With some careful preparation, you can produce a situation where your enemy is helpless against your attacks. First, build a ship that has a single missile equipped (make sure that you're not equipping torpedoes or scatter packs, as those don't count). As an extra, equip something like the Neutron Stream Projector that can disable armor. As for general ship specs, make sure that your ship is both fast and tough. Once you engage in combat with your sleek new ship, disable your missiles and get close to an enemy ship, until you are within 2 spaces. Now, fire your weapons at the enemy group, then select the "Wait" option. Provided you survive any retaliation, you'll get another turn. You should still have access to any extra weapons, which you can use again. Then wait, then fire your extra weapon, then wait, then fire the extra weapon, and so forth. Repeating the process prevents the enemy from being able to fire, and you can keep the chain going until you finally win.
Secret ALT Codes
When you are on the Planet screen, hold the ALT key and type in moola to receive a bunch of currency. During gameplay, you can hold ALT and type in galaxy to reveal the local galaxy.