anonsoc, lst, what turn are you on?, 2nd, what size map? 3rd how many ai opponents? Are you playing stock or one of the Mods?
Sometimes it depends on how you set your game up. Set to high aggressive, low or medium bonus (until you get used to the system before trying high bonus
) The Ai does like to aggravate you by sending in 1's and 2's for awhile, then it will start upping the size fleets it sends, also they may also be at war with other races and thats who they send their ships against. Don't fret the longer you play the larger fleets you'll see.
I have had combats with the total number of ships, fighters and drones in excess of 1000 units, 600 - 700 just in ftrs, I also have played a game where I had 15 Battlestations and Starbases, with killer sats and mines on 1 wormhole, the AI (Toran) kept sending in fleets of 90+ ships until they finally broke thru then I lost 4 complete systems.
They also would send in 1's and 2's of minewsweepers before the fleets, so don't get discouraged,
believe me, like the say, sometimes you don't know when your well off
Wait until you get the Rage or Orks for neighbors, they are very hospitable type races
just some ideas mac