Energy Weapons [EW]
Energy weapons is a whole family of weaponry that works by firing a focused beams of light at the enemies. Today it is the oldest branch of artillery weaponry (rockets are still older than it), permanently fighting with the Magnetic Acceleration Weaponry [MAW].
EW's can be considered a long distance equivalent of artillery weapons that can fire on the distance of several millions of kilometres... and almost completely ignores shields, both particle and magnetic. It is also much more precise as evasion is practically impossible - the ray travels on a speed of light, so they reach the enemy the same milisecond he detects incoming attack. On the other hand, the damage is close to nil unless you have really a lot of power at your disposal and you shoot the enemy up close.
In short - they are good as support weapon, made to damage outward elements of the enemy ships (for example causing explosive sublimation of enemy sensor network/artillery battery), but trying to pierce hull armour with them is pretty much impossible without at least a graser-level of it. But it can fire at the enemy a while before the 'proper' artillery duel starts... and it can fire for a long while after it ends and one of the sides is retreating.
EWs can cause devastating amount of damage (especially those of higher grades, which often border with instakill unless the enemy is protected by most modern armor types and big enough) and are the most precise weaponry, which can miss its target only on longer ranges. Thus it is a weapon good for sniping enemy from the distance. It is also extraordinary weapon for AV Defense.
On the other hand it is completely useless against best types of modern thermoset ceramics armors which makes ships surprisingly well defended. But as they are mostly used to create hulls, EWs can still cause crippling damage to gun emplacements and other equipment on the outside. Not to mention it can fire for as long as the reactors are running, since it doesn't use any physically existing ammunition.
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