Mc2 strange. how did you manage to hit the backside of my ship? even most of the fastest ships i've seen doesn't have enough horizontal speed to flank my ship's turn speed. even teg's ship that has crazy tons of missiles doesn't have enough missiles to reach behind my ship.
what are the settings of the battle?
ie : here's how i usually set up the battle : pause the game, place both ships 1 large tile apart (1 tile in furthest zoom out), make sure both ship's control room is active, reset default attack AI for both ships, set the other ship to player 2, THEN change and activate both ship's AI to "normal", completely hands off and just watch the show.
i haven't seen my ship get damaged in the back unless i tried to deliberately ambush it. ie : set AI to normal, let it wander around, then when the back is exposed, use the other ship to charge at full speed.
edit : ah, i get it. the back damage was probably from after it broke apart.