Base speed of Conquest is 45 (not 50 as I thought), and with perfect Jets spam it adds about an average of 25 to top speed (Jets seem to recharge as long as it can be used). Conquest moves 45 at times and 95 at other times. However, player will not always use Jets perfectly, so he will not always have his average of 70. So, at least 10 less than Odyssey, which is significant enough that Conquest is not that close to Odyssey (as I thought).
As for Odyssey's speed, it is fast enough to avoid getting surrounded by smaller ships, but if it gets surrounded, it is not fast enough to escape. With proper hard flux loadout (i.e., no triple lance), it needs to get uncomfortably close to enemies that it can surrounded, and there is a narrow range where Odyssey can attack cowardly enemies before they can swarm the Odyssey before it escapes. With triple lances, Odyssey has much more range to attack effectively and can avoid getting surrounded.
Previously, I tried test battles with unskilled ships against a capital or a very small group of smaller ships. Lately, I tested some battles of unskilled flagship against a fleet of three cruisers, seven destroyers, and seven frigates to put some theories to the test.
Odyssey without triple lances was dead meat. Although it had the speed advantage, it was of no use because it needed to get almost too close to enemies to attack, and it was too easy to get surrounded by everybody and unable to escape. Odyssey with triple lances did much better. It could attack without allowing enemies to surround it. Triple lance plus occasional help from a Dagger wing allowed Odyssey to pick off isolated targets. However, it lacked peak performance to kill everyone (although it killed all but three ships). However, burst damage from HEF and triple lance was high enough to overcome dissipation and do serious damage to smaller ships before they can back off. But without enough OP to afford more than the bare minimum, it could not afford Hardened Subsystems and outlast enemies.
Odyssey with triple lance is on another level compared to any other Odyssey loadout. Triple lance configuration is worth 35 or 40 OP. Anything else, including the likes of stock variant, is laughably weak and probably worth 30 OP.
Conquest was a bit tricky. Generalist loadouts that can kill Paragon and everyone else will make it suffer. For this test, I eschewed Gauss Cannons (because I would not use them in the campaign if I did not plan to attack Tri-Tachyon or Independents). Mark IX and Heavy Mauler is great against big targets, but too inaccurate against small targets, so I used dual Mjolnirs (another weapon at least as ridiculously rare as Tachyon Lance) and dual single Flak instead. As for fighting, Conquest was slower, but thanks to better shot range (and AI reluctance to avoid getting into range), was still fast enough to avoid getting surrounded. However, the biggest problem Conquest had was lack of burst damage aside from missile. Conquest needed dual Locusts to finish some frigates off. Eventually, without Hardened Subsystems, it could kill all but about six ships before CR decayed too much. Another fight, and this time, with Hardened Subsystems, Conquest could outlast everyone, and whatever it could not kill earlier due to AI cowardice, it could after they hit zero CR first, and Conquest swept them up.
Legion was interesting. It was armed with relatively common or uncommon stuff (main weapons were two Hellbore, two Heavy Needlers, and three dual flak; fighters were Warthogs, Broadswords, Claws, and Talons), with ITU hullmod being the rarest item. It lacked enough burst damage to kill anything, although its fighters could pick off few frigates here and there. Although Legion was slow, it was able to barely keep enemies away with guns and fighters. But the enemy was unusually aggressive. There were crowding as close as they can without getting much into Legion's weapon range. What this meant was everyone was ticking peak performance down, and Legion had more of it. At first, Legion could not kill anything beyond a few frigates, but once CR decayed, smaller enemy ships timed out first and Legion and fighters ate them up. Without Hardened Subsystems, Legion was on a fast timer too. Eventually, Legion was able to kill everyone (by outlasting them), but its CR was critical. I had the less trouble killing this fleet than with Odyssey or Conquest.
Paragon. Here, slow speed is a liability, but not necessarily total. If player does not know the enemy is coming and does not move to the wall until seconds after the enemy appears and move into position, it is too late. Paragon gets surrounded by more than a dozen ships, and dies. However, thanks to predictable AI, Paragon in the open can prepare for this before the enemy appears. If it moves to the wall before the enemy approaches, it has a chance. The enemy will appear, and attempt surround Paragon. Eventually, they will surround, but not soon enough (since Paragon is fairly durable) before Paragon hits the wall. If Paragon reaches the wall, then enemy cannot surround it, and Paragon can kill things. Enemy will back off, but not before taking losses. Paragon creeps forward to draw the horde back, moves back to wall, and repeat the humiliation, and Paragon has the peak performance advantage to outlast the enemy. Only when Paragon attempts the entire simulator that it does not work due to so many ships and limited peak performance (enemy ships do not send everyone at once.)
Unskilled Astral is dead. Too slow, and unlike Paragon, not enough durability or burst power from fighters to kill frigates before Astral can make it to the wall. It needs skills to do great, but since this test is with unskilled ships, solo Astral is out of luck against a modest fleet of smaller ships.
Have not tried Onslaught.
More commentary (and recommendations) to come later.