Yeah, pretty much. It spreads your culture at the target planet (which is what gives the 6% mitigation increase as that's part of the culture line needed for the Deliverance research) and at the same time gives your ships in that well the 15% damage boost. It looks like it re-applies the damage boost buff every 2.5 seconds so jumping your ships in after it hits should do the trick. And since now that target planet generates your culture instead of the owner's, all of their ships in that well lose their bonus

The whole deal lasts for 150 seconds.

The culture spread also has some minor economic side effects, since your culture spread decreases enemy allegiance.. it's slow, but if you're bored you can chain Deliverance shots and it'll make a little dent in the income of the target and surrounding planets, unless they really build up lots of broadcast centers to counter the shell's culture spread.

targetFilter
 numOwnerships 3
 ownership "Enemy"
 ownership "Friendly"
 ownership "NoOwner"
 numObjects 1
 object "Planet"
 numConstraints 2
 constraint "IsExplored"
 constraint "HasPopulation"

So any planet you explored. HasPopulation constraint seems to be contradicting the NoOwner ownership setting, but I'm pretty sure it can be shot at neutrals?

well, there could be a mixture of quick start and something else.

what if there were an option that started you off with say all extractors placed, 10 or so basic frigates (exact number balanced through races), a few scouts, maybe the capship yard placed, a colony ship and a bunch of resources (thus, a lot more) at your disposal. I don't think it would change the game that much, but that can quite easily shave off 5 to 10 minutes of build up time I'd say. not much, but surely nice for those who do want quick games. you'd still have to go out, scout, kill, colonise, research and all that, but the first few planets are up and running a lot faster this way I'm sure.

edit: I am aware one or two shipped maps do something of the sort, that is starting you off with something else than the standard equipment. but then, why not take this good approach to the extreme and offer the option for all maps alike?

more complicated to implement, you would need an extra 'point allocation' screen or mode. my point was that I just gave the basics, plus lots of resources, because they are de facto points with which you can get stuff. lets be serious, everyone needs scouts at the beginning, everyone colonises the roids and the inital frigs are not so bad that you build at least a few of them. you have to kill the militias somehow after all and one single capship is just too slow for that.

This may be a dumb question and off topic, will Entrenchment come with a new intro? Kind of update us to whats been going on in the universe.

But with most I think it has the possibility to make the games longer but it depends on their use and the strategies players employ. Eventually someone will have to fight...

easy to learn difficult to master, this is the hallmark of a great game.

Will it be easy to turn Entrenchment on and off, like a mod?  My concern is that if everyone who plays online gets it and people decide they don't want to play with Entrenchment, will everyone be able to turn it off easily?  Will there be an option in the Games Settings screen (where you set the game speed and decide whether to have locked teams and pirates, etc.) where the game host can easily turn it on or off?