Ship List

Tech	Name	Mass	Fuel	Cargo	Crew	Engines	Beams	MC	Dur	Trit	Moly
1	Small Deep Space Freighter	30	200	70	2	1		10	2	2	3
1	Serpent Class Escort	55	160	20	35	1	2	40	15	33	5
3	Neutronic Fuel Carrier	10	900	2	2	2		20	10	2	20
3	Medium Deep Space Freighter

Ship list a work in progress.

Race abilities

Ground Combat: 30:1 (offensive); 15:1 (defensive) - strongest in the game
2x faster mining
"Hiss" mission - ships with beam weapons can threaten colonists and natives on a planet to increase happiness by 5 points per ship per turn
Cloaking device on some ships - Reptile, Saurian, and Lizard
can take 150% damage on their ships (ships will explode after combat if damage is above 100% and if they are in orbit of a planet)

Build an Eros starbase early on to pump out HISS-er ships. Every large cluster of planets should have one HISS starbase. Eros ships are 100mc each (ish) even if you outfit them with t5 engines (nice but not necessary).
Some players build tons of small deep space freighters late in the game to fill up the build queue, then recycle them for priority build points. The Lizards can do one better - build Serpents with tech-1 engines and beams and use them to HISSS! until you want to recycle them.
starbase-inna-can ships are extremely valuable for getting starbases up and running fast. Null-tech starbases can still pump out HISS ships, and you may not get the chance to make them later.
The T-Rex is a midrange attack ship, and is extremely cheap for its armament. Don't treat it like a heavy warship - it's in fact the least powerful tech-10 ship in the game.
LCCs are awesome but they're heavy and they suck up fuel. Make lots, but be aware that scavenging for fuel in enemy territory is hard, particularly if you're gravid with troops.