"Lol, I was using heavy/auto particle beams, if they weren't targeting huge ships I would have been missing due to my poor targeting algos. For example, targeting their cruiser at fairly close range, I had a 42% to hit, the battleship on the other hand was in the 70s. As to their smaller ships, as you see they survived. Tritanium is mid-game for me...and now I've gotten into it with the Sulak, who sport Adamantium...so I'll be looking to upgrade when it's feasible." Precisely the reason why I dont research and use kenetic weapons, only as a special later... In the game I'm currently at the end of it was about the same mid game with the exeption of the neutron beams(turn 139), when relations with the Sulak soured apparantly their diplomat had been rather naughty, apart from their spy missions against sol which were starting to become a problem... didn't figure my ships at that stage were going to beat their fleet (better armour and shields fast and slippery with a large damage bonus in mass), but luckily they'd just gone into a war against the nova who were research friends. So whilst they were busy felt it a good opportunity to make a preemptive strike against their homeworld which was pretty close only 2-3 turns from sol, at that point they were I think No1 overall in the charts... Started researching bombbay and sent off 3 cruisers ( sol had another 3) to blockade their homeworld, converted a couple of cruisers I'd picked up to bombers (my bombers are always cruisers) and built another and sent them off to bomb the Sulak homeworlds, levelled their infratsructure one by one and their powerfull fleet (they had battleships) simply evaporated... it wasn't long before they didn't exist, I never fought a major space battle with them it would have been too costly, just lots of skirmishes as the war went on for 30turns. "Ruiz had a desire fulfilled. Because I put him on a Cruiser when I hired him, and then increased his command rating, his desire was to command a Battleship in battle, (not a Cruiser), that had occurred already and his initiative was plus 2 as a result." Sometimes its best to look for an easy target when fullfilling a desire if I can I'll find a stray monster, even leave one just for that purpose... at least it wont start any wars.
I play with ridiculously low research rates for every-one, it changes my entire approach to the game. The AIs always stay with a lead in tech, a considerable lead. That in turn causes me to pick and choose my research, there are no luxury choices, and I tend to stay away from temporary solutions. Those particle beams can stay useful a very long time. I miniaturize them, give them extra damage through neutronium and eventually a better to hit% through experience and targeting algos. In other words they are useful when I first deploy them, but far more useful 100 turns later. They also are not affected by Neutronium armor (which I encounter a lot). I also shy away from tech that I know I can use well. Look, I was involved in the pre-alpha and was a former member of the team...unfortunately there are aspects of the game that are easy for me as a result. It takes settings, numerous conscious decisions and even some "house rules" to play the game with a chance of being beaten. That's no fault of the game as it has so many parameters that can affect difficulty, it's just a product of familiarity. If it's available I do the same. But I also like to guide the desire. For example in one session I had, I made sure that all my ship leaders asked to command a Titan in battle. It made sense to me as ultimately I wanted them on powerful ships with survivability. Now with the Androids available, I'm not as careful as they are perfect cannon-fodder.
@Ironsides With the settings I use, and favorable RNG to a lesser extent, I wind up with massive epic games that can take several hundred turns to finish. Of course the last 300 turns are far more intense than the first 400. This below is a mid-game (for me), large battle. The enemy has 31 ships total, (including 1 Titan and 9 Battleships), I on the other hand had to combine three separate task forces to come up with 24 ships, (with 1 Titan of my own and 3 Battleships). The Sulak enjoyed a small edge in technology, but this battle was fought on one of my better days. In the past this kind of victory was common for me, now with the expansions and additional work done by the Devs, it's noticeably less frequent. P.S. They had no leader, I had Pike, (that offset the Sulak tech superiority imo)
