Fleet Composition

My fleet's composition is always based on the situation.  Every game has a very different fleet makeup, as the units you choose as the game goes on reflect your needs at the time.  A strike force of thirty light frigates is a great conversation piece when you talk about that huge carrier fleet you had to counter earlier in the game, and how those light frigates are still hanging around because you're careful not to let them get killed.

Now, light frigates have their place, moreso late game than early in fact.  Yes, they die a lot, but they're your best weapon for taking support cruisers out of the picture.  The question isn't whether they die, but whether their sacrifice was worthwhile.  Most often the answer is yes.  I brought in four skirmishers today to disable enemy repair bays, and they were non-operational by the time the fight actually broke out.  I actually never lost those skirmishes, retreating them once their job was done.

Hoshikos are perhaps the one unit I actually try to keep a fairly consistent proportion of.  I'd say they're the backbone of any TEC fleet which isn't predominantly strike craft.  I personally think your fleet is way too low on Hoshikos.  In general, I have 2 hoshiko for every 3 heavy cruisers, one hoshiko for every 5 LRM/LF/flak/, and 4 hoshikos per capital ship.  For a fleet your size, I'd probably have about 50-60 hoshikos.

While I agree with Darvin, a typical fleet (fighting against your typical Insane AI) would be something like this:

2x Radiance

1x Halcyon

1x Progenitor

10 Scouts

25 Disciple

50 Illuminators

25 Destras

15 Iconis Guardians

15 Domina Subjugators

25 Defence Vessels

5x Aeria Drone Hosts

As you can see, the Illuminators are pretty much the mainstay of my fleet, thanks to their large firing arcs (front and the two sides). I use a combination of Fighters and Defence vessels to take out enemy fighters and protect my own ships, however don't tend to waste the resources on building up a massive fighter fleet of my own (the Advent get a fair few fighters as is anyway), as any developed player will know better than to send a fleet in without their own fighter cover. The Destras are there for heavy backup, the Disciples to remove any enemy carriers, and also deplete enemy cap ship antimatter. Scouts are there for mine-sweeping, or if things go badly wrong, suicide runs. The Guardians/Subjugators are there to repair your ships, and sometimes to suppress enemy ships (however own ship survivability is the priority). My cap ships tend to move together within the fleet, so we have two Radiances for insane firepower support, a progenitor to keep the cap shields up, and also a Halcyon so that even if the defence vessels/ Drone Hosts die, I have some fighter cover.

And once I've cleared the enemy planet of defenders, a bunch of Siege ships jumps in and finishes the job. The progenitor then colonises, I build a repair platform to fix up the last of my wounded ships, and off I go to the next system.

with that said that fleet isnt my only fleet. Thats one of two. Im not too sure but Im gonna guess that that many Hoshi's added to my fleet would damper my second fleet. While I take losses in bigger battles at the end I usually do alot better then my opponent at the end of a battle. I usually walk away with all My Caps and Command Cruisers while he limps away with nothing more then his support craft.

Also siege frigates to me are a waste of money. They take twice as long to kill a planet, My 8 Capitals wipe a planet out in no time and my Akkan colonizes it and moves on to the next fight.

Most of the time I find my self sending reinforcements of LRFs to resupply my Fleets after a heavy battle. But So far, My strategy has worked out. While I appreciate your input and your break down of a need for more hoshi's. Id like to hear how your fleet looks like.

Basically my tactic is either leapfrogging each Fleet from one world to another. Or I branch out never moving either fleet more then two jumps from its sister fleet. That way if one Fleet hits a snag and is recieving a beatdown. I can jump my second fleet in and even the odds.

X drone hosts

X illuminators

X/2defense vessels

x/2 guardians

x/4 subjugators

Capital ships are built in the order progen, halcyon, radiance, rapture, revelation, progen.  I keep the ships in a tight formation and use the illuminators as escorts for the drone hosts more so than using them as the mainstay of my fleet.