Too slow, not enough, not sure how to fix it...

Try playing Aerolian Sector against an easy, defender AI.  I can pretty much guarantee that you'll win.

The trick is using the correct combination of troops.

LRF's are handy in just about any situation.

If the enemy starts spamming strike craft to counter your LRF's, build flak.  You want about 1 LRF per enemy squad.

HC's are very powerful units that act as both a meat shield and yield very high damage.  Destras, for instance, can deal up to 35 DPS plus the effects of Ruthlessness.

Another thing to note, some AI strategies are better than others:

Economy: very powerful.  Don't play against this until after you have won a few times versus the next highest level

Research: Their ships will be few, but they will be powerful.  This is slightly less difficult in my experience than an econ AI.

Aggressive: they spam LF's.  That's about it.  Pretty easy to kill.

Defensive: They spam defensive structures/starbases.  These AI's are by far the easiest to defeat.

Thank you for the advice. I do just want to clarify. It's not I have never won, I've won a few times against my friend when he was new to the game. But now it seems, other than against easy AI, I'm in slow-mo, and everyone easily out develops me, and I can't figure out how or why.

  I'm only middle of the road, okie? So this maybe off base, but you are welcome to try and see what you think:

1. build capital factory

2. build extractors

3. Leave everything else alone and build first cap, i build the battleship

4. build the first combat lab

5. build the second cap, i build the colony

6. buy the next level for the battleship

7. take both caps off planet to the closest next planet

8. level the colony cap when you can

9. If you are rushed by pirates or ai ( i dont know about people) your upgraded caps should do it as long as their fleet isnt too big.

10. research the ice and volcanic worlds, but not at the same time, spread it out a bit, maybe 15 or 20 min apart

11. colonize the first conquorered world.

12. build a cap there as soon as you can

13. take the first two caps and hit other close worlds as quickly as possible, before fleets have a chance to build up, and before the enemy has a chance to move his own fleets in there.

14. Keep rolling your caps and leveling

15. Add frigates after you get two or three worlds colonized.

16. Keep rolling...!!

Well, it works for me in the low games with small to medium maps, with small or normal fleet sizes. If i get into larger maps, it works at first with lots of time to build, but eventually the larger maps gives the enemy bigger fleets.

Also if i get above 2 enemies, then im sunk as well, two or under is good to start, but over that it is harder. Also some of the online players i understand, scrap their factories after the first world to get some money back to work with, that may give them an edge if they only have one set of frigate and cap factories up and running, instead of what i used to do with factories on every planet, it was nice, but cost too much and pulled resources away from other things.

Anyway, that is just my opinion, you are welcome to try it out and see what you think. Take care!!

-Teal

There are a couple of possibilities which I find likely in your case. 

The first is that you're capturing new planets slower than your opponent, and generally expanding your economy at a slower pace.  This could very quickly result in a significant advantage for your opponent.

A second possibility is that you're spending your money unwisely.  Buying unnecessary structures, research, defenses, and planet upgrades that could have otherwise gone towards your fleet.

There's also the possibility that you're getting a lot of units killed fighting militia.  Obviously if you lose five units fighting militia and your opponent does not, this is a big disadvantage in the coming battle.

The fourth possibility is that you're not actually significantly outnumbered, but rather your enemy has relatively equal numbers of better units.  The long range frigate is the usual culprit here, since it's almost alwayst he best "bang for your buck" early game.

The most likely case is that your problem is a combination of the above.  Often times the difference in fleets isn't some huge economic advantage, but rather scraping a few savings here and there, and that can add up significantly.

So, here are some tips I'd give to you (I can't be more specific without knowing more about your playstyle)

• early game your only static defense should be repair bays; everything else is too expensive
• be frugal with technologies and labs; get what you need, not what you want.  Sacrificing one or two frigates here and one or two there for little expenditures adds up over time.
  
• avoid losing units to militia.  Try killing the planet's siege frigates with your capital ship, colonizing it, then building repair bays to help kill the remaining defenders
• acquire units like long range frigates and flaks early in the game; the sooner you build more advanced units, the better.
• use colony capital ships to avoid paying the cost of paying for colony frigates.  The only capital ship strong enough to merit buying extra colony frigates is the Marza dreadnaught for TEC.
• acquire neutral extractors (in uncolonizable gravity wells) early and often.  They're well worth the effort!

Thanks, sounds good.

Make capital ship factory

Make capital ship

Scuttle capital ship factory

Pick a race and learn it well, as each race has certain build orders that influence race strength and weakness.

Since you are on the forums, spend a good time reading about the different capital ships and frigates. Knowing when to run from 10 ships and laugh at 50 ships is important.

INTELIGENCE:

Scouts are your best friend. They tell you when to attack and when to pull back.The main thing is tempo, keep attacking, make sure you have scouts flying back and forth in the direction of the enemy. This way you can attack empty systems even if its just with 2 ships. These should be the first thing you build so you can work out whats around, how far away stuff is, AND how you are going to spend the next few minutes expanding.

REAL ESTATE: Location Location Location

If you have scouted quickly at start and have a 4-5 minimum scouts moving around, then you can look and see how to expand. The planets next to you might not be the best first choice. If the systems next to you are ice or volcano consider jumping straight past, especially if there is 3 asteroids in a row beyond. At the start of the game, I usually cap the nearest roid with a colonsier, the nearest planet with the cap ship. This way you are attacking two systems at once. The other thing is to MAKE SURE you upgrade all your planets quickly.

One capital ship can handle 4 enemy ships no problem. Send em in, take out the seige frigates, and then cap the planet. This way you own the planet even while you are taking on the fleet.

You dont need a whole fleet of ships to capture an asteroid, only one coloniser. Send it in, let it capture the roid, then build a defence turret up against the roid orbit (as close to the roid as you can) and build it in front of the now approaching seige frigate. Upgrade the planet, send coloniser out towards next roid, or bunch of neutrals. If you dont have enough anti-matter when you jump into the system, just hold down shift and click around the roid a bit so that it will keep moving to avoid the ships there.

FREE SHIT:

Go for neutral mines/systems as much as possible - These can be a game winner. Again, building coloniser early and getting them out taking down neutrals and roids is

FLEETS:

Research is one thing, however nothing influences the game more than fleets.Get one, keep it big. Then build another one somewhere else. Having multiple fleets moving around, one to attack enemy, one to cap all the spare planets. Fleets are worth so much more than defence cos they move.

SHIPS > STATIC DEFENCE

The main thing to remember is QUANTITY has a QUALITY all of its own. 

TRADE:

Maintaining a good trade/military balance is crucial in sins, like most RTS. At the start, dont worry so much about trade, just grow your fleet and capture at least 4-5 systems. You want to be scouting your enemy, moving towards them, and capturing a nearby planet or roid to build factories. Once you have established a good front line and are attacking you enemy take moments whilst moving your fleet to simply start building trade behind you. As long as you are attacking and capturing systems you keep making more money.

or the simplest easiest way to learn?

Down load and watch a few multiplayer demos, watch how people expand and grow really quickly. You can also watch what they research and how they control their ships in battle. I STRONGLY recommend you watch a few battles, learn to smash ai, then go teach your buddy some new tricks

Post a few replays of you playing. People can watch and tell you what you are doing wrong or right

Better yet, just watch some multiplayer replays -- watch how quickly the players expand and set up economies if they have allies on both sides.