I was playing a game against the Dread Lords, tech trading turned off, "Normal" difficulty. The Paulos very clearly broke into my database and stole all my technology, because they went from fighters armed with laser/deflector directly to frigates and battleships with disruptors/ult invulnerability. Other than the Dread Lords, I was the only civ that advanced. Everyone else was still using early phasors and deflectors.

Anyway.... The Paulos launched a frigate and started whomping the Dread Lords and invaded one of their planets. Then the frigate heads toward a cluster a DL ships (a rally point I guess) and another troop ship launches. On the way to the next planet, the troop ship is ambushed and destroyed. The frigate vanished. Completely gone, as if they decommissioned it in the middle of a battle.

A little later, they did the same thing with a battleship. They launch it toward a bunch of DL planets, a troop ship well behind it is ambushed and suddenly the battleship vanishes.

What in the world were they doing?