this has been a bit of a controversial choice; a lot of people seem to like the brawler-style engagements, the meatgrinder of SOTS 1. the growth here is in the depth of options; while you can still engage, it will require the means to bring them to bay; faster ships, like the battleriders or pursuit sections (if they still exist) to harry them, capturing the path they travel behind them and spreading your fleet out to capture other areas of the system over a turn or two til they are penned in one possible starting point, letting them run while you kill something else, that kind of thing.
yes, indeed. even with armour techs, you can certainly hurt a Leviathan. but destroy it? it's gonna have thick armour bars, lots of structure. even a solid cutting beam assault is gonna be hoping for a lucky critical to do anything significant, at least at first. they're not intended to be unsupported, though; with their guns, and their fleet support, that kind of concentrated assault is going to be hard to deliver.
drones are reconaissance capable in a fairly impressive way, fast and capable of mounting a quick strike on light targets running a screen against that kind of tactic (since you will get more drones per command point than BRs). Battleriders have multiple functions; some are clearly strike-capable, such as the Liir interceptor which is very fast and has three forward-fixed medium mounts, while others are intended for anti-drone and anti-missile (these long-range weapons are going to be more important; there's a reason missiles have more options now...) work, with many small turrets to cover a fleet, or for anti-BR duties, mounted with medium mounts on turrets.
they have the capacity to add to your power-per-command-points, and when paired with battleships or battlecruisers would be capable of fielding an impressive strike force. your opponent cannot engage just one of your groups, so is forced to split his attention. they also have the capacity to force him in; by repeatedly striking and fleeing over several turns, you can wear down a fleet that tries to stay out of range of your main force. bear in mind combat is intended to take multiple turns now, this is not an accident.
Hivers, right? you're gonna have big wedges of fleet driving in at a single target; this works exceedingly well if you can smash the enemy, but if the enemy can smash you, it's gonna lose you a fight. tactical adaptability; you have the options. a solid fleet punch with a battlerider screen is going to force the enemy to engage you with a serious fleet; this has excellent consequences for your ability to defend the gate from what's left. he can't spare the ships. but if he outnumbers you in command points, or system defense boats? your fleet has to be split to defend the gate, which means he can split his fleet to attack it, tie up your fleet with a small force while striking for the gate with long-range firepower or a concentrated assault from the other side. it'll be costly. so why not use your battlerider screen to give him something else to worry about, driving for his system defense installations, forcing him to further split his fleet while allowing you to keep all your lovely dreadnoughts in the fight? use BRs and drones to prevent reconaissance flights from finding your gate?
there's this spatial control mechanic and elements of force projection that have become important in these new, larger tactical maps. it's a whole different ballgame from SOTS 1.
EDIT: point regarding multiple turn combats; turns are no longer years. check out your admiral age counters.
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and usually share with Morrigi the best tech chances in the game 
