GenMarshall
High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
A recreation of whatelse happened in tonights game with Kan, Captain2, Scamp, and myself...

I tried to peacefully solve it automatically with the two freighters, however, I also didn't know two freighters could MURDER half a million people or however many were in that colony (it wasn't very old). They only had the cheapest weapons too. Eh, I can now demand surrenders, the two Liir AIs formed an alliance against me, so I have one small fleet that took 3 of Purple Liir's colonies, they surrendered and I abandoned them xD Scorched earth ftw. My other fleet is still working its away towards the Orange Liir's other colonies, they don't use Node Jumps so its hard to find them.Concerning SotS, the only way to not automatically wipe out planets that I've been able to find (aside from a treaty) is to start the battle and order your fleet to sit tight (or pull back to minimize planetary missile damage), then wait for the timer to run out. If you're lucky, you can peace out of the battle early, though I've not seen fully consistent behavior there.
A bit. Would certainly make a nice target to test out my first atomic bomb...