If you look at the latest journal here, you'll find the following:

One thing I've been reading on the forums has to do with weapons and defenses available. Right now, a lot of them aren't in (for instance, you only get daggers on melee weapons) because we still have to update the UI to handle the different types of damage and defense types.

For instance:

//################# Damage and Defense Types #######################//
#define UNITSTATTYPE_NAME_PIERCINGDAMAGE _T("UnitStat_PierceDamage")
#define UNITSTATTYPE_NAME_CUTTINGDAMAGE _T("UnitStat_PierceDamage")
#define UNITSTATTYPE_NAME_BLUNTDAMAGE _T("UnitStat_BluntDamage")
#define UNITSTATTYPE_NAME_FIREDAMAGE _T("UnitStat_FireDamage")
#define UNITSTATTYPE_NAME_ARCANEDAMAGE _T("UnitStat_ArcaneDamage")
#define UNITSTATTYPE_NAME_ICEDAMAGE _T("UnitStat_IceDamage")
#define UNITSTATTYPE_NAME_ELECTRICALDAMAGE _T("UnitStat_ElectricalDamage")
#define UNITSTATTYPE_NAME_CRUSHINGDAMAGE _T("UnitStat_CrushingDamage")

So a club does blunt damage, a dagger does piercing damage, etc.  But we need to display this in a way that easy to understand for the user so that when they go into battle, these modifiers can be understood.

So the current plan is certainly more than just attack / defense.

Still generic.

Basically like galciv2..  Beams/Missiles/Mass drivers.  with matching defenses. But otherwise plays the same.

It's in the game code... most are dormant and not doing anything.  The reason is currently there's no resistances or methods of defense against them.  Once Stardock develops a formula where gamers can choose specific methods of attack and defense for these variables they will probably be enabled and working.