Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)
You should also keep Burn level high ( like 16 is mandatory, 18 or 20 is ideal). There are not many cruiser (and no battleships) in vanilla that can do 18 burn without some serious investment with Augumented Drive , but it's possible.