Sorry, double post.

My army usually consist of about 300 frigates and like 10 capital ships, capitals only provide support and its just usually an Sova Carrier, KoL Batleship, and Akkans.

You should re-address you strategy then. 20 capital ships won't do much against a proper fleet of frigates in a MP game. Guess you guys will see this in due time. My fleets usually consist of about 450 frigates (mixture of heavy, flak, siege, and scouts) then I'll have about - on average - 5 or 6 capital ships. That's all you need. Think about modern navies. You have a lot of small frigates, one carrier and maybe 2 battleships. Realistically. frigates are the core of your fleets and should be in this game. In big numbers, scout frigates really powerful. Then take that up a step, heavy's are ridiculously good in large numbers. How many heavies does it take ot take on a capital ship? NO idea. Im sure it isn't that much though

thats not the point. I'm not talking empty strategies like "FILL UP ON THE SCOUT FRIGS!!!" I want a little more depth than there only being one type of viable army setup. and with the current ships, thats all there is.

you can argue that scouts make for nice fodder, but they dont do shit for their worth.

well it does a mighty fine job against the AI, and there really isnt an alternative strategy.

i find it amusing you guys are talking about frigs and caps in the hundreds... in a 1v1 6 caps are more than in enough (yes i'm talking about on hard) and in larger battles, maybe a 6 player game, 2 fleets of 6 each is plenty - one for each side of the map

i agree that right now frigs don't seem like much, but i got to remind everyone: beta-1, keep your pants on until we get more ships in the next few releases, right now they want glitches

if we wait how the hell are we supposed to help.
we cant, that simple.

from what I see gauss cannons and some bombers are more than enough for immense forces... it really makes me laugh some times.

Flak frigates and scout frigates alone can defeat bombers and gauss cannons. Gauss cannons are incredibly fragile and don't do well against frigates en masse.

thats why I usually have them target the flaks, so that there will be more than enough space for my bombers to manuver

of course if your enemy is pulling that low-damage tactic, the best move is to pull in a fleet out of nowhere and kick their asses.

i see both sides about the gauss cannons... though the way space lanes work atm it would make the game imbalanced to increase the firepower/health/shielding of the emplacements - you could just place as many as you want around the forward phase jump entrance

on the other hand, i think a viable compensation would be to increase the gauss cannon's firepower and health as much as they want, but in return make them a huge maintenance cost (so if you build too many, then your empire doesn't bring in any cash)

i do 10 qauss at the lane entrances and then scater the hangers so that if a fleet does get by the cannons they have to hunt down each and ever hanger in stead of leaving them in one spot so the fleet can just waltze over and kill them all at once

Yeah I hate when the AI does that. 10 flaks takes down any number of bombers, though.

Not necessarily; the AI isn't smart enough to keep it's bombers/fighters away from flaks, and it usually never puts cannons at the exit. All you have to do is wait until the bombers reach you, obliterate, and then move in. The bombers take time to build, and can be picked off one-by-one after the initial assault.