Against generic hostiles at Ops 51 and below, weapon type changes your crew. Add Uncommon Chen (Starfleet Academy) against energy weapons, or Common T'Laan (Starfleet Academy) or Rare Cath (Ferengi Conglomerate) against kinetic weapons. Pair them with a duo such as Cadet Uhura and Cadet McCoy (Another Time), or Epic Jean-Luc Picard and Rare Beverly Crusher (TNG Crew). Most hostile families also have a preferred ship, listed in the summary. The Gorn Eviscerator suits Gorn hostiles and the NSEA Protector suits Mirror Universe hostiles.
A few officers boost mining on any ship, so fill a free seat with one. For mining speed: Rare Dixon Hill (Holodeck), Rare Arrock, Rare Fess and Epic Quark (Ferengi Conglomerate), Uncommon Elea Makinen (Surveyors & Miners) and Epic Ten of Eleven (Unimatrix Twelve). For cargo size: Rare Alonzo Freeman (Lower Decks), Rare Enterprise-E Data, Epic Four of Eleven, Rare Hoshi Sato (Enterprise NX-01), Epic Mavery (Syndicate) and Rare SNW La'an.
You can join any Alliance-started Armada at any level. Starting one needs an Armada Control Center (Operations Level 23). A debuffing officer (Hull Breach, Burning, Critical Hit Chance Reduction) can be crewed by only one player per Armada, and the debuff applies to the whole group. Buff officers that only help their user (Morale, Shield Regen, self Crit Chance) have no such limit. A solid generic crew is Epic James T. Kirk, Rare Spock (Enterprise Crew) and Epic Khan (Khan's Crew), or Epic Jean-Luc Picard, Rare Beverly Crusher and Epic Khan. Loot splits by ship power.
Past that baseline, most hostile factions have their own preferred ship and crew. Use Vi'dar or Vi'dar Talios against Borg Probes. Use the Franklin against Swarm hostiles up to level 35, and the Franklin or Franklin-A from level 37 up. Use the Stella against Eclipse hostiles, and the Mantis against Actian hostiles (with Epic SNW Hemmer for extra loot). Use the Gorn Eviscerator against Gorn hostiles, the NSEA Protector against Mirror Universe hostiles, and the USS Reliant against Augment Exile (Hijacked) hostiles, where it is a must for the Hijacked D7 and DY class ships. The Strange New Worlds cast (Epic SNW Pike plus a matching SNW officer for synergy) is a flexible crew for several of these hostile types. A short list of Below Decks specialists is worth keeping in your roster whatever you fight: Epic PIC Hugh for hull repair, Epic Five of Eleven for increased hostile loot, and Rare Tom Paris for mitigation.
Several ships specialize in one resource and pair with a matching crew. The ECS Fortunate (Parsteel, Shipyard 7) and Envoy (Tritanium, Shipyard 16) both do well with the Surveyors & Miners trio (Helvia, Domitia, K'Bisch). The Botany Bay (Corrupted and Decoded Data, Shipyard 18) pairs with Uncommon Joaquin (Khan's Crew), and with Rare Navi and Rare Pan for full synergy. The North Star (Grade 3 Crystal, Gas and Ore, Shipyard 18) rotates Barot, T'pring and Stonn (Surveyors & Miners) depending on which resource you want. The Ferengi D'Vor and D'Vor Feesha (Latinum) already carry a strong built-in Latinum bonus, so extra mining speed officers add comparatively little. The D'Vor Feesha does better from the Ferengi Conglomerate crew's full synergy. Each Klingon, Federation and Romulan line also has a survey ship that mines Crystal, Gas or Ore respectively (K'vort, USS Antares and Valkis at Shipyard 30, up to Grishnar, USS Newgrange and Divitae at Shipyard 68). Pair each with the faction's Surveyors & Miners trio or the relevant Unimatrix Twelve Borg officers. Also useful for cargo: Rare Tuvok (Voyager), but only on the USS Voyager.
