Space Battles

"The real-time combat you'll see in MOO3 is original. It's not C&C in space. It's not a click-fest, it's not pulse-pounding. It's a deep, thinking-man's space/naval combat simulation with maneuver on the Task Force and Fleet level."

1. General
2. Graphics/Sounds
3. Combining fleets with allies

1.
Before every space battle, there is a planning segment where both sides select their strategy in approach and intensity to the battle (among other things). After that planning phase the REAL-TIME combat starts and of course you'll be able to make adjustments if you feel they will help you achieve your goal in that battle.
   You'll have fleets bigger than anything you ever saw in MoO2. They'll be organized into task forces, and so on. Every ship has its own captain, who has his or her affect on the battle (you don't need to select the captains by yourself - they are a product of your race, government, military traditions, etc.). How rapidly your task forces and their individual ships respond is a function of many things, including training/doctrine, Leadership, and morale.
Combat will occur at a thoughtful pace. Often, the best thing to do at a particular moment will be nothing but just keeping your eyes open and your mind working and watch the situation develop for a little longer before committing to some change in plan - MOO3 is a game about keeping your focus.

2.
Each weapon has it's own unique visual effect, sound and visual effect associated with impacting on shields. The battle will not only be an amazing light show, but because of all the effects having a concrete game meaning in terms of firepower, damage, etc. it'll give you real game feedback.

3.
It will be possible to combine your fleet with an ally to fight a common enemy, but only ONE commander for each side. So an ally may send you his fleet as support and you'll control it together with your own fleet. Of course the allied fleet will not act exactly like yours depending on their doctrine, etc. And you should give the allied fleet wise orders - for example: if your allied race tends to retreat than fighting to death, you should be careful because its task force commander might countermand your orders when ordering him to fight to death.
Also if your allies suffer the brunt of damage inflicted by your enemies, it could influence the relationship between the races in a negative way.