You know, looking at the picture, you are jumping in with 28 at 49:46. It is 52:30 when you Evacuator jumps out and you have 16 left.
There was a significant period of time between when I jumped in and when he jumped in. I chose to screenshot my arrival in an empty well because Astax said I get what I deserve when I mindlessly charge headlong into a superior enemy fleet (this shows I did not). The main point of the screenshot is, of course, to show the number of assailants I arrived with.
Also, you have a lot of metal sitting around doing nothing for you. Sometimes I end up with big stockpiles too...but usually later in the game when my fleet is much larger. You could have easily had a dozen more assailants or some carriers by selling some of those resources.
Yes, but believe it or not, I was not only researching returning armada, it was almost finished (the last tech was already researching). In fact, it had probably finished researching by the time I lost my fleet. Those metal stockpiles were going to be used to slap down phase stabilizers and buy ships, as well as fleet up to the next level. So much for Astax's accusation that I'm a mindless "assailant spammer" who is completely devoid of any kind of strategic thought whatsoever. "Where's the diverse fleet?" he thundered. Well, it was on the way, it's just that sacrifices had to be made before it arrived. I purposefully didn't research carriers because I would get carriers through the returning armada.
I would have killed the Progen first, personally.
Yeah, well like I said, damned if I do, damned if I don't. The lesson I learned the previous night of play, which I tried to apply this game, was "pull my cap the moment it is apparent the forces are present to FF and kill it."
EVERYTHING POINTS TO YOU BEING OUT PLAYED AND OUT MICRO MANAGED BY A PLAYER WITH A SOMEWHAT MIXED FLEET, PACKING EQUIVILENT UNITS AND THE HARD COUNTER TO THE FORCES YOU FIELD AND A CAP SUPPORTING THOSE FORCES WHILE YOUR CAP SHIP RUNS.
Okay, fine. Let us assume that this guy is a master of micro. Let us assume he is a Tyr, a Cykur, a JohnJames, and a RagingAhmish all rolled into one. Let us further assume that I'm 100% newb with no micro whatsoever. So the point isn't that he kicked my ass, that he had a mixed fleet and I didn't, that he had a supporting cap and I didn't, that he outmicro'd me, blah blah. Of course all of those things happened - this is a guy who could take on the entire dream team single-handedly and win! The point isn't that I lost, nor how many ships I lost, nor the myriad of ways in which he caused me to lose them. The point is THE AMOUNT OF TIME IT TOOK FOR THE TOTAL LOSS OF SHIPS TO OCCUR. THAT'S THE POINT.