The AI is biased against the player. I learned this the other day when 5 hard AI's attacked simultaniously. They make alliances with eachother even at 0% happiness.

Reshearch repair bays, build 3 so they overlab  on your boarder worlds laugh as you take out his fleets without loosing a ship.

As for my fleets,I have been spamming Javelins till I get about 10 then I usually switch to Garda, Percheron,and Hoshikos till I can get the Kodiak. Mainly defensive fleets with balance. I have a hard time offensively against the AI because with that Centrifuge map they have numerous routes to go through the back on me. Thats where my biggest problem has been. No offense. Centrifuge is tough. I have crushed the AI on medium maps with more space , but on that small 3 player with the pirates I get overrun in about 30 minutes. I move my fleet to the front to take out a pirate wave and usually do it with minimal if any losses, but while thats going on I have two huge fleets invade my home planet or something like that. I  have been using the overlapping repair bays and spreading out a nice wall of Gauss Platforms towards the enemies phase jump entry points. That usually holds them off but like I said they seem to just be able to grind me down. They roll in with 40 or 50 ships to my 15-20, and sometimes both enemies roll in with 40 or more ships and even with repair bays they take me down.

I typically do a minimum of two repair bays and 3-5 GDPs. When I have some extra resources, Ill get the Hangar bays up and do a 3:1 Fighter to Bomber ratio. I'm not sure how quickly I should be pursuing a 2nd or 3rd capital ship, and also whether I should bother with the Protev, since there are several dead asteroids on that map with 5+ neutral mines that can be put to use boosting my resources.

As for the pirates I try to pay them off quite a bit, but I do notice that unless I pay them a ridiculous sum I get outbid. Should I be trying to stay completely defenseve with TEC? it just seems they suck. If I could just get to the Novalith I'd start blasting away their planets one by one. Pirates first of course. I usually can't last that long without them taking a planet or two and losing some research stations in the process.

My most successful attemppt was when I got the Kodiaks and Hosikos, which made a nice fleet to dispatch them quickly, but it still turned out that I was completely on the defensive and eventually overwhelmed by their numbers.I just can't seem to keep up. What am I missing? Or is it the map?

get ready to mutitask, doing that map and others like it vs opponents with an incomr 50% higher than you should be hard. But the AI is dumb. If you attack a planet with his main fleet in it, you can circle the well for a loong time, just jump 3-4 ships in and start moving. That will keep your worlds safe while you deal with another enemy

another aproch is to keep scouting and simply build counters to his fleet, you should be able to defeat atleast 50% larger AI fleets without to much trouble IF you design them the right way.

As far as pirates go, there is one thing I've noticed.  The AI will ALWAYS outbid you by like 250 credits when there is what appears to be less than 10 seconds until they launch their pirate raid.  Basically, if you save your game when the pirates start to group up, you don't have to outbid anyone until the last few seconds before they depart.  This will save alot of money.  You need to watch the bids like a hawk though when it nears the end.

You can also try to place a bounty on two different factions.  AI generally tends to spend the least amount of credits, so they will enter a bid war against eachother as long as you are not sitting as one of the top two with the highest bounty.

Against multiple hard AIs, you just can't afford to be messing around with pirates, especially early on.  While you might be able to crush them, you spend valuable travel time either phase jumping or flying around your grav well to kill them all off.

If you can hold your own versus the raids from the AI and the Pirates start producing combat capital ships; Kol and Marzas. And use the pirates and the raids to level your capital ships.

Make sure to get your Akkan to Level 6 for the Armistice ability so If you ever get in a bind you can evacuate as many ships as possible. Or hold off for a minute for reinforcements.

Don't be afraid to use the Akkan for colonizing, especially early game to get xp from destroying militia.

