Alliegance Subverters

[spacefan]

I've never really played a psychic race before(mostly played w/propulsion expert) and I've heard a lot of talk on the Boards about the merits of the alliegance subverter, so I decided to start a game with psychic.

I've been playing it for a day or two and Last night I finally got alliegance subverter 1, and I also ran into two enemies at the same time. So I retrofitted a few escorted and frigates with the subverter.

I also had regular ships fighting. So anyway, I tried several times, in 4 seperate battles, to subvert, and I didn't succeed in a single one. This was with several different ships. Is this just because Subverter 1 is not very good? Or was I stupid enough to fight against a empire with master computers.

Also, is the subverter more effective when shields are down? and what do those attack numbers for the subverter mean(40, 30, 20, etc)?

If I can't get this bLasted thing to work I'll probably lose this war because those shard cannons are blowing me away, and my accuracy is horrible.