Basic Starship Combat Overview
Starships are massive, powerfull vessels, and although they are fast, they are less nimble than fighters. They are more ponderous in their ability to maneuver, and starship combat, therefore, is much like a graceful dance between deadly giants as they continually jockey for position. Effective combat maneuvers involve continually orienting your ship to protect your weakest shields, while at the same time bringing your most powerful weapons to bear.

Distance
Tactics in this game of 3D chess, are everything. In that chair you will need to maximize your defenses while exploiting your enemies weaknesses. You will want to get close to an enemy when firing phasers, as beam weapons are less powerful from a distance. You will want to maintain your distance so that your torpedoes have a better chance of tracking their targets. Conversely, maintaining your distance may make it difficult to evade incoming torpedoes since they will be tracking you more effectively. Of course, you may have a chance of evading torpedoes from a distance if you are outside of their tracking range. As soon as your enemy fires torpedoes, it is a good idea to increase speed and turn the nose of your ship in the perpendicular direction. Continue to direct your ship perpendicular to the torpedos trajectory. You cannot expect to evade them all, so if you must take a hit be sure it on a stronger shield.

Offense
You may also need to target your enemies individual subsystems effectively, according to the needs at the moment. If your enemy is wearing you down with repeated phaser fire, it may be more important to disable or destroy their weapon systems before taking them out. Damaging or disabling one of their engines will handicap their ability to maneuver, making them easier prey. Disabling their sensors will make it impossible for them to target you, and disabling a cloaking device will leave them unable to hide. Alternatively, you may want to wear down their shields first so you can more effectively take out individual subsystems afterward. Try to work down a particular shield instead of spreading your fire across all sides of an enemy.
Tip- As you encounter a wide range of adversaries, it becomes extremely important that you monitor the power available to your ship, the strength of your shields and the readiness of your weapons. A good officer will always protect the weaksides of his ship from enemy fire while bringing his most highly charged and readied weapons to bear.

Defense
Effective defensive tactics include prioritizing repairs in the heat of battle, effectively managing power to your most critical systems, and maneuvering out of harms way. For example, if you are severely damaged, you may find it necessary to repair your shield systems before your weapons. Phasers may even take priority over torpedoes in certain situations. You may find it necessary to boost power to your weapons and shields while reducing power to sensors in a difficult battle. Boosting engines may be necessary when engaging faster enemies. Continue to move your ship to keep enemies from penetrating a particular shield. Increase the distance between yourself and your enemy if they are wearing you down with phaser fire. All phasers do reduced damage at greater distances, although this range differs from ship to ship. Stations generally have the greatest range of damage.
Tip- As good officer, you should constantly rotate the shields facing the enemy in order to prevent any single shield from being depleted completely. In addition, your ship will begin to take damage as weapons energy begins to bleed through weakened shields.