The Conquest gets a lot of hate, but it's actually a great ship. Let's have a Conquest appreciation thread.
I just finished my second game of the new version, this one with Nex, Starfarer Mode, Free start. Explored, found AI cores, sold them to buy a Conquest, joined the Diktat, started waging war, conquered much of the sector and harvested all the Alpha Cores I could ever want from the [REDACTED] using nothing but these ships. They can take out literally everything in the game, are easy to get, available from the same place where you buy your fuel, and do not require an insane amount of player skill either. In my previous game I used them to defeat the [SUPER REDACTED] too, can't be bothered here since rewards not worth the effort. This screenshot has the Starship Legends mod, but the build works just as well without or possibly better (Starship Legends + Nex = occasionally massive enemy fleets with +15% range and +10% damage).
So, Conquest. I guess there are other ships in the game, but why even bother with them.