This continues my post about the silent destruction of a starbase. I wanted to reply to that topic with this, but the starbase topic directly relates to ideas on better starbase management, so I don't want to derail that. However, any further questions I have about this campaign (if any) will be posted here.

To review, after they destroyed my starbase a second time, I followed them to one of their planets, and they jumped to another planet. I stayed behind, eliminated the stationary defenses and starbase, and then bombarded the planet. I waited a while to capture it, but the culture was too hostile, so after reinforcements arrived, I followed the fleet that jumped earlier. The planet they jumped to turned out to be their capital world and it was heavily defended (not surprised). I found myself facing overwhelming odds so I had to pull my forces back. In fact, I had to pull them all the way back to one of my worlds because they followed me back to the world I bombarded and then to the gas giant. So now my fleet is recovering by a world controlled by me (connected to the gas giant). I also have a starbase guarding the one lane leading to the gas giant. I want to improve my fleet effectiveness before returning. Any thoughts?

The capital world defenses consisted of at least four hangars so I experienced a very thick cloud of SC activity. The enemy fleet that tore through my fleet and chased me away included several capital ships and cruisers, I think. After I get home from work, I can provide a more complete assessment of the enemy (ship types) if needed.

How effective is the heavy cruiser? I have (or had) at least 20 of them. I have plans to construct another 20-30. I also plan to increase the number of carriers by 40-50 with an even distribution of fighter and bomber squadrons. I normally build LRM frigates, but didn’t this time. I read that they are effective against other frigates, but how do they fare against about cruisers and capital ships? I want to include torpedo cruisers, but I fear they will be destroyed before they can bring down the hangars.