Swap Khan for a Hull Breach specialist (Epic Gorkon or Epic Lorca) or a Burning specialist (Epic Nero or Epic Georgiou) if your group needs that debuff and nobody else is running it. Loot splits by ship power: roughly equal power means roughly equal shares, and a standout-strongest ship in an otherwise even group takes a bigger cut while the rest split what remains. Any officer or ship ability that multiplies loot applies after that split. Certain Armada types call for a specific ship as well as crew. Bring the Stella against Eclipse Armadas, the USS Franklin or Franklin-A against Swarm Armadas, a Vi'dar or Vi'dar Talios against Borg Armadas (Vi'dar Talios for Borg Solo Armadas), and the USS Revenant against Borg Polygon Armadas. Against the Borg Mega Cube, bring a Vi'dar or Vi'dar Talios, and have one Armada participant run a full-synergy Borg crew (Nine of Eleven, Seven of Eleven, plus a third Borg officer, with Five or Eight of Eleven highly recommended). That player can reduce the Mega Cube's critical hits to zero damage for the whole group.
Ship PvP, attacking and being attacked by other players, opens at Operations Level 10. What wins depends on your unlocked officers, ships, research, Fleet Commander Skills and Ops level, so treat any fixed lineup as a starting point. At lower Ops, cadet crews such as Common Cadet James T. Kirk, Common Cadet Nyota Uhura and Common Cadet Hiraku Sulu (all Another Time) are enough to get started. As you unlock better officers, PvP crews generally sort into three families: Morale crews (Epic James T. Kirk, Rare Spock, Epic Khan), Hull Breach crews (Epic Gorkon, Rare Chang, Epic Khan) and Burning crews (Epic Nero, Rare Vemet, Rare Kumak). The game also recommends ship-class-specific Strike Team and Retaliation Squad crews (different officers depending on whether you crew a Battleship, Interceptor or Explorer, and which class you attack or defend against), plus faction counters. Examples are Epic Liviana Charvanek (Romulan Patriots) against Federation ships, and Epic Jean-Luc Picard with Epic Geordi La Forge (TNG Crew) against Klingon ships.
Base PvP (raiding) opens at level 15, letting you attack enemy stations, or be attacked yourself if you don't have an active Peace Shield. Cracking a base (destroying its docked ships, shields and defense platforms) can take 100 or more hits, so the ship matters as much as the crew. Weigh a ship's power against its repair cost rather than just sending your strongest hull, since a ship that does comparable damage for a lower repair bill is often the more efficient choice. Popular cracking crews include Epic Rom (Ferengi Conglomerate), Rare John Harrison (Section 31) and Epic Honorguard Worf (Khitomer's Revenge), or for lower-level players Epic Khan, Epic Kirk and Rare Spock. As a defender, Epic Carol Marcus, Epic Gary Mitchell and Rare Keenser (all Auxiliary Controls) is a solid pick. Once the defense platforms and docked ships are down, base cracking (looting the station) calls for a survey ship like the Amalgam, but only when the base's loot exceeds what your best survey ship could carry, paired with a high-cargo crew such as Rare Two of Eleven, Rare B'etor and Epic Four of Eleven. Two Fleet Commander abilities are worth knowing: Sloan's Quick Draw Raiding (fewer rounds to charge weapons when attacking if an enemy ability delays your fire) and Lorca's Deadly Station Reload (lower weapon warm-up time when defending).
Territory Capture is an Alliance-wide fight for control of space territories that grant powerful buffs. Safeties are off, and success comes down to teamwork and timing rather than any single crew. There are two broad approaches: a PvP approach, using your strongest ships and a PvP crew to fight for node control, and a speed approach, using your fastest ships and a speed crew to outrun opponents, score points by staying in a contested system, or act as bait. For the speed approach, the Realta, the USS Discovery or any Interceptor works well with a crew like Epic Enterprise-E Riker, Epic SNW Una and Epic Borg Hugh. For direct node battles, the Sarcophagus is highly effective against most Grade 3 and 4 ships; crews such as Rare John Harrison (Section 31), Epic Alexander Marcus (Section 31) and Epic Kang (Blood and Honor) hold up well. Other PvP families (Resurrection, Burning, Double-shot) also apply. Coordinate roles across your Alliance rather than everyone running the same lineup.