I am playng WC 1 right now, I managed to be in Dakota System right now, but I am wondering about those Slow Downs I experience in a lot of fights when a larger number of ships an / or asteroids are around. I use the default setup for DOSBox the game has when installed, but I switched to the OpenGL Renderer in the Graphics mode setup because I had a huge Deadzone with my joystick in the software renderer. Also the game got a bit smoother that way, but I still have the slow downs in battles. It´s by far not unplayable, it just annoys me a bit.

I've heard the game had slowdown issues back when it was played on IBM compatible PCs, but I didn't have it then so I don't know for sure. The WC1&2 engines don't seem to have speed throttling. The only option is to change the speed manually, but then parts with no enemies run much faster.

The Kilrathi Saga versions run at a consistent speed if you can find a copy. Plus the expansions are easier to find because they were released as freeware. However the graphics aren't quite as good and you can't use Roland emulation for the awesome sound and music (though the Windows version sounds better than Soundblaster).

I thought that the slow downs are a DOSBox problem, thanks for that information.
How do I achieve the roland emulation, or is that the default setting?

You need the Roland MT-32 rom files which are patented. If you don't have any moral objections you can get the files easy enough. I can't link them here though.