CrowBar, when I was first playing thru the maps, I also recall having difficulty with that map (and never completed it)!  So after reading your post, I went back and tried playing it again, against 2 unlocked random hards.  And I won, first try.  But maybe I got a little lucky (as well as, being alot more experienced now).  My map had lots of neutral extractors. And, I managed to ally with both AI's, as well as, got them to bid against each other for pirates, and fight each other. All while I built up my army and economy. 

While the Hard AI does cheat by getting 1.5 times our income (taxes, crystal & metal), it can be exploited in a few areas, and with time you can get ahead: 
1. The AI rarely fights for neutral extractors.  They are free income, and they produce more! 
2. The AI is chicken; its especially 'scared/afraid' of Cap ships, and will run/retreat letting you take worlds easily. 
3. At chokepoints, build defensive structures (2 repair bays & turret/s, maybe hangers) for two/three reasons: pirate attacks, AI seige frigates counter attacks, and finally potentially scare the AI into not attacking.
4. The AI will bid on the highest pirate bounty.  So, if you bid first on both (say 250 on each, and 0 on yourself), they will start a bidding war against each other and ignor you. 
5. The AI doesn't do trade well. 
6. The AI doesn't research well. 
7. If you start slow, or the AI perceives you as weak (maybe a 'smaller' fleet), it will offer easy diplomatic missions at the start.

Specific instructions, or what I did differently:

1>Buy 200 Crystal.
2>Build Cap Ship Factory. (queue Marza Cap Ship)
3>Upgrade Planet.
4>Build All Available Resource Extractors.
5>Send Cap ship to capture nearest Asteroid. (don't scuttle Cap Ship Factory)
  a. Build colonizer frigate, colonize nearest asteroid when clear.
  b. Build another colonizer frigate if neutral extractors are nearby.  Send there.
6>Repeat 3 & 4.
7>Build Two Civil Labs. (not Mil.) Research Modular Architecture so extractors & factories cost 40% less.
8>Send Cap ship to capture next Asteroid.  (Keep grabbing neutrals.)
9>Repeat 3 & 4.  Secure this 'choke point' with defenses (and a factory) eventually.
  As soon as they offer diplomatic missions, if they involve giving money or resources - comply!  Once you reach 50% Happiness, ask for cease fires.  Also get them into a bidding war against each other for pirates.
  Send ships, including a few Cobalts now, down to the next planet, a terran planet (ice on your map) ajoining a new ally. Colonize. Repeat 3 & 4.
10>Research Trade Ports, both Tier 1 Fleet techs and Tier 2 fleet for 3 cap ships .
11>Spam Cap ships first!  Take the desert adjoining your homeworld, and fortify this chokepoint.  Build tradeports, making as long of a chain as possible.  Now you can start to research better ships, etc..

Eventually chose one ally to declare war on, and go on the offensive. If you get the Marza to level 6, watch Missle Barrage reek havok for 25 seconds! (Before you actuate it, turn off all of its auto attacks, and stop it, so it won't get interrupted. For fun, go try it on the Pirate Base).

I wonder if there is going to be any way to actually set a fleets formation beyond tight, loose, or standard. Something like this...

Front              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^           

Heavy Frigates, Cap Ships, Heavy Cruisers

                               Middle                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                      

                                                           Light Frigates, Combat/Support Ships

                                 Rear                           ^^^^^^^                             

                                                         Support Ships, Long Range Frigates, Carriers

Maybe the developers could add this to a patch or expansion. As of now the tight, standard or loose leave lots to be desired as far as combat mechanics. Seems as of now all battles turn into a mass swarm of ships and I often lose all my weakest ships first. Adding formations would be a cool way to expand the games combat system to make it more realistic in the sense that support would stay back instead of just huddling in a big cluster when set to tight.

Wish List or Add to Cart?

The problem is the it is not flexible enough, as long as it's an auto function with no way to alter it, there will be stupied ships that sit 1 yard outside range of some critical abillity.

Doesn't the repair from hoshi's stack? Or is it a waste to use repair from several on a single ship that is being hammered, at the same time?