Last night, I got to watch the starbase I rebuilt get destroyed by a very powerful Advent fleet. I had a fleet guarding the starbase consisting of 10 carriers (10 fighter/10 bomber), 20 heavy cruisers, and 3 capital ships. Their fleet was more powerful apparently and hit mine so hard that I pulled them back to a neighboring world. When they arrived, they were greeted by 10 more carriers I recently constructed. I merged them with the fleet. I also had two Dunovs on the production line. I like having two Dunovs for a better boost of shield strength, but also so they can boost each other as necessary. It's worked great for me so far. Once the Dunovs were constructed, I added them to the fleet, along with those 10 carriers (bringing my strike craft count to 20 fighter squadrons and 20 bomber squadrons) and sent them back to the gas giant. (I also have several Hoshiko cruisers who will be joining the fleet soon.) Meanwhile, I watched the enemy fleet, clustered around my starbase, ripping it apart like it was a brand new (downgraded) starbase. It wasn't. I think I had 2 points in armor, 2 in weapons, 2 in a fighter bay, and 1 in a frigate bay. Their firepower was such that they fried it very, very quickly in spite of my upgrades.
My new fleet arrived just as the starbase blew up and they jumped back to one of their planets. I was a little unhappy so I told my fleet to follow them. After jumping, I ripped through their planetary defenses, sent their fleet running to a neighboring world (they didn't even attack my fleet), crushed their starbase, and bombarded their planet. Yeah, maybe unhappy was the wrong word. I was ticked off. And that's where I saved before going to bed.
I just relayed this to one of my friends at work and he said three words: safety override protocol. I snapped my fingers. That would have been perfect especially given their tight formation around my base. He suggested that since I was going to lose the base anyway.