Vampire Claws, Cutlasses and other ships that ignore force fields.

[NickAragua]

I started a single player game just to screw around a bit. Ok, not the best starting position, lot of mark IV worlds around, but I can deal. However, the AIs have Cutlasses and Vampire Claws, which seem to be immune to tractors and ignore force fields. I haven't tried gravity turrets, but it's a lot of knowledge at this point in the game.

How do people deal with these?

[x4000]

Gravity turrets are their natural counter, especially the higher-level gravity turrets.  Those make those melee ships move slow as molasses, and since they can't actually hurt your ships without touching them, that is a huge advantage.