game - hard - strategies?

Agreed with what Forty said regarding shield boosters and drones. I definitely noticed that the game difficulty increased after the last update, which was a good thing.

Know your races. Trolgars use projectile cannons and missiles, Celestials use energy weapons and lasers, Wanderers are heavy flak and missiles, and the Unknown use heavy energy of all kinds. In the later rounds against races using energy weapons, I usually jump in close to ships on the outskirts to make every shot count. Also, try to keep your reload time down on most weapons (less than 5). Maxing out the drones, especially the shield drones, and the shield boosters is a huge plus to your defenses. in the later rounds, point defense becomes pointless. You also have to role with the weapons your're given along the way. if I have Trolgars for the 3rd map, I'll use their projectiles. If I get Celestials, i'll stock up on some lasers and upgrade the reload times. I haven't tried since the latest release, but gone are the times where you could roll through on hard just using human weapons