Fleet orders:
You can give you fleet special commands, some only come with research or levels. Here are some.

Order slower ships to attack faster ships: Normal behavior for targeting purposes is for slower ships to attack slower ships, however you can change this order. You do though suffer a hit penalty on targeting faster ships.

Order  faster ships to attack slower ships : Normally faster ships are intercepted by faster ships on the other side while going toward a slower target. However you can order your ships to hold their fire and approach at the same speed as the enemy ships and wait until the slower enemies are within firing range. However this makes all ships the speed of the slowest enemy ship.

Attack on sight: Attack enemy ships that come into one tile of the fleet. Ships stay in same spot and only attack those in range.

Uncloak or Uncamouflage and attack: Attack enemy ships that come into one tile of the fleet, if cloaked or camouflaged remove it. Ships stay in same spot and only attack those in range.

Move to attack: If enough turns are available move to attack enemy ships that are using long range weapons and are out of range

Self destruct: When plundered sacrifice ship to do the amount of hp the ship has left to the boarding ship.